Criminal Family Networks: Criminal Capital and Cost Avoidance among Urban Drug Sellers

Abstract

This study explores: (1) how criminal family networks facilitate cost avoidance strategies by urban drug sellers and (2) transmission of criminal capital by these networks. Twenty interviews with drug sellers in Philadelphia found that family networks provided unique access to cost avoidance techniques that appeared to reduce offenders' risk of arrest and violent victimization. Transfer of family criminal capital was not limited to mentoring and tutelage; these networks also allowed sellers to access the organizational structure at higher levels, inherit existing businesses, and make errors with few consequences. Extant theory could be advanced by considering social sources of criminal capital. ARTICLE HISTORY

“If You Want to Get Paid, You’ve Got to Do It”: A Qualitative Study on the Morality of Crime

“…Whereas Anderson's data is drawn from both 'decent' and 'street' members of society, Yablonsky's classifications primarily arise out of the perspectives of gang members and offenders themselves. This shows that offenders have their own views on legitimacy, and the morality of both legal and illegal acts (Fader 2016).…”

An Evolving Gang Model in Contemporary Scotland

“…) Fader (2016). describes how criminal networks are typically accessed via criminal familial relationships or extended networks of kinship.…”

On the Conceptualization of Criminal Capital

“…Importantly, Loughran et al (2013) noted the importance of criminal contacts for illegal earnings and criminal embeddedness and measured it through the number of deviant peers. Fader (2016) used McCarthy and Hagan's (1995) original definition of criminal capital but also suggested there are other dimensions including criminal social capital among others. Using qualitative interviews, Fader (2016) focused on criminal family networks as a source of criminal capital in arrest avoidance.…”

“…This curiosity has led scholars to evoke the idea of criminal capital and link indicators of it to key outcomes of criminological interest. For example, indicators of criminal capital have been shown to be related to the increased probability of engaging in criminal behavior (Abrams 2011;Bayer, Hjalmarsson, and Pozen 2009;Mocan, Billups, and Overland 2005), higher illegal earnings (Loughran et al 2013;McCarthy and Hagan 2001;Nguyen et al 2016), and arrest avoidance (Bouchard and Nguyen 2009;Fader 2016). Ethnographic accounts have also used criminal capital as a central narrative in explaining success and embeddedness in criminal careers (Steffensmeier and Ulmer 2005).…”