Selling Drugs in the City and the Suburbs: An Exploratory Analysis of the Geography of Arrests

• In Event: Contexts of Drug Enforcement: Investigating Felony Drug Sales Arrests and Case Processing in Fulton County, Georgia

Abstract

Since the 1980s, all states have passed drug-free zone laws providing added penalties for offenders charged with distributing, or possessing with the intent to distribute, any controlled substance in public locations surrounding schools, parks, and public housing. These laws are intended to keep illicit substances out of areas where children congregate, protect children from exposure to drug use, and foster safe public environments. Yet little is known about whether their intended objectives have been accomplished. An examination of drug-free zone laws in action is imperative because policies that hypercriminalize certain public spaces can engender serious unintended consequences by, for example, fostering systemic inequities in criminal case processing for persons of color and the urban poor. In this study, data on the arrest locations of all 2008 closed felony drug sales cases involving adult offenders in Fulton County, Georgia, are mapped to examine whether drug-free zone charges could have been or were included in case processing, and to compare the proportion of public space that is hypercriminalized in inner-city neighborhoods relative their suburban counterparts. Racial and class-based implications for spatially-focused drug enforcement policies are discussed.

Authors

• Elizabeth Griffiths, Rutgers University

• Yasemin Irvin-Erickson, Rutgers University

• Sarah Trocchio, Rutgers University

• Walter Campbell, Rutgers University