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Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law, by Bruce A. Jacobs. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2000. 166 pp. $20.00 paper. ISBN: 0-202-30648-8.
Jacobs takes us into the underworld of drugs and crime and brings it to life. While "hidden population" may be an overused descriptor, it is apt for the subjects of this study. It comes as no surprise to drug, crime, and violence researchers that drug dealers become the targets of robberies. However, Jacobs offers drug dealers as "the perfect victims."
Probably putting themselves at risk of robbery to provide us with a window on this lawless world of drug markets, the researchers used snowball sampling to find their 29 subjects. Eligibility for the study included having robbed at least one drug dealer in the past 3 months and having committed 3 robberies in the last year. One-hour semistructured interviews were conducted, investigating the most recent drug robbery, motivations for the robbery, target selection, enactment, and retaliatory threat management associated with robbing drug dealers. Strong qualitative methodology assures us of...