Heroin use, street crime, and the “main hustle”: Implications for the validity of official crime data

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Abstract
This paper explores the basis for a concept known on the street as the “main hustle” with intensive life history interviews with 30 hard core heroin addict‐criminals. Implied in this descriptive term is the notion that criminal addicts tend to “specialize” in a pattern of related criminal enterprises. Such specialization entails the learning of important skills which not only facilitate the commission of a crime, but also facilitate avoiding detection and arrest. The data reveal that while addict criminals do indeed tend to gravitate toward particular types of crime, they do occasionally engage in crimes with which they are not adept. Furthermore, the life history data suggest that addicts are disproportionately arrested for these “marginal” crimes. While the data are exploratory in nature, the dynamics suggested call into question the validity of official criminal records as indicators of criminal histories among addict populations.

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