Earning a Score: An Exploration of the Nature and Roles of Heroin and Crack Cocaine ‘User-dealers’

Moyle, Leah; Coomber, Ross

doi:10.1093/bjc/azu087

Cited by 48 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…In the neighbourhoods of their childhoods, young men frequently recalled being “bad kids,” “troublemakers,” “shit disturbers,” “hoodlums,” and “go to guys” for friends and peers who wanted to buy drugs. Youth seemed to relish the opportunity to recount their skill at acting as the “nominated buyer” (Moyle & Coomber, 2015) for friends at such early ages (a skill for which they were recompensed with a portion of the drugs purchased). However, they also often made sense of these initiations in hindsight by recalling painful childhood memories of violence, marginalization, and boredom (“we were just sitting around”), as well as desires for different kinds of futures.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The material, moral, and affective worlds of dealing and crime among young men entrenched in an inner city drug scene

Fast

Shoveller

2017

International Journal of Drug Policy

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A large body of previous research has elucidated how involvement in drug dealing and crime among marginalized urban youth who use drugs is shaped by the imperatives of addiction and survival in the context of poverty. However, a growing body of research has examined how youth’s involvement in these activities is shaped by more expansive desires and moralities. In this paper, we examine the material, moral, and affective worlds of loosely gang affiliated, street level dealing and crime among one group of young men in Vancouver, Canada. Drawing on longitudinal interviews with 44 young men from 2008 to 2016, and ethnographic fieldwork with a group of approximately 15 of those young men over the same time period, we argue that for these youth, dealing and crime were not solely about economic survival, or even the accrual of highly meaningful forms of “street capital” in the margins. Rather, as “regimes of living,” dealing and crime also opened up new value systems, moral logics, and affects in relation to the tremendous risks, potential rewards, and crushing boredom of life in the margins. These activities were also understood as a way into deeply desired forms of social spatial belonging in the city, which had previously only been imagined. However, across time dealing and crime ultimately “embedded” young men in cycles of incarceration, destitution, addictions, and mental health crises that ultimately reinforced their exclusion – from legal employment, but also within the world of crime. The findings of this study underscore the importance of adopting a life course perspective in order to meaningfully address the harms associated with involvement in dealing and crime among youth in our setting.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When DF met Steven in 2008, he was homeless and flipping drugs on and off (referred to elsewhere in the literature as “user-dealing”; Moyle & Coomber, 2015) while panhandling on the streets of downtown Vancouver. A year later, his material circumstances had changed rapidly.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The material, moral, and affective worlds of dealing and crime among young men entrenched in an inner city drug scene

Fast

Shoveller

2017

International Journal of Drug Policy

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“…The organizational form they take (e.g., a ''runner'' or ''dealers apprentice'' who is ''fronted'' 10 bags and has to sell 8 bags to ''earn'' 2, or someone who buys ''weight''; divides into smaller ''bags'' and then sells independently) is the minimally commercial aspect of their involvement in drug sales that really defines them (Coomber & Moyle, 2013). In Moyle (2013), Coomber, Moyle, Hatton, andGavin (2014), Moyle and Coomber (2015), and Coomber and Pyle (2015) user dealers have been argued to be less culpable in criminal justice terms than ''drug dealers proper'' and have been found to be a supplier demographic (in the United Kingdom) far less prone to committing and/or experiencing drug marketrelated violence. Moreover, where user dealers predominate in a supply scene (as in Plymouth) for that milieu to have a comparatively muted level of drug-related violence generally, something also acknowledged and somewhat begrudgingly admitted by local police who hesitate to admit (in a time of scarce resources) that some drug dealers/markets may be ''better'' than others and might be worth preserving if eradication is not feasible/practicable.…”

Section: User Dealers and Minimally Commercial Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tale of Two Cities

Coomber

2015

Criminal Justice Review

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Despite increasing evidence of greatly differentiated illicit drug markets, common depictions and conceptualizations of ''the'' drug market remain subject to overhomogenization. As regards drug market-related violence, the conceptualization of drug supply milieu as generally violent has often (sometimes unintentionally) been apparently supported by case study research reporting from particularly violent supply milieu and/or on specific groups of suppliers. Little research has focused on the relative absence of violence in supply milieu. Although some prior research has pointed toward ways in which levels of drug market violence can differ, few examples have shown this empirically by reference to comparative case studies and none have attempted to relate this to differentiation as opposed to market emergence, maturity, and decline. This article reports on two case studies of established heroin/crack markets in two separate coastal cities in England that share many characteristics but differ meaningfully in regard to drug market violence. Meaningful historical and extant differences in supply-related violence is reported and reflected upon and it is concluded that drugrelated violence, rather than conforming to conventional notions privileging structural or systemic similarity, is contingent on a mix of local supply cultures, supplier rationality, local supply structures as well as supplier characteristics and that each and any supply locale is likely, if studied closely, to differ in meaningful respects across time and practice to another.

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“…Matrix Knowledge Group, 2007) or drug treatment facilities (e.g. Moyle and Coomber, 2015). Furthermore, alongside a review of relevant literature and open sources, in-depth interviews were undertaken with a range of experts with knowledge of the cocaine market to offer richer empirical evidence and analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Coke on Tick”: exploring the cocaine market in the UK through the lens of financial management

Hall

Antonopoulos

2017

JFC

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Purpose This paper aims to offer detailed preliminary data and analysis that focuses specifically on the structures and financial aspects of the UK cocaine market. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on in-depth interviews with – among others – four active criminal entrepreneurs involved in powder cocaine supply in the UK. Furthermore, along with a review of relevant literature and open sources, in-depth interviews were undertaken with a range of experts with knowledge of the cocaine market. These experts include law enforcement agents and independent academics/researchers who have researched the cocaine market in the UK and internationally. Findings The cocaine market is a fragmented business dependent on networks of individual entrepreneurs and groups. At the core of collaborations often lie family, ethnic or kinship relationships and relationships forged within legal businesses and in prison. Capital investment practices in this market are flexible, “messy” and mutating, and money comes from a range of different sources. Credit is an integral feature of the cocaine business in the UK. The financial management of the cocaine trade is a result of (and reflects) a number of factors, such as the fragmented and decentralised nature of the trade. Originality/value Empirical research into financial aspects of organised crime manifestations is important for the assumptions that are part of public debate to be tested. In addition, understanding the broader range of financial aspects of organised crime is an important component of the process of crimes for gain and can contribute to both better investigation and better prevention.

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Earning a Score: An Exploration of the Nature and Roles of Heroin and Crack Cocaine ‘User-dealers’

Cited by 48 publications

References 68 publications

The material, moral, and affective worlds of dealing and crime among young men entrenched in an inner city drug scene

The material, moral, and affective worlds of dealing and crime among young men entrenched in an inner city drug scene

A Tale of Two Cities

“Coke on Tick”: exploring the cocaine market in the UK through the lens of financial management

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