Chapter 10: Beyond Convention: Anthropology, Drugs, and Violence PDF

# Chapter 10: Beyond Convention: Anthropology, Drugs, and Violence ## Introduction to Beyond Convention: Anthropology, Drugs, and Violence Over time, criminologists, psychologists, and sociologists have examined the relationship between drugs and violence. However, as the problems engendered by...

# Chapter 10: Beyond Convention: Anthropology, Drugs, and Violence ## Introduction to Beyond Convention: Anthropology, Drugs, and Violence Over time, criminologists, psychologists, and sociologists have examined the relationship between drugs and violence. However, as the problems engendered by this relationship continue to this day, it is necessary to consider new perspectives, including those offered by anthropologists. With its emphasis on cultural context and rigorous use of participant observation, anthropology offers a multi-layered and nuanced view of street-level drug dealing, use, and impact. This chapter offers an ethnographic account of the complex relationship between violence and drugs, focusing on the street level. It combines participant observation and life history interviews into themes that have emerged from over 12 years of fieldwork in Los Angeles, California, focused on active and former gang members and their families who exist in violent but well-established communities. Illegal drugs comprise a powerful thread that weaves its way through everyday life in these communities; because of this, residents talk openly about the social problems created by 'dope'. Gang members interviewed during this research proved articulate and knowledgeable, and their voices created a narrative history that illuminated the relationship between violence and street drugs, including drug sales and the surrounding code of conduct, collateral damage, trauma, and self-medication. Beyond this, individual life histories provided a window into how race, culture, and gender further affect the drugs and violence dynamic. The relationship between drugs and violence is often portrayed as one of individual impulsivity accompanied by random, erratic behavior. In fact, this interaction is much more complicated and layered. Drug abuse and violent behaviour is frequently pre-meditated and strategic, based on issues of economic need, group enforcement, self-medication, and long-term trauma. ## Ethnographic Approach For the past two decades, there have been detailed qualitative examinations of the culture of drug networks and their role in community life. Researchers, acting as participant observers, have added depth and complexity to findings concerning the relationship between drugs and violence. Bourgois' (1996) seminal work, *In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio*, offered anthropological insight into the Puerto Rican immigrant community in East Harlem, New York, where marginalized individuals struggled with poverty, revealing that drugs provided opportunities for social advancement within a context of violence and fear. More recent ethnographies have built upon this work. Both Venkatesh (2008) and Contreras (2012) embedded themselves in the daily lives of gang members and the surrounding community, illuminating not only the intersection of drugs and violence, but also the impact of poverty, family violence, gender, age, education, trauma, access to services, and more. Similarly Leap (2012) and Phillips (2012) both employed an ethnographic approach to depict the tensions between families, gang members, and law enforcement. From an unusual perspective, Moskos (2008) collected ethnographic data during his year-long employment as a police officer in Baltimore, Maryland, which informed his belief that street drugs should be legalized in order to better control violence. From another perspective, Boyle (2010) provided an ethnographic account of his two decades as a priest working with gang-involved youth in East Los Angeles, California. These ethnographies portray the socio-economic and political systems that impact marginalized neighbourhoods while detailing individual struggles for survival, economic stability, personal attachment, and security. Each tells a story of communities being left behind, where meaningful programmes and interventions remain incomplete or altogether absent. As participant observers, these researchers and authors analyse individual experiences influenced by neighbourhood rituals and drug dealing practices that unfold alongside the competing forces of violence and community stability. ## Life Histories and Autobiographies Using a qualitative methodology strongly related to ethnography, anthropologists have developed the study of individuals through the documentation of the 'life history'. The collection and analysis of life histories has proven helpful to researchers interpreting cultural change and deviance and their respective consequences over time. The approach is highly phenomenological, designed to enable an individual to 'tell the story' of his or her life to better understand personal identity, the surrounding community, and the impact of individual and cultural transformation. This approach requires researchers to compile life narratives during multiple interviews conducted over a long time periods, in each individual's own words, using open-ended questions. Despite its efficacy in other settings, there has been little anthropological research on gang and/or criminal life histories that might include information about the relationship between drugs and violence. This is surprising given these individuals' pronounced desire to recount their life histories during fieldwork and in the ever-increasing number of autobiographies by former gang members, including well-known works by Rodriguez (1993, 2011) and Scott (1993) as well as newer autobiographies by Williams (2004), Sanchez (2000, 2003), Morris (2008), and the account of one woman (Brown 2006). ## Ethnographic Setting and Preliminary Findings In 2002, I began informal observations of the behaviours, rituals, and social practices of active and former gang members in gang-impacted communities throughout Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County is characterized by urban sprawl: there is no city centre and no single violent community. Work conducted by the Los Angeles Mayor's Office and the Advancement Project identified 14 'hot spots' where there was a concentration of violence and crime. Based on my initial research and a network of relationships that afforded me extensive contacts and credibility in these communities, I ultimately chose to work within one hot spot: Watts in South Los Angeles. Within Watts, three housing developments-Jordan Downs, Nickerson Gardens, and Imperial Courts-are recognized as the scene of some of the most entrenched gang crime in Los Angeles. These developments or 'projects' as they are commonly known, have long been acknowledged as 'ground zero' for gang activity in Los Angeles. Historically, most residents in the Watts projects' have been African-American although in recent years (Medina 2012) the population has shifted to include Mexicans and Central Americans. My ongoing work in Watts was augmented with extensive observations throughout South Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Harbour Area. Through this work, several facets of the relationship between drugs, gang activity, and violence began to emerge. To further examine this relationship, I conducted fieldwork and interviews with former gang members at several gang intervention agencies including Homeboy Industries, Toberman Community Center, and Communities in Schools. This work, combined with 100 individual life histories I collected over a ten-year period, revealed a portrait of distinct yet interrelated aspects of the street drug trade, the occurrence and practice of violence, and the lives of individuals and families affected by their interaction. ## Violence and Relationships From the onset it was apparent that violence inevitably accompanied street drug activity, or as one gang member explained, 'Ya can't have slangin' [drug dealing] without goin' bangin' [engaging in gang-related violence]'. This inter-relationship most frequently involved individuals who knew one another and had committed acts of violence against one another over prolonged periods of time, primarily through gang activity. Additionally, street violence was reinforced within family systems. Elevated rates of street drug sales and related crime were accompanied by equally high rates of child abuse and domestic violence. Finally, firearms, up to and including automatic weapons, were readily available to children, adolescents, and young adults who routinely carried them. All of this created an atmosphere of instability and eminent violence. As one gang member explained, 'Drugs is easy, guns is easy-what isn't easy is keepin' it all cool, keepin' it under control'. Gang and community rituals further fostered the interaction between drugs and violence through relational practices involving inclusion, exclusion, and humiliation. Most common is the initiation ritual of being 'jumped in' to gang membership, which involves being beaten and humiliated by multiple gang members. Another practice occurs through the ritual display of hand signs. These signs portray allegiance to the gang along with demonstrating disrespect for enemy, rival gangs; they are a barometer of inclusion and exclusion. Gang hand signs comprise incendiary non-verbal behaviour, particularly when a hand sign is demonstrated or 'thrown' at a rival gang member. This behavioural ritual, also referred to as 'set tripping' typically provokes conflict and violence. Individuals are expected to 'put in work' for the neighbourhood (a synonym for gang), which includes dealing drugs and meting out punishment to those who have operated outside sanctioned drug networks, or who have breached the gang code of conduct regarding territory and business practices. The value of inclusion and the wish to avoid exclusion serve as effective social controls; specific individuals are excluded from any sort of drug dealing or distribution, particularly drug addicts who are deemed unreliable. Trust is central to gang and community life with personal and collective reputations always 'in play'. Individuals are 'down for the hood' or 'stand-up', all phrases signalling unconditional loyalty and allegiance to the gang. An informal street network constantly communicates information, spreading rumours and gossip about territorial feuds, who is obedient, and who is not functioning in accordance with gang norms and expectations. The most damaging rumours and dangerous labels involve accusations of serving as an informant for law enforcement. Accusations based on suspicion and weak evidence may result in withdrawal, suspending any access to street drugs, and cutting off gang ties. In more extreme cases, when an individual has been discovered 'snitching', there is violent retaliation that may include homicide. However, such retaliation is neither monolithic nor automatic. Instead, violence is often filtered through several critical factors, most notably race, culture, and gender. ## Race and Culture For decades, Southern California communities have been held hostage by a street culture characterized by violent conflicts involving African-American (black) and Mexican (brown) gangs. These conflicts have both intra-racial and inter-racial dimensions, fuelled by drugs, territory, and women. Long-term gang rivalries have been further complicated by the recent influx of Central American gangs that have added new and more lethal elements to the 'game'-a term used to connote street drug trade. One gang member observed, 'It's always gonna be on between blacks and browns. But MS-13-it's a different game. They're gonna kill their brother if they've got it like that'. Racial and cultural tensions surrounding drug dealing and territory are further amplified by generational differences. There are currently Mexican gangs in East Los Angeles whose providence encompasses five generations and African-American gangs tracing their lineage back three generations. Older individuals frequently discuss how younger drug dealers and gang members, 'just comin' up' do not abide by traditional rules. One 'OG', or Original Gangster, lamented: It's different now. These youngsters don't got any respect for the neighborhood. They do what they wanna do. We put the neighborhood first-these youngsters put themselves first. And they go blastin' anyone-sometimes they'll blast someone from their own hood! ## Gender Historically, men used drugs to fuel violence while women used drugs to recover from violence (Atkinson et al. 2009). Now both genders play non-traditional roles in the drug-violence dynamic. In the past, women were only peripherally involved, if they participated at all, serving as accessories to drug dealing that operated through men. This has changed for multiple reasons. First, lesbians and transgender females have increasingly assumed higher profile roles in African-American and Latino gangs. Traditionally, homophobic gang members have rejected gay men but now describe lesbians as 'part of the hood'. Additionally, women-both gay and straight-have assumed active roles in neighbourhood life, serving as drug dealers, shooters, and in some very limited cases, shot callers or leaders. One former gang member chronicled the changes: Women just used to bein' baby mamas had their men get locked up, they needed money. Then they got into it, some of them became shooters-it was part of the game. Pretty soon these girls-women-were rollin' up and shootin' people. They put in work for the hood, they got jumped in and everything. This was reinforced in the memories of a female former gang member who recalled: I had my first baby when I was 14-and my baby's daddy got locked up. What the fuck was I gonna do-I needed money, I kinda caught up that way and I started slangin'. I learned to use a gun too-in case anyone fucked with me. In the past, women in gang-infested communities either became the victims of sexual violence and/or they suffered from drug abuse. However, as they assumed increasingly active roles in street-level crime and violence, recent research reveals that, their rates of gang membership have begun to dramatically increase (Wolf and Gutierrez 2012). Despite these trends, many male gang members remain reluctant to afford women either full status or the full consequences of participation in the drugs and violence dynamic. Several men insisted, 'I could never shoot a woman-she's someone's mama'. ## Street Dealing Drug dealing represents both a business enterprise and a source of employment for marginalized individuals. As street drug networks have grown, so has the need for rules, structure, and consequences, with the threat of violence used as a source of order and enforcement. One former shot caller tersely explained, 'Business has always gotta be tight'. On-going ethnographic observation revealed that violence is used strategically to enforce rules regarding business practices, drug dealing territories, and punishment for disloyalty. One former gang member explained: I knew sometimes when someone was comin' into my territory, rollin' up to my corner, they gotta be put in their place. If they set up in your territory-you gotta protect your business. Violence is strategically employed to keep business 'in order'. Several individuals described preventing their employees from setting up competing drug enterprises. 'Ya gotta stay in control of your people', one gang member offered, 'you give em' enough but not so much that they can start their own thing'. Alongside monitoring employees, commercial territory must be protected. Most conversations invariably returned to the subject of territory or 'turf'. While gangs mark geographic areas with graffiti, territory is important beyond the issue of neighbourhood reputation. Drug dealing operations on different streets or parks are carefully guarded by gangs using violence to protect their turf and business. It is also notable that with increasing organization and higher profit stakes, violence becomes more focused, strategic, and effective, less random and impulsive. It also becomes more lethal and divorced from gang activity. However, this type of focus only evolves after years of drug dealing and criminal operations. As one former gang member commented, 'It's big business, you gotta be organized-no more gangbanging, just profits and consequences'. All street drug trade concentrates on completely avoiding another danger: law enforcement. During quieter nights of observation with limited street activity, a former gang member explained, 'These are the nights the cops patrol. Everyone knows it and goes inside'. Aside from such general caution, there are specific sanctions against shooting at or killing police officers. One gang member warned, 'If you shoot a cop, they're gonna be up your ass-the cops won't stop til they've gotcha-they're as bad as gangsters'. In contrast, both African-American and Latino gangs invoke explicit sanctions regarding the use of violence against snitches. During fieldwork, individuals offered multiple cautionary tales of snitches who 'got plugged' or 'got their tongues cut off', or 'got their nuts cut off'. Drug dealers invariably feared that a snitch or informant would endanger both their network and their lives. One individual, carefully talking in 'hypotheticals', described what he would do 'if someone in my crew was a snitch. I gotta bring a hammer down on their head'. With further discussion it emerged he meant a literal hammer. 'Sometimes a gun's too fast, painless-you gotta make a snitch feel the pain. Just speakin' theoretically'. Individuals also described another area in which sanctions operated: becoming addicted to one's own product. 'It's no good. You can't shoot straight if you're high', a former shot caller observed. Addicts were viewed as incapable of rational business decision-making, posing a threat to the game, their families, and themselves. Another former gang member explained how drug abuse and eventual addiction proved to be a turning point: Everyone told me, don't try cocaine. I thought I could control it. Pretty soon I was snortin' and smokin' all of my product. I burned summa my people and they came after me. I was doin' crazy stuff. I was stealin' stuff and sellin' stuff and poundin' anyone who came after me. I almost shot onna my best friends. But I wound up in prison-which was the best thing that coulda happened to me because my life finally turned around. ## Collateral Damage: Violence as a Side Effect The violence surrounding street drug dealing often results in what many refer to as 'collateral damage' the unintended consequences suffered by those not directly involved. One gang member explained, 'It's no good when ya get civilians involved. It might be someone's mama or someone's baby who gets killed. That's deep'. When random violence affects the uninvolved and the unintended, the results are often disastrous. In informal discussions, a former gang member recalled the response when a child was mistakenly killed: Even though it was an accident, y'know [gang] got a green light. That means that someone in the neighborhood that killed the youngster gotta die to pay for the youngster's death. It's street justice, ya can't stop it. Along with this threat of street justice, collateral damage inevitably brought an overwhelming response from law enforcement. 'It's already intense, but if a kid gets killed', a gang member whistled to himself, 'the police, they everywhere'. Drug-related violence is not restricted to the street; instead it spills into family relationships. Domestic violence and child abuse are long-noted side effects of the disinhibiting properties of street drugs. In their life histories, men and women both detailed pasts filled with domestic violence and child abuse. From both informal discussions and formal interviews that formed part of the Watts ethnography as well as in life histories collected from other sites, every single individual without exception reported experiencing childhood abuse-whether physical, sexual, or some form of neglect, much of it linked to drug use and addiction. Several women described incidents of sexual abuse that they attributed to drugs or alcohol. One woman recalled, 'My step-dad would get high and didn't know what he was doing and he'd rape me over and over', while another woman connected drugs to sexual abuse: You just knew in my family when the men were using, you were gonna get it-they would force themselves on someone, usually me. My momma used to say, it's not really your daddy so it doesn't matter. My momma had boyfriends and when she wasn't there they would make me do stuff-sexual stuff-or they said they'd kill me. Another woman, who had been an active gang member until she became addicted to methamphetamine, described how, 'When I turned 13 my mom and dad started selling me to get money to do more drugs'. While reported sexual abuse was more prevalent among women, drug-related physical abuse was common among both males and females. In a sample of 50 former gang members' life histories at Homeboy Industries' gang intervention programme, 48 men and women reported multiple instances of physical abuse, all linked with the use of alcohol or drugs (Franke and Leap 2010). The two individuals who did not experience physical abuse reported that their parents were severe heroin addicts and, in the words of one, 'got so high they never even knew what was goin' on. I raised myself, I wish they woulda disciplined me'. Individuals expressed two distinct opinions of child abuse. Sexual abuse was labelled 'sick', 'fucked up', 'perverted', and 'the worse thing you could do to someone'. In contrast, physical abuse was viewed as normative and a socially acceptable form of discipline with individuals insisting, 'I gotta beat my kid once in a while', and 'My daddy beat me and I came up okay'. The problems child abuse engendered did not stop with the abuse itself. Both active and former gang members feared children's protective services. Many had been placed in foster care as children and as adults they worried that children's services would remove children from their homes. In the Homeboy sample of 50, seven individuals currently had children placed with relatives or in foster homes while two women had successfully managed to regain custody of their children. Alongside child abuse, domestic violence was strongly linked with substance abuse for both men and women. However, as women's roles in gang life evolve, so has their participation in domestic violence: they are frequently perpetrators as well as victims. This holds true for lesbian as well as heterosexual relationships. Several women specifically described beating up their partners and men's accounts confirmed these reports. 'I'm scared of one of my baby mamas when she's high', one former gang member confessed. 'Don't give out my name but lemme tell you when she gets drunk, she could beat up anyone'. Another gang member described how he and his former girlfriend beat one another up, saying, 'When we got high, we kinda took turns'. Individuals invariably linked the use of drugs and alcohol with increasing domestic violence. Several individuals who possessed a reputation of being dangerous when intoxicated discussed their often unsuccessful efforts at both sobriety and anger management. One explained, 'I don't know what happens, if I get high I can't control myself. That's why I go to meetings every night and stay sober. I get too fuckin' crazy otherwise'. Drugs were divided into two major types: those that would exacerbate violence and those that fostered passivity. Cocaine and its most addictive form, crack, have been linked with violent behaviours since the 1980s (Fryer et al. 2013; Grogger and Willis 2000). Since the 1990s, crystal meth, a highly addictive form of psychoactive stimulant methamphetamine, also known as meth, crystal, ice, or glass, has been associated with destructive violence (Hinkes-Jones 2011). A former gang member offered, 'These kids shoot it up, stay up four or five days putting in work, and then they want to beat up everyone, kill everyone, they lose complete control'. Heroin and marijuana were not related to violence but meth and alcohol were viewed as 'dangerous'. When taken in combination these latter substances were described as 'bad' and 'they will fuck you up like you don't know'. Almost everyone agreed with one gang member's assessment that 'bud [marijuana] is not something you're gonna worry about you just chill out behind it', with a former gang member claiming, 'It's better for someone to smoke a little bud-they're just gonna be coo'. But if they drink or smoke glass-fugget it. It's baaaaaaad'. Individuals maintained that the crimes they committed to fund addiction including burglary, robbery, petty theft (usually shoplifting), forgery, and in some cases, prostitution, rarely turned violent. One woman insisted, 'I didn't do crimes to hurt a victim-I usually got charged with property crimes', while another man, a chronic heroin addict admitted, 'I was usually too out of it-high or waiting to get high-to do anything violent'. Nevertheless, there was consensus that some drug use-specifically cocaine and methamphetamine-often led to violent and impulsive acts. One gang member observed, 'Crack, cocaine, yeh, I don't wanna get close to anyone up on that'. ## Self-medication Ethnographic observation and interviews revealed one more unintended and profound consequence of street-level drugs and violence. The majority of individuals interviewed described their need for drugs to deal with the impact of violence on their lives. Drugs were not recreational; instead they served as a form of self-medication. One woman provided a succinct rationale for her reliance on drugs, insisting, 'If I didn't take them I'd be screaming 24/7'. Individuals described lives fraught with depression, reporting a cluster of symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Detailing his struggles after attempting to leave gang life, one man explained: You can leave it physically but it's still inside of you. You feel scared alla the time-someone is gonna get you, someone is gonna shoot you, someone is gonna break into your place in the middle of the night. So you take a little something to sleep at night. Then you take a little something to get through the day. Then you take something more. You do it to stay calm, you do it to forget, you do it to keep thoughts out of your mind. His account was not unusual. Most individuals described symptoms that included shortness of breath, insomnia, intrusive and repetitive thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks. Additionally, every woman and the majority of men in the sample reported seeking mental health services at gang intervention and public health agencies. At these sites, individuals frequently saw a psychiatrist who prescribed anti-anxiety medication and/or anti-depressants to help deal with the long-term psychiatric after effects of violence. One former gang member observed, 'First, I'm on heroin, now I'm on anti-depressants. What's the difference-I feel like I'm on drugs all the time'. This cycle often has negative consequences. One former gang member was an addict who cycled between heroin and antidepressants; when he stopped taking drugs altogether he would become emotionally and physically de-regulated, abusing his wife and children. His violence and drug use created a situation of chronic instability that never resolved, embodying the unintended consequences of the drugs and violence dynamic. For many, the relationship between violence, drugs, and trauma is often further complicated by involvement with the criminal justice system. In both prison and jail, drugs are readily available and violence is an on-going reality. Both men and women sentenced to long or repeated periods of incarceration experience chronic mental health problems and a deepened need for self-medication. Recognizing this reality, in 2000, California's Proposition 36 redefined drug addiction as a public health issue. As a result, first offenders found guilty of non-violent drug possession are no longer incarcerated but instead sentenced to drug rehabilitation programs. ## Drugs and Violence: the Final Paradox Multiple lessons can be drawn from the examination of ethnographic data and the life histories of individuals who have been involved in street-level drug trade, substance, and violence. While drugs intersect with violence on a daily—even hourly—basis, this is only part of the story. Individuals also use drugs to self-medicate, anaesthetizing themselves against myriad psychological struggles including childhood trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression, and involvement with the criminal justice system. No single race or gender possesses an exclusive claim to such problems-men and women of every ethnicity have been exposed to repeated violence and trauma. Women, long characterized as victims, have become increasingly involved in drug dealing and drug-related violence. To further complicate matters, the involved actors may be both perpetrators and victims-intimidating others in their struggle to deal with the long-term trauma that has haunted their lives. Invariably, these divided identities coupled with violent activity lead to long-term impacts on community and government resources: dead children, murderous retaliation, fragmented families, long-term incarceration, and social instability. Future practice and policy aimed at breaking the connection between drugs and violence at the street-level must consider the life courses of the individuals and communities involved. There is a need to understand the impact of trauma and the collateral damage from drug-related violence. Most importantly, there is a need to draw upon the strengths and desires of communities that long to be free of both drugs and violence. One former gang member best summarized this reality, observing, 'We all want the same things-a good place to live, better lives for our kids, and to be able to sleep at night and not worry if you're gonna live to see the next day'. ## Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mark Leap and Karrah Lompa, M.S.W., during the writing of this chapter.