1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785941803321

Autore

Contreras Randol <1971->

Titolo

The stickup kids [[electronic resource] ] : race, drugs, violence, and the American dream / / Randol Contreras

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, Calif., : University of California Press, 2012

ISBN

1-283-69592-8

0-520-95357-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (303 p.)

Disciplina

363.4509747/275

Soggetti

Youth - Drug use - New York (State) - New York

Drug dealers - New York (State) - New York

Cocaine abuse - New York (State) - New York

Cities and towns - New York (State) - New York

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. The Rise of the South Bronx and Crack -- 2. Crack Days: Getting Paid -- 3. Rikers Island: Normalizing Violence -- 4. The New York Boys: Tail Enders of the Crack Era -- 5. Crack is Dead -- 6. The Girl -- 7. Getting the Shit -- 8. Drug Robbery Torture -- 9. Splitting the Profits -- 10. Living the Dream: Life after a Drug Robbery -- 11. Fallen Stars -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980's, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insider's look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as "Stickup Kids," these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared.



The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robbery's violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.