The Characteristics of Methamphetamine Markets and Their Impact on Communities

• Author: Johannes Fernandes-Huessy,Daniel J. Woods,Bruce G. Taylor,Henry H. Brownstein,Timothy M. Mulcahy,Carol Hafford
• Published date: 01 September 2011
• Date: 01 September 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016811414703
• Subject Matter: Articles

Criminal Justice Review
36(3) 312-331
The Characteristics of
ª 2011 Georgia State University
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Methamphetamine
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DOI: 10.1177/0734016811414703
http://cjr.sagepub.com
Markets and Their Impact
on Communities
Bruce G. Taylor1, Henry H. Brownstein1, Timothy M. Mulcahy1,
Johannes Fernandes-Huessy1, Daniel J. Woods2, and
Carol Hafford1
Abstract
Using a national sample of state and local law enforcement agencies, we collected survey data about
local methamphetamine (meth) markets and related problems, in terms of public safety, health, and
the local economy, from narcotic officers in these agencies. Our hypotheses related to the
importance of the structural and interactional organization of meth markets for assessing their
impact on the community; the salience of market instability and its potential for leading to more
uncertainty for meth buyers, more market conflict, and related community problems; and
the relevance of the types of characteristics of the market (e.g., the presence of import or locally
supplied meth markets, general market criminality, and use of technology by the market
participants) to community public safety, health, and economic problems. The authors found that
markets characterized by both imports and locally produced meth are associated with higher
levels of problems compared to local-only markets but import-only markets are associated with
fewer problems. Meth markets characterized by more criminal activity and greater use of technol-
ogy by the market participants are significantly associated with higher levels of community problems
but market instability and interactional organization were not significant. Also, the market’s struc-
tural organization was related to community problems.
Keywords
drugs and crime, quantitative methods, substance abuse, law enforcement/security
Introduction
Despite decades of research on drug markets through the 1980s (e.g., Goldstein, Brownstein,
Ryan, & Bellucci, 1989) and 1990s (e.g., Inciardi, Horowitz, & Pottieger, 1993; Johnson, Golub, &
1NORC, University of Chicago, Bethesda, MD, USA
2Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, DC, USA
Corresponding Author:
Bruce G. Taylor, NORC, The University of Chicago, 4350 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
Email: taylor-bruce@norc.org

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Taylor et al.
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Dunlap, 2000) and more recent work (see Brownstein & Taylor, 2007a, 2007b; Taylor & Brownstein,
2003), there is still more to learn about the social activity and behavior of drug market participants and
how the organization of drug markets affects local communities, especially in the area of methamphe-
tamine (meth) markets. Researchers have begun to document how negative public health, safety, and
economic outcomes have been observed among people and communities in relation to their involve-
ment with or proximity to drug markets (National Institute of Justice, 2003; National Research Coun-
cil, 2001). There appears to be variation in terms of outcomes as they relate to different drugs and
different drug markets. For example, violence related to disputes between dealers has
been observed in studies of crack cocaine markets (Brownstein, Baxi, Goldstein, & Ryan, 1992;
Goldstein, Brownstein, & Ryan, 1992; Goldstein et al., 1989; Reuter, 2001), but not necessarily in
studies of marijuana markets (Curtis, 1998; Curtis & Wendell, 2002). Also, it has been suggested that
variation in the operation of illicit retail drug markets is related to variation in public health, safety, and
economic outcomes in those communities, where different markets are located (Berg & Rengifo,
2009; Brownstein & Taylor, 2007a, 2007b; Curtis et al., 1995; Jacques, 2010; Kerr, Small, & Wood,
2005). In this article, we offer an approach for measuring the organization and stability of drug markets
using data from detailed surveys with narcotics officers that will permit us to explore the relationship
between characteristics of meth markets and potential negative impacts on their surrounding
communities.
Measuring the Stability of Markets
To the extent that they are driven by the forces of supply and demand, illicit drug markets1 are
economic markets (cf. Brownstein, 2000; Johnson et al., 1985). However, they are unlike legit-
imate economic markets in that they operate independent of legal authority and unconstrained by
conventional social and cultural norms (see, Johnson, Hamid, & Sanabria, 1992; Reuter,
MacCoun, & Murphy, 1990; Skolnick et al., 1990). Therefore, drug markets (at least
theoretically) are vulnerable to higher levels of instability, violence, and other social ills than
other economic markets. Most illicit drugs in the United States are purchased in drug markets,
and most of the violence and many other problems associated with drugs stems from their dis-
tribution in markets (Simeone, Rhodes, Hunt, & Truitt, 1997). Not surprisingly, in the late
1980s and early 1990s social scientists devoted much attention to the study of the relationship
between instability and violence in drug markets (Brownstein et al., 1992; Dembo et al.,
1990; Goldstein et al., 1992; Smith, Sviridoff, Sadd, Curtis, & Grinc, 1992). In fact some
researchers linked the observed reductions in criminal violence in U.S. cities during the 1990s
to the stabilization of drug markets (Brownstein, 1996; Curtis, 1998; Jacobs, 1999; Lattimore, Trudeau,
Riley, Leiter, & Edwards, 1997).
While retail markets for illicit drugs operate outside of the law, they do not operate independent
of the social and economic forces that serve as the operational context for all commercial transac-
tions (Brownstein, 2000).As economic markets they typically are characterized by rapid turnover
in participants, an overlap of buyers and sellers, and a large variation in price and quality within a
narrow geographic area (Reuter, 2001). Historically, they have tended to be clustered geographi-
cally in inner city and socially disorganized neighborhoods (Forsyth, Hammersley, Lavelle, &
Murray, 1992; Olligschlaeger, 1997). However, variation in the structural and in interpersonal
characteristics of illicit drug markets has been observed (Brownstein & Taylor, 2007a; Taylor
& Brownstein, 2003), particularly in terms of the drug being exchanged (Johnson et al., 1992).
In this study, we focus on meth markets. Meth is particularly interesting in that its markets appear
to be organized differently than traditional illicit drug markets (McKetin, McLaren, & Kelly,
2005), and there is evidence that meth markets are found in rural as well as urban areas (Herz,
2000; Weisheit & White, 2009).

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Criminal Justice Review 36(3)
To study the relationship between drug market stability and neighborhood outcomes, data to
construct reliable and valid indicators of stability are needed. While the stability of drug markets
has been conceptualized in terms of enduring and established patterns of operation and relationships,
(Brownstein, Crimmins, & Spunt, 2000), little work has been done in operationalizing drug market
stability (see, Lattimore et al., 1997; Taylor & Brownstein, 2003). In that illicit drug markets do
operate outside of the legal and normative structures of the wider society, it is especially difficult
to measure their relative stability.2 For example, street-level drug dealers are neither likely to main-
tain nor to make any official records available to researchers regarding the number of sales, quality,
and purity of drugs sold. Illicit drug markets therefore can only be measured indirectly or informally.
Informally, measures of drug market activity could be constructed from information collected from
interviews with individuals very knowledgeable about drug market activity. In an earlier study, we did
this by interviewing market participants (see Brownstein & Taylor, 2007a; Taylor & Brownstein, 2003),
and in this study, we develop similar measures using data from interviews with narcotics officers.
While official records of arrests, prosecutions, sentences, and incarcerations of drug offenders are
available, they are not particularly useful as measures of drug market activity over time since they
say little about illicit drug market activity and little if anything about the characteristics or dynamics
of these markets. In an earlier study (see Brownstein, Mulcahy, Fernandes-Huessy, Taylor, &
Woods, in press), we discussed the value of working with law enforcement in a different way to mea-
sure drug markets. Rather than relying on existing law enforcement records of drug markets, we
designed a data-collection instrument in which narcotics officers were asked a series of survey ques-
tions about their knowledge and understanding of how markets were organized and operated in their
locality. While they are an imperfect measure of drug markets, prior research has shown that inter-
view data about deviant activity can be reliable and valid (Fagan & Wexler, 1987; Hindelang,
Hirschi, & Weis, 1981). They are better in that they are collected specifically for a research purpose
and can more directly be focused on particular research questions, as compared to official justice
records.
Social actors interpret and understand their social life in the context of their own experience and
interests (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). Participants in illicit retail drug markets have different social
roles and locations in the market so have different experience with and different interests in the mar-
ket. Given their place in relation to the market each has his or her own understanding and perspective
of how...