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CRACK DEALERS AND RESTRICTIVE DETERRENCE: IDENTIFYING NARCS *
Author(s) -
JACOBS BRUCE A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1996.tb01213.x
Subject(s) - deterrence (psychology) , criminology , forensic engineering , psychology , business , law and economics , economics , engineering
Data drawn from semistructured interviews with 40 active street‐level crack dealers are used to illustrate, apply, and expand the concept of restrictive deterrence. The article focuses on the perceptual shorthand dealers use to determine whether buyers in question are “narcs.” In presenting this shorthand, the article seeks to demonstrate how interactions among marketplace democratization (i.e., the idea of selling to as many different customers as possible to maximize profits), marketplace volatility, transactional brevity, and threats from law enforcement affect its complexity and refinement. Respondents operated out of a medium‐sized, midwestern metropolitan area (population: 2.2 million) within a central city of 390,000.