Scott Jacques and Richard Wright: Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers

Jacques and Wright’s Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers offers a unique glimpse into the lives of several upper-class adolescent drug dealers. The authors delve into this distinctive world and use interviews with several of the dealers to share their findings as well as the youths’ perspective on their chosen lifestyle. The book focuses on a town called Peachville, which according to the authors ‘‘epitomizes what average Americans think of as the ‘suburbs’’’ (Jacques and Wright 2015, p 1). The authors seek to inform readers that the American idea of a typical drug dealer is not always what they might expect. When Americans tend to think of true drug dealers, they likely are inundated with images of a low-class neighborhood filled with minority individuals. Those same individuals are viewed as lacking a proper education and are pictured slinging guns and drugs around on filthy streets of some unknown, bullet-ridden community. This is in fact, according to the authors, not always the case. Code of the Suburb invites readers to explore an unimaginable world where kids of wealth, high education, and in the pursuit of college dreams, also double as drug dealers. However, even though society might choose to reject the portrayal, this unimaginable world is a realistic depiction of some suburban communities. In chapter one, ‘‘The Pursuit of Coolness,’’ the authors suggest that the true motivation of these adolescent drug dealers is the elusive search for a status of ‘‘coolness’’ among their peers. While these youths’ parents have already established themselves as successful, productive, and financially lucrative members of society, the authors explain that all of these adolescents do not have the means to afford the luxuries that their peers view as cool. In turn, they resort to dealing as a way to meet these demands instead of waiting until adulthood to acquire these ‘‘cool’’ items or activities. The authors term this ‘‘...compensating for their lack of conventional status’’ (Jacques and Wright 2015, p 8). Throughout the chapters of this book, many other questions are posed, which the authors address and elaborate on. For instance, a ‘‘subchapter’’ in the first chapter is ‘‘The Allure of Drug Use,’’ which coincides with the general notion of the chapter that ‘‘coolness’’ is the beall and end-all for these youth, which is why they are drawn to drug use. Drug use symbolizes a certain status among the youth’s peers, and opens the door for them to engage in many other cool activities, often with their peers. A line that really brings this statement to life is ‘‘Doing drugs allowed students to exhibit traits that made them likable and desirable to be around’’ (Jacques and Wright 2015, p 8). The authors further suggest that, once the adolescents enter these activities of drug use and dealing, the activities become a routine part of the teen’s life. The second chapter, ‘‘Securing a Supply,’’ answers some questions as to how the dealers really get their hands on their drugs of choice. This chapter highlights that these individuals are not under their own governance; rather, they are under the scrutiny of their parents, teachers, and society. The adolescents cannot come and go as they please, and they have to schedule around their conventional age specific activities such as school and extracurricular activities. Although these obstacles sometimes prove to be a challenge, the adolescents often come up with creative and elusive ways to evade their parents and other authority figures. For instance, school is a very risky place to deal or do drugs. However, the adolescents often secure connections through their friends and peers during the school day, & Maria Latimer mnlatime@indiana.edu