The Funny Side of Drug Dealing: Risk, Humor, and Narrative Identity

Abstract

We would like to thank Eric Baumer and the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and criticisms on previous drafts of the article. Direct correspondence to

Exploring a Social Identity Theory of Shared Narrative: Insights from Resident Stories of Police Contact in Newark, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio

“…Narrative is defined as "a temporally ordered statement concerning events experienced by and/or actions of one or more protagonists" (Presser, 2009, p. 178) and storytelling as the act of communicating narrative to another. In recent decades, criminologists have explored life narrative as a crucial site for theorization and intervention for criminal offenders (Denver & Ewald, 2018;Dickinson & wright, 2017;Presser, 2009), part of the "narrative turn" seen across social sciences (Presser, 2016). Meanwhile, criminal justice research and practice has been transformed by an ever-growing interest in the psychology of justice and processes of legitimation, drawing primarily from social psychology (e.g., Hamm et al, 2017;Radburn et al, 2018).…”

Drug Control Policy, Normalization, and Symbolic Boundaries in Amsterdam’s Coffee Shops

“…Among the interviewees, their positive identities were partially based on not seeing themselves as threats to others. Thus, we add to prior work by showing that boundary work among persons involved in illicit drug trade-whether de jure or de facto prohibited-can also act as a means for identifying potential formal and informal threats (see also, Dickinson and Wright 2017;Jacques and Wright 2015;Jarvinen and Demant 2011;see generally, Wills 1981;Taylor 1983).…”

“…Of course, drug scholars have recognized for some time that drug users and sellers do not see themselves as homogenous group, despite often being treated as such by mainstream society and drug policy (see, e.g., Coomber et al 2016;Dickinson and Wright 2017;Jacinto et al 2008;Jacobs 1999;Jarvinen and Demant 2011;Radcliffe and Stevens 2008;Taylor and Potter 2013). For instance, Sutter (1966) noted more than half a century ago that some heroin addicts identify themselves as "righteous dope fiends" by contrasting themselves to more maligned "snatch-and-grab junkies.…”

“…They note that some crack cocaine users maintain positive self-views as "tough, capable, hustler[s]" by highlighting how their behavior differs from that of "crackheads" who are "weak" and "incapable" (Copes et al 2008: 255). Symbolic boundaries perform similar functions among drug sellers (Dickinson and Wright 2017). Some identify themselves as "smart" by contrasting their own actions to those of incompetent police and other uncircumspect dealers and users.…”

Putting a price on drugs: An economic sociological study of price formation in illegal drug markets

“…Still, as street culture builds on social networks where status is highly valued, this occasionally trumps rational business behavior. In such cases, social concerns, or attempts at building street capital by being generous and hedonistic, or to demonstrate superiority through humor (Dickinson & Wright, ), can require high costs by lowering prices on drugs.…”