Toward the Operationalization of Drug Market Stability: An Illustration Using Arrestee Data from Crack Cocaine Markets in Four Urban Communities

Despite the hypothesized link between the stability of drug markets and violence, drug market stability has yet to be operationally defined. Our aim in this paper is to demonstrate the need for reliable and valid measures of drug market stability and to test preliminary measures of market stability using existing data. Using calendar year 2000 data from interviews with 1,440 respondents from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program in four cities (Manhattan, Chicago, Portland, and San Diego), we illustrate that it is possible to operationally define the relative stability of these illegal markets. Capitalizing on the existence of comparable data collected from arrestee respondents in the same four cities in 1995, we illustrate how researchers might measure change in market stability over time and space. Our illustrations using these data suggest that drug market stability is not a simple and singular phenomenon, but rather a complex concept requiring multiple measures to elucidate.

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