Chapter 3: Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?

One of the ecosystems examined in this chapter is that of the street side peddlers of crack cocaine. How? Student at University of Michigan, Sudhir Venkatesh, ventured into crack dens, gaining the trust of young street peddlers and understanding how they work.

While most of society believed that cocaine dealers were rolling in money, and nothing infuriated the honest, law abiding citizen more than a millionaire crack dealer, Venkatesh found quite a different reality. Crack-dealing gangs were just like McDonalds, or any other commercial outfits. What’s more, for lower rung members of the gang, chances of being killed on the job were as high as 1 in 4! As a result, there is a lot of empathy and closeness between families of the gang members. They look out for each other.

This particular case study of street peddlers of crack cocaine really struck me because it is very rarely that people would think to write about the street level dealers and gangs. It is usually the drug mafia and the cartels that get written about. This reflects the unconventional way of looking at the world that is the essence of the book.