THE STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DRUG-USE, DRUG DEALING, AND OTHERINCOME SUPPORT ACTIVITIES AMONG WOMEN DRUG SELLERS

Interviews were conducted with 156 women drug sellers from two New Yor k City neighborhoods with high concentrations of drug selling, neighbo rhoods that had active heroin markets in the 1970s and were sites for the growth of cocaine and crack markets a decade later. Structural equ ations models were estimated to test the relationships over two time p eriods between drug use and income generation activities including dru g dealing, crime, legal work, and public transfers. Dependent variable s included self-reports of income and expenses together with criminal career parameters. Results showed that the effects of prior drug expen ses on subsequent crime, drug, and work incomes were nonsignificant. O verall, drug dealing appears to suppress future non-drug crime activit y. Prior drug selling has a facilitating effect on later drug use and significant negative effects on subsequent crime income generation and legal work Selling also helped women avoid the types of street hustli ng, including prostitution, and other crimes that characterized women' s income strategies in earlier drug eras. Drug use careers are influen ced less by earlier drug use patterns than by income growth from deali ng that appears to increase opportunities to expand drug use.