Summary: What marks the difference between a “hustler,” the street-wise entrepreneur kings of the underworld, and the “crackhead,” the universally-reviled junkies blamed for an astonishing plethora of social ills? For those involved in the crack cocaine economy, it’s a question of central importance. To find out how these boundaries are created and maintained, Copes, Hochstetler, and Williams interviewed men convicted of violent street crimes to “explore how they distance themselves from those exhibiting distasteful
symptoms of crack addiction.” They find that those attempting to be “hustlers” put great effort into constructing an identity that separates them in every way from the lesser crackheads. The findings contribute to an understanding of how offenders shape conceptions of themselves and others, as well as everyday street interactions.

Summary: Many drug and alcohol treatment programs, as well as prison rehabilitation programs, are centered on the healing power of spirituality. Yet sociologists studying the life course usually emphasize the impact of other factors on delinquency, such as “marital attachment and job stability, or the criminality of the individual’s social ties. ” In this study, the authors follow over 150 people for 21 years to see what factors have the most influence on their criminality and find that religious belief and commitment had very little effect on criminal behavior.

Summary: Florida law allows judges to withhold adjudication of quilt for people found guilty of a felony and sentenced to probation. In effect, these individual’s records do not reflect the felony at all; they lose no civil rights and may lawfully claim they have enevr been convicted of a felony. To test the power of the felony label, the authors looked at nearly 96,000 felony cases in Florida and compared those who were given adjudication and those who were not. Their study finds that those who receive the formal label of felon are significantly more likely to commit another crime in the next two years that those who do not, even when controlling for multiple location characteristics (crime rate, relative poverty rate, etc.). The effect of the label is found to be stronger for whites and females, as well as those who had reached the age of 30 with no prior convictions. The authors point to ways in which the judicious use of the adjucation process can reduce harm not only at the individual level, but at the societal level as well.