Sociology 10418 November 2013Crack Panic Epidemic Notes-expansion phase-plateau phase--cocaine was created in 1960-150000 pounds by 1986-Coca-Cola made with cocaine-Freud played a role in studies on cocaine-self medication was the norm in the 60’s- cocaine was marketed as a general tonic- for fever, sinus problems-first snortable cocaine --catarrh powder-Oregon was the first to restrict the use of cocaine for non-medical use-pure food and drug act- have to disclose the contents of the drug on the bottle somewhere when sold in the store-1903 Coca-Cola took cocaine out of their product-coca leaves-amphetamines became the substitute for …coca leaves? Cocaine?- during the 1970’s, primarily used among the upper classes because its expensive but as the decade progresses the demand begins to grow -smuggled cocaine to the US -1974- cartel moved 20-30 kilos per week-by early 80’s they were moving hundreds of kilos of cocaine-because they smuggled so much of it, the price of cocaine drops and becomes more of a middle class drug-few people still smoked cocaine in 1981--free-based it: removed base of cocaine, involves chemicals, flammable -took place at parties, after hour clubs,-start to see early signs of the crack epidemic taking place (free-basing)-crack: free basing using baking soda to create a paste that is dry and then smokable --occurred in the Bahamas because there was a lot of cocaine -knowledge about how to make crack cocaine begins to spread in the early 1980’s-1981: the publication of The Natural Process: Base-ic Instructions and the Baking Recipe--sold next to pipes in stores-“freeway” Rick Ross was apparently the first mass distributor of cocaine--Hip hop artist Rick Ross named himself after “Freeway” Rick Ross-incubation phase: --freebasing--knowledge of how to make cocaine--still inexpensive (middle-class drug)-expansion phase:--crack becomes “the” drug that addicts are using-cocaine had a devastating effect on the areas it hit-1986- “high point” of crack cocaine in the US-heart seizes when a hard hitting amphetamine is ingested-Led Bias’ death was used as an example of how cocaine is bad-1986- house of representatives passed the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act” --instituted federal work place urine testing, new funds for police to crack down on drug use, funding going to treatment centers for drug abuse--emphasis was clearly on punishment for drug abuse--called for longer sentences, increased fines, elimination of probation-crack babies: --weighed very little, on incubators --prenatal alcohol exposure has the same harms as cocaine and crack smoking during pregnancy -mandatory minimums take away the power of the judge--problem: led to huge increase of incarceration rate in the US-possession of 5 grams of cocaine brings a mandatory 5 year prison sentence -latinos were much more likely to be caught smoking the drug than americans20 November 2013RCT & Differential Association Notes-RCT: Rational Choice Theory--people weigh costs and benefits and act-we have “Bounded Rationality”: we make shortcuts based on imperfect information--recognizes that we don’t have full information to weigh costs and benefits--ex. can see security guards but cant see security cameras--rationality bounded by drunkness, lack of seeing camera, --make cost/benefit analysis-Choice-Structuring Properties: things about criminal activity that make them more or less attractive--ex: (cost/benefit ex.)(car thief deciding whether or not to take a few extra minutes to steal a car with the club on the wheel vs. the car with no club on wheel.)--availability of certain weaponry--rational doesn’t necessarily imply good--ex. Adam Lanza: Newtown gunman had access to gun safe, -soft targets vs. hard targets--boston massacre: essentially a soft target- so many people, cant survey the entire course of the race. ---waited until there was a mass of people in order to inflict as much damage as possible---involves some sense of rationality (picked a place where there weren’t a lot of police, used careful planning with pressure cooker as bomb in backpack)-RCT can explain big and small crimes and can point to crime-control policies-differential association theory: Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950)--wrote about a new approach to understanding crime --1. Criminal behavior is learned--2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.--3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.--4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated and sometimes very simple; (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.--5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of legal codes as favorable and unfavorable.--6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.--8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anticriminal patterns incorporates all the mechanisms that are involved in any otherlearning. -inhalation learning: (with marijuana) different from smoking a cigarette, how long do you hold the smoke in?-learn to enjoy the experience-unless you learn to enjoy the experience you wont continue to smoke marijuana 11-25-2013-Objectivist --Rational choice Theory--Differential Association -D.L. Rosenhan- “being sane in insane places”--pretends to be insane in order to avoid prison time by going to a mental hospital--insanity label is just as strong as the bars in jail--once you’re assigned a label, others view you through that lens --took pseudo-patients and had them pretend they had a mental illness, told nurses they heard voices, etc.---they had to show their sanity and prove that they were sane in order to get released from the mental hospital --all these patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia and stayed in the mental hospital for an average of 19 days--represents a false-positive: a result that is a false result-“labels are sticky”-context dependent: judge people based on where you find them--labels come before the action-Howard Becker: “Outsiders”:--labels are powerful and deviance comes from the eye of the labeler--ask why people view this behavior as criminal and why instead of asking why they have that behavior--no deviant