Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- The Structure of the Book
- Introduction
- 1 A Changed Landscape?
- 2 Emergence and Change
- 3 Getting Started: ‘Put Me On, Bruv
- 4 Grinding
- 5 Controlling the Line: Exploitation and Sanctions
- 6 Cuckooing and Nuanced Dealing Relationships
- 7 Ripples, Reverberations and Responses
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
7 - Ripples, Reverberations and Responses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- The Structure of the Book
- Introduction
- 1 A Changed Landscape?
- 2 Emergence and Change
- 3 Getting Started: ‘Put Me On, Bruv
- 4 Grinding
- 5 Controlling the Line: Exploitation and Sanctions
- 6 Cuckooing and Nuanced Dealing Relationships
- 7 Ripples, Reverberations and Responses
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter moves on to consider the outcomes of involvement in CL networks and the wider consequences arising from it, often felt by nonparticipants including family members. Central to this is the violence needed to defend the line and control the line.
Family issues and familial reverberations
Runner/dealers often go missing from home for extended periods while going ‘going cunch’. Families often are unaware of their whereabouts until they return.
At some point they make a decision to return to the parental home often triggered by events outside their control, for example their shift ended; they are replaced, temporarily or long-term; operations shift to another location; police ‘heat’ and so on. Unless they have a fall out with managers, they are paid return train fares or dropped off by car. Reappearance after weeks of disappearance usually brings parental relief followed by confrontation, anger and recriminations.
One young operative recounted such a scenario after going missing for two weeks:
‘[I’d say] Nothing. They’d ask me, they’d beg me, they’d cry, they’d scream, they’d be on the floor. Nothing. Nothing. You’re not getting an answer from me. I was with my friend. And this is me looking like I had just come out of a concentration camp. I had to shave my hair because when we were staying in the crack house one time I got fleas from an animal in my hair and I had to shave my hair, so one time I came back home, stinky and filthy, this was early days when we weren't able to use anybody's houses, my mum opened the door and she saw me and she said she felt her soul leave her body to see her child in that stage. I can still hear the scream. I can't imagine seeing my daughter now in that kind of state. No. Filthy stinking. And if you’re a girl and it's that time of the month baby wipes can only do that much and a sink. It was awful. And this is how it still is now.’ (USG 01)
Some parents try to control the domestic situation by actively intervening to prevent association with ‘bad influences’:
‘My parents would try to keep me in the house. They’d lock me in. They’d stay in my room with me but I’d always go. I’d always find a way. I’d jump out of the window.
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- County LinesExploitation and Drug Dealing among Urban Street Gangs, pp. 223 - 258Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2020