Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law

177 Pages·2000·7.8 MB·English

by  Bruce Jacobs

Robbing Drug Dealers
NEW LINES IN CRIMINOLOGY
An Aldine de Gruyter Series of Texts and Monographs
SERIES EDITOR
Thomas G. Blomberg, Florida State University
Thomas G. Blomberg and Karol Lucken
American Penology
A History of Control
Bruce A. Jacobs
Robbing Drug Dealers
Violence Beyond the Law
Robbing Drug Dealers
Violence Beyond the Law
BRUCE A. JACOBS
Aldine de Gruyter
New York
About the Author
Bruce A. Jacobs
Associate Professor of Criminology and Fellow, Center for Metropoli-
tan Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Copyright 02 000 by Walter de Gruyter, Inc., New York
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ALDINE DE GRUYTER
A divison of Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
200 Saw Mill River Road
Hawthorne, New York 10532
This publication is printed on acid free paper @
Library of Congess Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata
Jacobs, Bruce A. (Bruce Abel), 1968-
Robbing drug dealers : violence beyond the law / Bruce A. Jacobs.
p. cm. -- (New lines in criminology)
Includes biblographical references and index.
ISBN 0-202-30647-X (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 0-202-30648-8
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Robbery. 2. Narcotics dealers--Crimes against. I. Title. 11. Series.
HV6652.J 332 200
364 ‘52--dc21
00-056983
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
1 Researching Drug Robbery 1
with Richard Wright
2 Motivation 23
3 Target Selection 47
4 Enactment 73
5 Managing Retaliation 111
6 Order Beyond the Law 129
References 147
Index 163
V
This page intentionally left blank
Preface and
Acknow Zedgments
R
ATES OF ARMED ROBBERY have been declining steadily for
the better part of ten years. Much of the decline has been
ttributed to decreases in crack use, incapacitation effects
from swelling prison populations, and the absorption of offenders
into a rapidly expanding U.S. economy (Blumsteina nd Rosenfeld
1998).Y et some criminologists assert that the decline may, at least
in part, be illusory, and that offenders are simply shifting to vic-
tims who can’t or won’t call the police (Johnson, personal com-
munication). Foremost among such targets are drug dealers who,
in many ways, represent the perfect victim.
They are visible, accessible, and plentiful. They deal only in
cash. Many are targets of their own making- flossing, bragging,
or otherwise calling attention to themselves. Others are identified
through gossip or inside information. The urban topography pro-
vides numerous staging areas from which to attack them. Rob-
beries can be melded with drug purchases, allowing perpetrators
to capitalize on the element of surprise. Compliance is secured
rapidly and at acceptable risk. Bystanders are reluctant to inter-
vene; on the streets, no one wants to get involved in someone
else’s troubles. The threat of retaliation is real but can be reduced
vii
viii Preface and Acknowledgments
to tolerable levels. And dealers obviously cannot go to the police
to report their victimization.
Despite the widely held assumption that violence is something
that happens only (or primarily) to law-abiding citizens, the dis-
proportionate share of criminal victims are themselves involved
in crime. Yet extant scholarship has failed to explore the contin-
gencies that mediate offenses such as drug robbery-from the
forces that inspire it, to the methods used to select targets, to the
means employed to generate compliance, to the tactics used to
thwart retaliatory attempts after the crime has ended. Given that
predatory behavior between and among offenders ultimately
spreads to society writ large (the so-called contagion effect), a re-
search gap of striking proportions has emerged. This book
intends to fill this gap, drawing from the accounts of active of-
fenders.
No book ever is written in isolation, and I would like to take
this opportunity to thank several persons who have been instru-
mental in its development and execution. My sincere apprecia-
tion goes to Richard Wright for convincing me to take an even
tighter focus on armed robbery, and that such a focus would be
worthwhile. Richard provided the catalyzing force necessary to
get this study up and running, and wrote most of the grant pro-
posal responsible for funding the research. His initial enthusiasm
was as contagious as the conflict spirals he kept harping on. Spe-
cial thanks also go to Volkan Topalli, a vital member of the research
team, whose incisive interviewing style brought out nuances in
the data I might have otherwise missed. His cool management
of volatile informants was invaluable as well; on numerous oc-
casions, Volkan defused combustible situations with a firm and
steady hand. Thanks go as well to my esteemed colleagues in
the Department of Criminology at the University of Missouri-
St. Louis. The manuscript is much better off for the advice, coun-
sel, and criticism offered by Eric Baumer, Bob Bursik, Jennifer
Bursik, Scott Decker, Dave Klinger, Janet Lauritsen, Volkan To-
palli, and (especially) Rick Rosenfeld and Richard Wright. I am
indebted to Laurie Mitchell, transcriptionist extraordinaire,
whose ear for street dialect is matched only by her conscien-
tiousness and attention to detail. I also would like to extend my
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
gratitude to Bruce Johnson, whose advice and contacts have
proved invaluable, both personally and professionally. As al-
ways, thanks go to my loving wife Jennifer for her support and
perceptive editorial suggestions, to my parents Lynn and Frank,
to my brother and sister (David and Joy), and to my son Noah
Benjamin, just for being there. Finally, I would like to thank
Richard Koffler, executive editor at Aldine de Gruyter. His open-
ness to a ”cold pitch” at the American Society of Criminology’s
(ASC) annual meeting in Toronto will be forever appreciated. U1-
timately, this book would not have been possible without his
leadership and guidance.
The research on which this manuscript is based was funded by
Grant No. 98-1SDRP from the National Consortium on Violence
Research. Points of view or opinions expressed in this book are
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of
the funding agency. Portions of Chapter 1 were reprinted with
permission from Criminology (2000) 38:171-98 (Bruce A. Jacobs,
Volkan Topalli, and Richard Wright) and Northeastern Universi-
ty Press (Bruce A. Jacobs, Dealing Crack: The Social World of Street-
corner Selling, Boston, 1999). Chapter 5 was adapted from
Criminology (2000) 38:171-98 (Bruce A. Jacobs, Volkan Topalli,
and Richard Wright). Segments of this article also appear else-
where in the book, and are again reprinted with permission.