Drug Activity and Firearms Possession and Use by Juveniles

• Published date: 01 July 1994
• DOI: 10.1177/002204269402400301
• Author: Joseph F. Sheley
• Date: 01 July 1994
• Subject Matter: Article

The Journal of Drug Issues 24(3), 363-382 1994

DRUG

ACTIVITY

AND

FIREARMS

POSSESSION

AND

USE

BY

JUVENILES

Joseph F. Sheley

Despite

considerable

public

attention

to the

issue,

little

has

occurred

in the

way

of a

systematic

assessment

of the

gun-possession

and

gun-use

profiles

of

young

persons

involved

in the use and

distribution

of

drugs.

This

article

reports

the

results

of an

analysis

of

survey

data

collected

from juveniles

incarcerated

in

maximum

security

reformatories.

The

data

pertain

to

firearms

possession,

carrying,

and

use,

use of

heroin,

cocaine,

and

crack,

thesaleof

drugs,

and

involvement

in

armed

robbery.

The

findings

offerno

evidence

of a

progressive,

linear

relationship

between

level

of

drug

useand

gun

possession

(including

number

of

guns

owned

and the

routine

carrying

of

guns)

and

use.

However,

disregarding

level of

drug

use,

when

nonusers

were

compared

with

users

who

did not sell

drugs,

significant

differences

in

involvement

in

gun

possession

and use did

appear.

Also,

when

we

separated

users

who

did not sell

drugs

from

users

who

did,

the

latter

generally

displayed

higher

involvement

in

gun

possession

and

use.

Drug

selling

clearly

increased

gun-related

behavior.

Finally,

drug

users

who

also

committed

robberies

exceeded

drug

users

who

did not in

involvement

in

gun

possession

and

use.

Drug

sellers

who

robbed

similarly

were

higher

in the

same

activities

than

sellers

who

did

not.

Apresumed link between drug activity (use and sales) and the possession,

carrying, and use of firearms is a relative staple of media analyses of crime and

violence by youth in America (Hackett 1988; Treaster and Taylor 1992;

Washington

Post

1992: Wolff 1990).' Military-style automatic firearms are

afforded special attention as the alleged weapons of choice of drug traffickers."

Indeed, drugs and military-style assault weapons recently were identified by the

U.S. Senate's Committee on the Judiciary, (U.S. Congress 1991:1) as two of the

three variables (demographic composition being the third) necessary to an

explanation of high levels of violent crime in the

199Os.

Firearms and Drug Use

Popular perceptions aside, little research has been conducted concerning drug

use and weapons generally, much less concerning drug use and firearms. Much

about drugs and weapons is

assumed

by virtue of possible links between hard drug

abuse (heroin, cocaine, crack) and predatory crime. Students of the issue

generally conclude that such relationships exist, but that the direction of the

Joseph F. Sheley, Ph.D., is a

faculty

member of the Department of

Sociology

at Tulane University. He is the

author of

Understanding

Crime

(Wadsworth)

and America's

"Crime

Problem"

(Wadsworth)

and

numerous

articles

in suchjournals as

American

Sociological

Review,

Social

Problems,

Social

Forces,

and

American

Journal

of Public

Health. His research interestscenter on criminaljustice and law, control theoriesof

deviance,

and the relationship

betweennormativebeliefs and criminalbehavior.

©Journal of Drug Issues, Inc. 002-0426/94/03/363-382 $1.00

363

DRUG ACTIVITY AND FIREARMS

commit such offenses, but do not sell drugs (Chaiken and Chaiken 1990; Williams

and Kornblum 1985). This is the case even for drug sellers without a use habit.

Pertinent to the topic of this report, drugs sales also have been linked to

substantially higher rates of armed robbery by urban youth (Fagan and Weis

1990). Fagan (1992: 118) reports that robberies and assaults increase to the extent

that offenders move from nonsales to independent sales to group sales of drugs.

The above notwithstanding, most of the violence involved in drug trafficking

seems systemic (Fagan and Chin 1990; Goldstein 1985). Weapons are used to

intimidate workers, competitors, and neighborhood residents. Such intimidation

by persons with little training in the use of firearms often produces injuries to

innocent bystanders (Johnson et al. 1990:35,38). However, beyond speculation

that rates of violence by drug sellers appear to have risen due to increased

availability of automatic firearms (Kleiman and Smith 1990:91; U.S Congress

1991), little actually is known about links between drug trafficking and such

weapons.

The

Present Study

It is clear from the above review that little has occurred in the way of a

systematic assessment of the gun-possession and gun-use profiles of young persons

involved in the use and distribution of drugs. This article reports the results of an

analysis of extensive survey data collected from juveniles incarcerated in

maximum security reformatories. The data pertain to the relationship of firearms

possession, carrying, and use to use of heroin, cocaine, and crack and to the sale

of drugs. While they clearly are not representative of all juvenile offenders, youth

of the sort found in the present sample likely are responsible for a very high

percentage of the serious crime committed by juveniles and are far more criminal

than the most criminal of nonincarcerated youth (see Cernkovich, Giordano, and

Pugh 1985). Most are apprehended and incarcerated because they have committed

so many serious crimes that the odds have caught up with them. To the extent

firearms activity is pervasive among juveniles, it should be so among this

population. The issue is whether or not firearms activity is related to drug activity

among these same youth.

Method

Sample

The analyses reported here derive from responses to self-administered

questionnaires completed by 835 male inmates incarcerated in correctional

facilities in California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Louisiana in the spring of 1991.2

Inmates in six of the respective states' major reform schools (three in California,

one each in the remaining states) were surveyed. The correctional institutions had

populations ranging from 172 to 850. Percentage of inmates surveyed per

institution ranged from twenty-two to sixty-two (primarily a function of size of

institution), with a mean of 41 %. Each site was a standard state facility to which

seriously troublesome youth were remanded. The offenses characterizing the

inmates in these sites ranged from drug-related crimes (generally trafficking in

drugs) to homicide. All but the New Jersey site, whose inmates had profiles like

those of inmates in the other institutions. were maximum security facilities

(completely enclosed, guarded, and razorwired). Participation in the study was

voluntary and anonymous; respondents were given $5.00 to participate in the

study.

Summer 1994 365