Student transitions into drug supply: exploring the university as a ‘risk environment’

an article by Leah Moyle (Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK) and Ross Coomber (University of Liverpool, UK; Griffith University, Queensland, Australia) published in Journal of Youth Studies Volume 22 Issue 5 (2019)

Abstract

Drug use, like much criminality, is often explored in relation to the journey into adulthood.

Though young people are understood to commonly ‘grow out’ of crime, protracted transitions from adolescence into adulthood have brought about a new developmental phase where many young people are freer to engage in drug-related leisure and other forms of subterranean play in a period of extended adolescence.

In this article, we look to this phase with focus upon those engaged in full time higher education and explore the extent to which entry into university and ‘studenthood’ enables particular changes in levels of involvement in recreational drug use and supply.

Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews undertaken with mainly ‘traditional’ undergraduate university students in South West England, this article seeks to explore the ways in which the structural circumstances of the university environment can produce favourable conditions for ‘turning points’, where university students transition into regular drug use and ‘social supply’.

It is argued that the university can be understood as a specific ‘risk environment’ where certain cultural and environmental attributes including distance from guardians, the interconnected nature of the student populace, and financial insecurity can ultimately provide facilitative conditions for transitions into drug supply.

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‘Going viral’ and ‘Going country’: the expressive and instrumental activities of street gangs on social media

Michelle L. Storrod (Rutgers University-Camden, USA) and James A. Densley (Metropolitan State University, Saint Paul, USA) published in Journal of Youth Studies Volume 20 Issue 6 (2017)

Abstract

Based on social media content analysis and focus groups with young people, the current study explores expressive and instrumental uses of the internet among street gangs.

‘Trap rap’ videos posted on YouTube and orientated around life as a drug dealer are identified as the ultimate cultural artefact for denoting London, UK, gang culture. These videos serve an expressive purpose in terms of reputation building, but also shed light on the instrumental business of gangs – specifically, illicit drugs sales via ‘country lines’.

Looking beyond the artefact toward how these videos are created, disseminated, and consumed, reveals the instrumental organisation of gangs and how social rules and behaviours within them are monitored and enforced.

The current study thus contributes to gang research from the UK, and the growing body of literature on gang and gang member use of the Internet, with implications for research and practice.

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