As the use of crack spread, crime followed closely behind. According to statistics compiled by large metropolitan police departments, the sale and use of crack spawns far more crime than the sale and use of most other drugs. Statistics also indicate that crack is responsible for an increase in the violence of crimes committed. The U.S. Sentencing Commission held a hearing on cocaine and crack in which criminologist Dr. Steven Belenko addressed the commission as an expert witness. According to the commission’s published report, “Dr. Steven Belenko stated that he had analyzed arrest data for crack cocaine sellers and determined that, relative to powder cocaine sellers, crack cocaine sellers had higher arrest rates for both nondrug and violent crimes.”

Crime associated with America’s underground crack industry is a large, violent, and complex problem. In addition to possession and sale of crack, which are violations of the law, crack dealers and users perpetrate many other crimes as well. Not only do innocent people become victims, people within the crack culture are themselves victimized.

Because they need many doses of the drug to feed their habit, addicts can easily spend over $100 a day to satisfy their craving for crack. Handicapped by the effects of the drug, most addicts are incapable of maintaining full-time legitimate jobs to earn this much money, much less pay for their other daily needs. For many of these people, the only option is to turn to crime: selling crack themselves, armed robbery, mugging, shoplifting, auto theft, and prostitution. Ironically, although hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of goods are stolen each year to support crack habits, more often than not, dealers and users victimize each other.

Within the complex network of drug distribution, dealers and users commit many crimes against each other. Traffickers fight over control of sales in particular neighborhoods, dealers rob rival dealers of drugs and money, and dealers sell diluted crack to their customers. From time to time, gang members who have become police informants are exposed; they are often killed in retaliation. Hierarchies within drug gangs are established and maintained with force, and dozens of minor rules within the crack “community” are violently enforced. Controlling street dealers, for example, is generally done through physical threats. Belenko states that the need to maintain control over street dealers creates an atmosphere where everyone is likely to “use … violence to maintain discipline, resolve disputes, and enforce control.” These types of crime are a part of the crack business and, because that business is illegal, most victims are unwilling to turn to the police and cannot ask courts to redress their grievances. As one expert notes, “In an underground economy, you can’t sue. So you use violence to enforce your breaches of contract or perceived breaches of contract.”

Related posts:

1. Crack-Related Illnesses As destructive as crack is to the addict’s family, the drug is even more destructive to the health of the addict. Medical complications resulting from long-term crack use show up daily in emergency rooms across America. Cardiac arrest, strokes, and liver failure are all well-documented results of crack use. In addition to illness and deaths...
2. Legalizing Cocaine and Crack Although the majority of Americans favor the illegal status of cocaine and crack, not everyone shares this view. One of the most prominent advocates of legalization of cocaine and crack is Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. In 1991, libertarian psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, a vocal opponent of drug control, interviewed Friedman for a radio broadcast called...
3. Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Local police forces, realizing that they were losing the war on crack, turned to the federal government for help. In an attempt to help police regain control of inner-city streets and protect innocent citizens from the destructive tendencies of the crack culture, Congress passed new laws aimed at removing crack dealers from society. In 1986...
4. Is the Cost of the War on Cocaine Justified? Cocaine is a drug that will not go away. Since the 1970s, it has been a remarkably resilient opponent in America’s war on drugs. Although cocaine use has declined from the highs of the 1980s, addiction rates have remained stable since 1991 and few new strategies have appeared to further reduce its presence in America....
5. Dysfunctional Families One of the tragedies of crack use is the harm it inflicts on innocent family members. Individuals trapped within crack dependency are typically incapable of normal functioning and their families tend to suffer from confusion, unpredictability, and violence. Care and concern for children is often overlooked by crack-addicted parents in the never-ending pursuit of the...