Guns and Violence: The Enduring Impact of Crack Cocaine Markets on Young Black Males

Abstract

Dame for a number of helpful suggestions. Moore acknowledges financial support from an Australian Research Council fellowship (Discovery Early Career Research Award DE170100608). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Black Flight? The Emergence of Crack Cocaine and Black Suburbanization

“…In this study, I take the average intensity of the crack index across cities between 1985 and 1990, years in which the crack index on average abruptly intensified, as indicated in Figure 1. Importantly, the figure also indicates that the index's value is virtually zero in 1980, which is consistent with other accounts suggesting that crack cocaine was almost unheard of in the early 1980s (Agar, 2003;Fryer et al, 2013;Evans et al, 2018). Therefore, the 1980 census year can be considered the pre-crack period, while the 1990 census year can be considered the during-crack period, and hence exposure to the crack epidemic.…”

“…Fryer et al (2013) estimate that crack can account for a 55%-155% increase in young black male homicides, while this relationship is not significant for white homicides. Furthermore, studies by Evans et al (2016Evans et al ( , 2018 find that the emergence of crack cocaine increased homicide rates among 15 and 24 years old, while not affects among older years. Furthermore, 17 years after crack's arrival, the murder rates for young black males were 70 percent higher than they would have been had they followed the trends of older black males.…”

“…The epidemic of the crack epidemic in major U.S. cities abruptly emerged and intensified between the mid-1980s and early 1990s (Agar, 2003;Cork, 1999;Evans et al, 2018, see also Figure 1). The crack epidemic was an unusually violent and racialized drug epidemic that increased social and civil unrest.…”

The role of gun supply in 1980s and 1990s youth violence

“…The point here is different arms manufacturers use different techniques and "keep the 'recipe' of their manufacturing method, and the raw materials used, secret due to the competitive nature of the weapons industry" (p. 225). But with the flexibility of the new machining technology, it was possible to split up the process, outsourcing substantial components to other machining shops.23 It has been used to track changes in ownership over time, and there has been some work done looking at measurement error with small populations(Cook & Ludwig, 2006, 2019.24 The increase in firearm suicides among YBM is well-documented in existing literature(Blumstein & Cork, 1996;Evans et al, 2018).25 Although the literature on what drives gun demand is limited, the available materials support this. "In 1940, 49 percent of teenagers were…”