Jacobs, B. A. (2000). Robbing drug dealers: Violence beyond the law . Transaction Publishers.
Summary
The topic covered in the article is social order in the outlaw world. One of the main arguments is that, in the outlaw world, order is based on violence and its threat. According to Jacobs (2000), street justice rather than law is the rule of the day. Conflict spirals emerge from disputes, with each violent act contributing to more violence. Routine disputes are likely to lead to more instability. Law enforcement strategies worsen the situation with crackdowns, covert operations, and sweeps, leading to more chaos. Intervention by law enforcement officials is likely to lead to increased drug robbery. Another argument is related to drug robbery as a means of social control. Jacobs (2000) emphasizes that drug robbery has a positive impact since it curbs the growth and presence of drug markets. When drug robberies occur, violence increases, and market participants are forced to exit the market. In addition, would-be individuals are discouraged from joining the outlaw world. Drug robberies will lead to a reduction in market size and, in effect, the market becomes more prone to formal social control.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The chapter’s primary concepts have been conceptualized through data-and theory-driven conceptualization. Both secondary and primary resources have been used in addressing the chapter’s main concepts. The author has used primary sources such as interviews and secondary sources, including journal articles, academic books, and research reports, to illustrate his main arguments.
The author obtained data from both primary and secondary sources. He interviewed perpetrators and reviewed past research to inform his study. He analyzed the data from other studies through meta-analysis. He systematically reviewed selected data from different studies, identified the most relevant, and combined them in his study.
The author concludes his research by indicating that drug robbery can be eradicated by legalizing drugs to eliminate their black-market values or transforming wholesale exchange to cashless exchange. However, both are unlikely to occur any time soon, according to the author. He also indicates that the presence of drug dealers offers a safety valve for the rest of society members.
Critical Assessment
A key limitation of the study is the use of outdated sources. The chapter published in 2000 uses old sources, with some of them going back to 1960. The use of outdated sources limits the reliability of the author’s evidence in support of the topic regarding drug robbery. The criminal justice field is a fast-changing field of study due to the impact of rapid technology advancement. The use of the old sources limited the author’s ability to provide reliable evidence. Another limitation is that limited data from primary sources have been incorporated in the chapter. The author provided data from only one interview. The limited primary data diminished the author's ability to address the topic of drug robbery effectively, given that primary data is more reliable and accurate compared to secondary data. Consequently, the author had to rely on secondary data to inform the study. If data were collected from a different sample, it is likely that there would be a slight difference in their findings. The chapter’s findings would have been more accurate if the author had conceptualized the chapter’s primary concepts using more primary data. The author’s arguments in the chapter are similar to those of other chapters in the book. I disagree with the conclusions due to the ineffective conceptualization of the chapter’s primary concepts. The author relied more on secondary data than primary data to inform the chapter’s main ideas. The incorporation of data from more than one interview transcript could have increased the accuracy of the data.
