A consistent finding of research on delinquency has been that gang members show higher levels of delinquent behavior than non-gang members. However, research attempting to understand the mechanisms underlying this finding is lacking. The basic premise of the current article is that the level of organization found in delinquent groups and gangs matters in clarifying...

Hydroponics is one the fastest rising sectors in the horticultural industry. It is, however, a contestedone. The problem with the industry is that the products sold by hydroponics entrepreneurs are not onlybeing used to grow tomatoes or cucumbers, but also potentially illegal produce, such as cannabis. In this paper, we explore the extent to which...

It is difficult to measure the size, influence and growth patterns of criminal organizations embedded in illegal markets. In this paper, we argue that measuring the influence of a criminal organization by its size (in number of employees, or ‘members’) may under- or overestimate its sphere of influence in illegal markets. Self-report survey and size...

The emergence of cannabis cultivation in industrialised countries may offer adolescents, especially those living in regions suitable for outdoor cultivation, new opportunities to participate in the drug trade. The current study examines the prevalence and the nature of youth involvement in cannabis cultivation in an important agricultural region of Quebec, Canada. A self-report delinquency survey...

Among the many difficulties with estimating the size of the cannabis industry is that suitable methodologies for estimating large-scale outdoor illegal drug production in developing countries cannot be used to estimate indoor production in industrialized countries. This article proposes a new approach that overcomes some of these difficulties. The case study is a mature cannabis...

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Originally developed in biology, capture-recapture methodologies have increasingly been integrated into the study of human populations to provide estimates of the size of “hidden populations.” This paper explores the validity of one capture-recapture model—Zelterman’s (1988) truncated Poisson estimator—used to estimate the size of the marijuana cultivation industry in Quebec, Canada. The capture–recapture analysis draws on...

This paper argues that the concept of resilience is a fruitful way of understanding the impact of repressive policies on illegal drug markets. For the purpose of this article, resilience is defined as the ability of market participants to preserve the existing levels of exchanges between buyers and sellers, despite external pressure aimed at disrupting...

Cet article propose une relecture d'une enquête sur les jugements de gravité des délits réalisée aux États-Unis par Wolfgang et ses collègues en 1984. L'article fait état d'une propriété remarquable et insoupçonnée de ces jugements de gravité - leur évaluation implicite des coûts des préjudices matériels et moraux décrits dans les situations délictuelles qui sont...

If corporate actors are more likely than other offenders to evade punishment, they should also be more successful, as victims, in getting offenders punished when brought to court. This argument was explicitly elaborated and submitted to empirical testing by John Hagan (1982). This article analyses all fraud cases against businesses investigated by police officers in...

Capture-recapture methodologies have been used to estimate the size of the hidden population of active offenders on the basis of the observed properties of the truncated distribution of arrested offenders. We use this approach to estimate the odds of arrest of marijuana, cocaine, crack, and heroin dealers and users in one Canadian province (Quebec). Findings...