Code of the Suburb : Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers

Scott Jacques

ISBN 10: 022616411X / ISBN 13: 9780226164113

Editore: University Of Chicago Press Mai 2015, 2015

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Neuware - 'Code of the Suburb' explores the world of young, middle-class, suburban drug dealers as seen through the eyes of a group of dealers themselves. What leads these adolescents to start selling How do they conduct business What problems do they face How do they handle those problems Why do they quit The authors have done fieldwork with a group of high-school students from a nearly all-white prosperous suburb of Atlanta, a boringly conventional place where the most obvious social problems are barking dogs and speeding teenagers. They find that suburban kids who sell drugs are no strangers to conflict. Like their urban counterparts, their illicit activities put them beyond the realm of police protection and this makes them vulnerable to predators.Urban drug markets exhibit high rates of violence because the individuals involved subscribe to 'the code of the street'a set of informal rules governing interpersonal behavior that emerges from the circumstances that characterize disadvantaged communities in American cities (Elijah Anderson s 'Code of the Street' is a prime cite). For drug market participants who abide by this code, violent vengeance is a means to the ends of respect, status, and security. And so the authors build their case that suburban drug markets are generally more peaceful than their urban counterparts, on the assumption a theory of why violence does 'not' occur has implications for explaining why it does. This book undertakes to study drug market peace rather than drug market violence. The code of the suburb emerges here as a set of informal rules governing interpersonal behavior that emerges from advantaged communitiesa lack of street life, weak ties between community members, and social advantage (high employment, education, family life, freedom from pervasive/discriminatory law enforcement). In brief, the code looks like this: (1) conflict is embarrassing, lowers one s status, and damages identity; (2) thus, conflict should be prevented, or, when it does occur, quickly halted; therefore, (3) confrontational approaches to conflict managementespecially violent retaliationare bad; and (4) non-confrontational approaches to social control (like toleration, avoidance, and negotiation) are good. Suburban people, the code says, should be non-confrontational, law-abiding, private, and productive. Key components of suburban drug marketsprivate and fair trade, concern for conflict prevention, and peaceful conflict managementall are shaped by the code of the suburb: avoid embarrassment, raise status, and maintain the identity of good person. '.

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Code of the Suburb : Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers
• Editore: University Of Chicago Press Mai 2015
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 022616411X
• ISBN 13: 9780226164113
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 226 L x 152 A x 13 P (millimetri) 226 millimetri di larghezza per 152 millimetri di altezza per 13 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 295 grammi

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Riassunto

When we think about young people dealing drugs, we tend to picture it happening on urban streets, in disadvantaged, crime-ridden neighborhoods. But drugs are used everywhere—even in upscale suburbs and top-tier high schools—and teenage users in the suburbs tend to buy drugs from their peers, dealers who have their own culture and code, distinct from their urban counterparts.

In Code of the Suburb, Scott Jacques and Richard Wright offer a fascinating ethnography of the culture of suburban drug dealers. Drawing on fieldwork among teens in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, they carefully parse the complicated code that governs relationships among buyers, sellers, police, and other suburbanites. That code differs from the one followed by urban drug dealers in one crucial respect: whereas urban drug dealers see violent vengeance as crucial to status and security, the opposite is true for their suburban counterparts. As Jacques and Wright show, suburban drug dealers accord status to deliberate avoidance of conflict, which helps keep their drug markets more peaceful—and, consequently, less likely to be noticed by law enforcement.

Offering new insight into both the little-studied area of suburban drug dealing, and, by extension, the more familiar urban variety, Code of the Suburb will be of interest to scholars and policy makers alike.

Informazioni sull?autore

Scott Jacques is assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.Richard Wright is professor of criminal justice and criminology in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.