Recent violence among drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) in Mexico has resulted in an ongoing demand for new recruits. Juveniles engage in a wide range of activities from lookouts in drug trafficking operations to high-risk activities, such as kidnapping and homicide. Based on ongoing ethnographic work in Mexico and referrals from correctional officials, we conducted in-depth biographical interviews with convicted and active cartel members (N = 79). Our data revealed that similar biographical experiences in communities characterized by a high degree of collectivism laid the groundwork for their entry and continued participation in criminal activity. Through inductive methods, we introduce a theoretical concept that we term a collective trajectory to help explain our subjects’ pathway and criminal careers in DTOs.
Research introduced here draws on over two years of ongoing qualitative work of low-level drug dealers in a Mexico City neighborhood. Through interviews and participant observation, we explore the social mechanisms that sustain and facilitate informal drug dealing. Our findings indicate that the sale of illicit products, especially drugs, is a needed supplement to household income that expands and contracts according to economic need. Drug selling is integrated into the context of small licit (front) businesses in which dealers sell small amounts of marijuana and cocaine to trusted clients as a (back) business. These “back businesses” are protected by those who operate them, and family, community members, and corrupt officials who benefit from their existence. Finally, the dealers that we studied occupy a unique niche in the overall structure of drug dealing in the neighborhood by remaining under the radar by not attracting the attention of drug cartels.
The population of America's local, state, and federal prisons increased by nearly 340 percent between 1980 and 2005 (Paparozzi and Demichele 2008). Much of this increase reflects policy intended to get tough on criminals by locking them up longer and removing discretionary power of judges. Therefore, community corrections (i.e., probation and parole) have assumed increased attention recently as more prisoners are diverted and placed on probation and others are released through mandatory parole. One of the most measurable goals of community corrections is a reduction in recidivism. Much of what works today has its origins in symbolic interaction theory. Most social learning occurs through what Albert Bandura referred to as “observational learning.” One component of this approach as applied to community corrections involves parole officers modeling behavior for the offender. Research has shown us that successful modeling requires skill on the part of parole officers in order for the process of observational learning to occur. The second component in therapeutic intervention in corrections is that the client/offender must have the opportunity to reinforce the new behavior. Research suggests that this “role playing” should occur in a nonthreatening environment, with the offender receiving reinforcement for positive prosocial/noncriminal behavior and immediate disapproval for antisocial behavior. Finally, this paper will propose an integrative approach for prisoner reentry that extends this process of resocialization to include broader involvement of social institutions and the community.
This article argues that discretionary parole is the lynchpin to improved correctional practice. Calls to abolish discretionary parole have failed to consider its potential to steer correctional agendas toward sustainable evidence-based practices (EBPs) and effective reentry/transitional services. The history of corrections and parole is marked by tension between the goals of warehousing and correcting prisoners. Notwithstanding a growing body of impressive research that clarifies the importance of the implementation of EBPs to recidivism reduction, their ubiquitous implementation has been impeded by structural flaws within correctional organizations. Moreover, corrections practitioners and scholars have not addressed issues related to the professional competency of discretionary parole authorities as well as their potential to serve as a protective organizational factor that promotes offender rehabilitation and reintegration.
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