Aggression and violence in households of crack sellers/abusers

Abstract

While the consequences of aggression and violence in family settings have been extensively documented, the intergenerational processes by which such behaviors are modeled, learned, and practiced have not been firmly established. This research was derived from a larger ethnographic study of crack sellers and their family systems and provides a case study of one kin network in Harlem where many adults were actively involved in alcohol and hard drug use and sales. "Illuminating episodes" suggest the various processes by which aggression and violence were directly modeled by adults and observed and learned by children.Aggression and violent behavior were entrenched in the Jones and Smith family, as was drug consumption and sales. Adults often fought over drugs or money and feuded while under the influence of crack and alcohol. They used aggression and violence against family members as retribution or punishment for previous aggressive and violent acts. Aggressive language and excessive profanity were routine adult behaviors and a major means of communication; jokes and insults led to arguments, often followed by fights. Most adults who were abused physically or sexually as children did the same to their own as when one mother was knifed by her daughter. Children rarely obtained special attention and support and had almost no opportunity to learn nonaggressive patterns. Rather, youths learned to model adult behaviors, such that the intergenerational transmission of aggression and violence was well established in this kin network. PURPOSEThis paper suggests several processes by which violence and aggression regularly occur within African-American inner-city families where several substance-abusing/crack-selling adults reside. We examine how aggression and violence may be learned and transmitted inter-and intragenerationally by describing how members of various generations interact with each other within a specific family/kin network. In so doing, we expect to gain some understanding of the blatant and subtle ways in which violence is modeled or practiced by adults and internalized by children and youths in the household.While this paper reports a case study of a particular family/kin system-the Jones and Smith family 1 -the manifestation and transmission of aggression and violence are common behavioral patterns that permeate many other substance-abusing households. Children born

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A Tale of Two Cities

“…6-7) have related how traditionally the view of drug markets has been ''pyramidical, with large scale importers and traffickers operating at the apex, filtering down to street dealers' operating at the lowest level and how this has been reflected in ''Many popular films [that] have portrayed drug-trafficking organizations as large highly disciplined, hierarchical organizations.'' Academics concerned with ''dark marketing,'' that is, those (not necessarily illegal) markets and marketing practices considered ''ostensibly reprehensible'' have depicted drug dealing as ''Night Dark'' (the darkest of dark) and one of those areas that is ''dark from top to toe'' (Brown, McDonagh, & Schultz, 2012, p. 208), while others have provided descriptions of particularly violent milieu and individuals (e.g., Dembo, Hughes, Jackson, & Mieczkowski, 1993;Dunlap, Johnson, and Rath, 1996;Goldstein, 1985;Goldstein, Brownstein, Ryan, & Bellucci, 1989;Jacobs, 2000;Jacques, Wright, & Allen, 2014;Jacques & Wright, 2011;Johnson, Golub, & Dunlap, 2000). Popular imagery/common conception and broad research evidence often do not correspond however and research evidence over the last 20-30 years has increasingly pointed to how drug markets vary in important ways over time and space depending on a multitude of factors but also that some of the key assumed characteristics such as those seen as typical are often in fact not (Coomber, , 2006(Coomber, , 2011Dorn et al, 1992;Hough & Natarajan, 2000;Lewis, 1994;Murphy et al, 1990).…”

Posttreatment Victimization and Violence Among Adolescents Following Residential Drug Treatment

“…Studies show that participation in illegal drug sales increases the odds of engaging in violent activities and violent victimization (Brownstein, Spunt, Crimmins, & Langley, 1995;Dunlap & Johnson, 1996;Fagan, 1989;Fagan, Weis, & Cheng, 1990;Inciardi, Horowitz, & Pottieger, 1993).…”