Choosing the Streets and Surviving Life After: An Ethnographic Study of Low Level Street Drug Dealers

• In Event: 378 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 06. Urban Sociology

Abstract

Low-level street drug dealers face the threat of violence, the risk of death, exploitation, and the very real possibility of lengthy incarceration all for the unlikely prospect of future wealth, richest and prestige. Why with such a visibly daunting path would low-level dealers pursue a “career” on the streets dealing drugs? What led them to believe that street dealing was a viable option for supporting themselves? For those who have experienced violence or incarceration and have returned to the streets to deal what factors influenced their return? What happens when they’re too old to compete with the seemingly never ending supply of younger dealers or because of a lengthy incarceration they no longer know the rules of the street, or no longer want to risk future incarceration, what do they do after street dealing? Often with limited education, training or skills, how do former low-level street drug dealers support themselves? How do the women in their lives aid them in living a life off the streets? This research utilities ethnographic interviews and life histories combined with various macro structural data to shed light on the life course of poor, black male low level street drug dealers.

Authors

• Sandra Lee Browning, University of Cincinnati

• R. Robin Miller, Drury University

• Tony Hill, University of Cincinnati