SITUATIONAL OR GENERALIZED VIOLENCE IN DRUG DEALING NETWORKS

It has been contended that women's participation in drug markets has h ad a tremendous impact on female involvement in nondrug crimes, especi ally such violent offenses as robbery and assault Systemic violence in drug selling, however, may be spuriously related to other etiological factors in violence and crime commission, rather than a function of s ocial processes unique to drug selling. Violence within and apart from the context of drug dealing is compared for women involved in various types of drug distribution activities. Life history interviews were c onducted with 156 female drug sellers from two New York City neighborh oods. The findings suggest that violence among drug sellers, including females, appears to reflect the concurrence of two processes: the sel f-selection of people who routinely use violence in their broader soci al and economic interactions, and the neighborhood itself in which vio lence is taught, practiced and maintained as a way of negotiating the social realities of street and domestic life.