seven - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2022
Summary
The aim of this book was to share insights from over a decade of empirical research in Glasgow and West Scotland, an area with a long history of gang-and drug-related crime and violence (Fraser 2015; McLean and Densley, 2020). Through qualitative interviews with (ex-)offenders and practitioners, we have been able to explore the nature of robbery within the context of the illicit drugs trade, specifically examining the way in which robbery has evolved and how, as offenders move through their criminal careers, opportunistic violent robbery is used as a means of acquiring symbolic capital before graduating to more serious and organized robbery ventures. The motivations of those involved in street robbery and the nature and patterns of robbery were also captured. We have drawn attention to why drug dealers can be easy targets for robbery, how robbery can provide offenders and victims relief from social strain, but also how robbery can lead to cycles of revenge that initiate further violent action.
Robbery has remained a comparatively under-researched crime even though it is a serious violent crime and it is a defining feature of the more deeply explored illicit drugs trade (Marsh, 2019). Our research conforms with prior studies that identified how street robbery emerges against the backdrop of unemployment, social deprivation, and drug abuse (Wright and Decker, 1997a; Contreras, 2012). However, a major contribution of this book is moving beyond any narrow focus on victim/offender typologies to consider how robbery presents differently in different social contexts. The findings point to the limits of rational choice theory as an explanation for robbery, and the need to consider the wider structural context of crime. In some social contexts, opportunistic robbery was common, particularly at the lower and more disorganized levels of the drug trade. Here, rapid risk assessments of situational factors and personal attributes of dealers were conducted. In some cases, our participants indicated that opportunistic robbery could later lead to engaging in techniques like catfishing, where victims were selected online and attacks became technologically enhanced and carefully coordinated.
However, robbery more often emerged as a by-product of serious organized crime wherein robbing drug dealers and users was a means to achieve personal expressive and instrumental goals.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Robbery in the Illegal Drugs TradeViolence and Vengeance, pp. 104 - 112Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2022