You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Since its appearance in 1985 crack cocaine has had a major impact on our society, presenting us with an avalanche of drug users, criminality, and human and social costs that are far surpassing previous drug epidemics. More than ever before children and adolescents are affected by these destructive events. Except for a limited amount of direct drug use, children and adolescents have become indirect victims of the drug epidemic. They are born addicted to crack-abusing mothers; they are abused and neglected by crack-using parents and caregivers; they die in the crossfire of the turf wars in their neighborhood; and last but not least they are inducted into the drug selling organizations.
Working as a child psychiatric consultant to a secure juvenile detention facility, the author reviewed the clinical evaluations of juvenile delinquents charged with crack dealing and compared them with those of delinquents charged with a variety of other, non-drug-related crimes. A pilot study of all family court ordered evaluations over a 15-month period resulted in 14 male juvenile delinquents being charged with crack dealing and 19 juvenile delinquents with charges ranging from shoplifting to robbery and assault. Methodology and results of this study were reported in an earlier paper (Schreiber, 1990).
A rather disturbing clinical picture emerged in evaluating these adolescents who were charged with crack-related crimes. Day after day they were selling crack, a substance they would not use themselves because of their awareness of its destructive effects (“You are crazy, man—I don't want to become skinny”). However, by selling it repeatedly to the same group of customers they had to become well aware of the gradual, unrelenting effect crack was having on