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Description: Drug dealer motivation is traditionally attributed to individual greed or social structural pressures resulting from poor social conditions or blocked opportunities. To date, few scholars have seriously considered that underlying personality characteristics might shape an individual's decisions to participate in the illegal drug market. This paper builds upon the tenets of Adlerian Individual Psychology in an effort to document stable lifestyle attributes or human personality characteristics in a sample of 100 known drug dealers. Respondent scores on the Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success - Adult Form Inventory (BASIS-A) reveal that the drug dealers exhibit lifestyle profiles that differ from those of the normative and other non-criminal samples but approximate those observed in samples of known criminals. A call is made for a broader theoretical approach and empirical research agenda that more fully explores the linkage between developmental and environmental factors that contribute to crime and drug market participation.
Suggested Citation:
Highland, R. A., & Dabney, D. A. (2009). Using Adlerian Theory to shed light on drug dealer motivations [Electronic Version]. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice,
5(2), 109-138.
Keywords: drug dealers, criminal motivation, Adlerian, Individual Psychology, BASIS-A Inventory
Date: Sep 23, 2009 | File Size: 848.42 Kb | Downloads: 2802