An Economic Analysis of a Drug-selling Gang's Finances

An Economic Analysis of a Drug-selling Gang's Finances
Author: Steven D. Levitt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1998
Genre: Drug dealers
ISBN:

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We analyze a unique data set detailing the financial activities of a drug-selling street gang on a monthly basis over a four-year period in the recent past. The data, originally compiled by the gang leader to aid in managing the organization, contain detailed information on both the sources of revenues (e.g. drug sales, extortion) and expenditrues (e.g. costs of drugs sold, weapons, tribute to the central gang organization, wages paid to various levels of the gang). Street-level drug dealing appears to be less lucrative than is generally though. We estimate the average wage in the organization to rise from roughly $6 per hour to $11 per hour over the time period studied. The distribution of wages, however, is extremely skewed. Gang leaders earn far more than they could in the legitimate sector, but the actual street-level dealers appear to earn less than the minimum wage throughout most of our sample, in spite of the substantial risks associated with such activities (the annual violent death rate in our sample is 0.07), There is some evidence consistent both with compensating differentials and efficiency wages. The markup on drugs suggests that the gang has substantial local market power. Gang wars appear to have an important strategic component: violence on another gang's turf shifts demand away from that area. The gang we observe responds to such attacks by pricing below marginal cost, suggesting either economic punishment for the rival gang or the presence of switching for users that makes market share maintenance valuable. We investigate a range of alternative methods for estimating the willingness of gang members to accept risks of death, all of which suggest that the implicit value that gang members place on their own lives is very low.

Money from Crime

Money from Crime
Author: Peter Reuter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1990
Genre: Drug traffic
ISBN:

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"June 1990.""R-3894-RF." Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-172)

The Economics of Violence

The Economics of Violence
Author: Gary M. Shiffman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2020-01-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108882838

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How do we understand illicit violence? Can we prevent it? Building on behavioral science and economics, this book begins with the idea that humans are more predictable than we like to believe, and this ability to model human behavior applies equally well to leaders of violent and coercive organizations as it does to everyday people. Humans ultimately seek survival for themselves and their communities in a world of competition. While the dynamics of 'us vs. them' are divisive, they also help us to survive. Access to increasingly larger markets, facilitated through digital communications and social media, creates more transnational opportunities for deception, coercion, and violence. If the economist's perspective helps to explain violence, then it must also facilitate insights into promoting peace and security. If we can approach violence as behavioral scientists, then we can also better structure our institutions to create policies that make the world a more secure place, for us and for future generations.

An Economic Analysis of Desistance from Street-level Drug Dealing

An Economic Analysis of Desistance from Street-level Drug Dealing
Author: Lisa Marie Vasquez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2010
Genre: Drug abuse and crime
ISBN:

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Overt drug markets - street dealing, drug houses, and the like -- are amongst the most severe sources of violence and disorder in certain communities. Traditional enforcement tactics have not been successful in closing these markets. While the Drug Market Intervention (DMI) has shown promise in reducing drug and violent crime, it has created adaptive difficulties regarding finances for operators within these markets. This research used in-depth interviews to explore economic changes by former street-level drug dealers associated with the Terrace and Bedell DMI in Hempstead Village, New York. Special attention was paid to prior and current sources of income and any displacement into alternative illegalities. Results indicate that few participants held legitimate employment prior to implementation of the DMI, and more than half are currently employed. Additionally, a small amount of displacement was reported post-DMI. The findings from this study extend the existing literature concerning the financial practices of street-level drug dealers in ways that help policy makers and practitioners design and implement innovative and effective police practices.

Illegal Markets and the Economics of Organized Crime

Illegal Markets and the Economics of Organized Crime
Author: Martin Bouchard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317987500

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This book showcases recent advances in the theoretical and empirical understanding of the economic aspects of organised crime and illegal markets. It provides new insights into defining and quantifying the influence of organised crime by drawing on innovative approaches to studying criminal networks and organisations such as the Hells Angels. The book includes analysis of the structure of illegal drug markets from international leaders in the field. Finally the text includes empirical case studies of the diverse markets where organised crime is currently active including the illegal market for crystal methamphetamine in Australia, tiger products in China and the falcon and fur trades in Russia. This book was based on a special issue of Global Crime.

The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology

The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology
Author: Gerben J.N. Bruinsma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 969
Release: 2018-02-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0190279710

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The study of how the environment, local geography, and physical locations influence crime has a long history that stretches across many research traditions. These include the neighborhood effects approach developed in the 1920s, the criminology of place, and a newer approach that attends to the perception of crime in communities. Aided by new technologies and improved data-reporting in recent decades, research in environmental criminology has developed rapidly within each of these approaches. Yet research in the subfield remains fragmented and competing theories are rarely examined together. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology takes a unique approach and synthesizes the contributions of existing methods to better integrate the subfield as a whole. Gerben J.N. Bruinsma and Shane D. Johnson have assembled a cast of top scholars to provide an in-depth source for understanding how and why physical setting can influence the emergence of crime, affect the environment, and impact individual or group behavior. The contributors address how changes in the environment, global connectivity, and technology provide more criminal opportunities and new ways of committing old crimes. They also explore how crimes committed in countries with distinct cultural practices like China and West Africa might lead to different spatial patterns of crime. This is a state-of-the-art compendium on environmental criminology that reflects the diverse research and theory developed across the western world.

Street Gang Patterns and Policies

Street Gang Patterns and Policies
Author: Malcolm W. Klein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2010-04-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0199890102

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In the past two decades, many prevention and suppression programs have been initiated on a national and local level to combat street gangs--but what do we really know about them? Why do youths join them? Why do they proliferate? Street Gang Patterns and Policies is a crucial update and critical examination of our understanding of gangs and major gang-control programs across the nation. Often perceived solely as an urban issue, street gangs are also a suburban and rural dilemma. Klein and Maxson focus on gang proliferation, migration, and crime patterns, and highlight known risk factors that lead to youths form and join gangs within communities. Dispelling the long-standing assumptions that the public, the media, and law enforcement have about street gangs, they present a comprehensive overview of how gangs are organized and structured. The authors assess the major gang programs across the nation and argue that existing prevention, intervention, and suppression methods targeting individuals, groups, and communities, have been largely ineffective. Klein and Maxson close by offering valuable policy guidelines for practitioners on how to intervene and control gangs more successfully. Filling an important gap in the literature on street gangs and social control, this book is a must-read for criminologists, social workers, policy makers, and criminal justice practitioners.

Crips and Bloods

Crips and Bloods
Author: Herbert C. Covey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-06-23
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0313399301

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This book provides a concise and engaging examination of the subculture of the Crips and Bloods—the notorious street gangs that started in Los Angeles, but have now spread throughout the United States. Despite the dangers and harsh realities intrinsic to street life and criminal activity, the no-holds-barred lifestyle of gangs continues to interest mainstream America. This provocative book provides an insider's look into the subculture of two of the most notorious street gangs—the Crips and the Bloods. Crips and Bloods: A Guide to an American Subculture traces the evolution of the two gangs, covering their origins in South Central Los Angeles to the organizations' current presence throughout the United States. The author analyzes the ways in which the gang subculture is created, promoted, and perpetuated; shows how the groups currently recruit their members; and explores the ways Crip and Blood culture has expanded beyond the gangs into the larger mainstream society.