In search of masculinity: violence, respect and sexuality among Puerto Rican crack dealers in East Harlem

Bourgois, Philippe I.

article

In search of masculinity: violence, respect and sexuality among Puerto Rican crack dealers in East Harlem

British journal of criminology • 36 • Published In 1996 • Pages: 412-427

By: Bourgois, Philippe I..

Abstract
This article is based on the ethnographic fieldwork of the author while residing next to a crack house in East Harlem, New York during the period of the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Burgois describes '…how the social and economic marginalization of second- and third-generation Puerto Rican immigrants in the inner city has polarized violence and sexuality against women and children, both within the family and on the street. Traditional working-class patriarchy has been thrown into crisis by the restructuring of the global economy and the expansion of women's rights. Unable to replicate the rural-based models of masculinity and family structure of their grandfathers' generation, a growing cohort of marginalized men in the de-industrialized urban economy takes refuge in the drug economy and celebrates a misogynist, predatory street culture that normalizes gang rape, sexual conquest, and paternal abandomnent. Marginalized men lash out against the women and children they can no longer support economically nor control patriarchally' (p. 412).

Theoretical orientation in research and its results

Life history materials

Labor supply and employment

Labor relations

Status, role, and prestige

Miscellaneous sex behavior

Adolescent activities