Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 2, Page 29 Winter 1992 EAR to the street Sometimes he was terrified to go to work. His car had been stolen and vandalized. His office had been ransacked, and his staff members were fearful that they would be robbed, or worse. But for more than a year, Leon Pettiway continued his research in an inconspicuous, steel-doored, rowhouse office in a crime-ridden South Philadelphia neighborhood. Pettiway, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Delaware, is coordinator of a $1.1 million, federally funded research project examining drug-induced criminal behavior. As head of the "Urban Lifestyles Project," Pettiway interacted with criminals almost daily. Two of his research subjects are women. They are in love with each other. Both are black and strung out on cocaine. One is petite and soft-spoken. The other is bigger and a bit more fiesty. They live together in an abandoned South Philadelphia rowhouse-one of hundreds throughout the city nicknamed "abandominiums." The women support themselves and their drug habits by committing crimes. Sometimes they rob and beat men who come searching for sex. Then there's the college-educated white man who roams the Philadelphia suburbs, looking for a good "hit"-something very expensive to steal. He prefers luxury cars. He's addicted to a life of stealing. For some reason, he gets "high" from grand-larceny. Another of Pettiway's research subjects is a working-class, white woman who "gets off" on just about any drug. Her preference is heroin, but she's also addicted to "downers" and "uppers." She's able to get drugs because she knows doctors who will write phony prescriptions for her. Her knowledge of how the drugs interact competes with a pharmacist's. And then there's the AIDS-infected black man who lives on the streets of downtown Philly. To support his alcohol dependency and "crack" habit, he steals cameras and other items from the cars of tourists who visit the city's historic sites. He chips off a piece of a sparkplug tip and tosses it at car windows. Like magic, the particle silently shatters them. Shunning all contact with police authorities, Pettiway and his staff confidentially interviewed almost 500 criminals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area for more than a year. Most are hooked on drugs, but a smaller control group is not. Some are pimps and prostitutes. Others are burglars, con artists and drug pushers. Many resort to petty thefts and armed robbery. A few choose to victimize other criminals. Most have been victims of child abuse and neglect. They are often the unemployed and homeless. But a sizeable percentage live with and hail from middle-class families. Some of the criminals are college-educated. The implications of Pettiway's study are far-reaching, since it examines, in microscopic detail, the life histories and current lifestyles of those who rely on crime to support their drug habits. Eventually, the findings may influence how authorities perceive the effect of incarceration as punishment, versus the need for rehabilitation and early-intervention counseling programs. The research should also paint a clearer picture of how people from different ethnic and social backgrounds react to socio-economic pressures. The drug-reliant criminals' perception of society, from parents and siblings, to peers and healthcare workers, may help counselors devise more effective treatment programs. The Urban Lifestyles Project is delving into the minds of those who live, and often die, in a domain where they feel compelled to use mind-altering drugs and resort to crime. Pettiway's study comes at a time when fellow professors in the University's criminal justice program are conducting closely related research, which also is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). James A. Inciardi, director of the new Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, is administering a $4.2 million program that provides community-based, drug-abuse treatment and AIDS-prevention education to Delaware parolees. Inciardi also is coordinating a $4.8 million therapeutic-community, work-release program that gives prison inmates drug-dependency counseling, while encouraging them to acquire job skills. The broad scope of the studies being conducted by University researchers reflects the intense national and local concern over skyrocketing crime rates fueled by drug addiction. A report issued by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, estimates that there are "6 million hard-core drug addicts" in America, including 2.4 million cocaine addicts and 940,000 heroin addicts. In Philadelphia's third police district, where Pettiway's field office was located, crime has increased by a phenomenal 47.5 percent since 1985. The district's high crime and addiction rates were primary reasons Pettiway chose to open an office there. Furthermore, the area's residents include large, segregated pockets of blacks and whites. Pettiway's comparative analysis of crime in the area may help explain why blacks are far more likely to become victims of violent crime. Researchers have already found that economics, family structure and self-esteem are primary predictors. Instead of relying on analysis of anecdotal evidence, Pettiway and his staff compiled sophisticated computer data bases to use in looking for patterns of criminal behavior among drug addicts. Field personnel went to some of the city's most undesirable locations, including crack houses, where they handed out fliers soliciting research subjects. An offer of $15 for a confidential interview left no shortage of respondents. Once the respondents reported to the office, the intake interviewers conducted initial conferences and provided questionnaires. Those accepted were scheduled for a series of interviews where hundreds of questions about daily routines were posed. The replies were later categorized and entered into computer data banks for analysis, a process that is now underway. "When they came in for the first interview, they answered questions concerning their social-demographic background, where they live, where they've been sleeping and travel information," Pettiway says. "We completed a chronological log of activities for the entire day, starting from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed." Eventually, the researchers completed a clear picture of daily routines, such as where respondents go to "cop" or buy drugs, whether they've been criminally molested, and the kinds of crimes they've committed. They also examined health habits, and some respondents returned for extensive life-history interviews. Some of the most fascinating information comes from comparing the drug-taking habits of different ethnic groups, says Bernard Bryant, a project interviewer. "A lot of blacks take marijuana, cocaine or crack," says Bryant. "Whites don't use as much cocaine. They're more into pills, heroin and even methadone." Pettiway concurs. "The drug use is very different. Whites use a tremendous amount of pills in combination with hard drugs." Blacks, however, will ingest pills if they socialize with whites who are into that form of addiction, Bryant says. Despite their different drug-addiction patterns, whites and blacks, in general, commit the same kinds of crimes, Pettiway says. "They do some robberies, burglaries, theft and a lot of prostitution." Since his research began, Pettiway says he has attended church regularly and consulted with his priest for spiritual guidance. The horrible stories and pain he chronicles sometimes take a heavy toll. "You cannot work with the poor and not be touched by them. You cannot listen to someone who has been physically and sexually abused as a child and listen to how they endure-and not be touched by that. You are changed by it," Pettiway says. -Donald Scott