Participant observation of skid-row drinking behaviour was undertaken during the course of an experimental, intensive, indigenous, counselling service for skid-row alcoholics. A tentative hypothesis derived from these observations suggests that some skid-row alcoholics use drinking itself as a means of acquiring peer group status. Status within the peer group is regulated through participation in the skid-row subculture. The subculture competes with skid-row institutions in conferring status on skid-row residents and does so more successfully by affording its members greater opportunity for a positively perceived “moral career.”
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlskneHaroldLiebermanLouisBrillLeon1967“A Conceptual Model of the Life Cycle of Addictions.”Inter. Journal of Addictions, Vol. 2: 221–240.
2.
AnnisHelenGiesbrechtNormanAlanC. OgborneReginaldG. Smart1976The Ontario Detoxification System. Addiction Research Foundation Publication. Toronto, Ontario.
3.
BahrH. M.1968Homelessness and Disaffiliation. Columbia Univ., Bureau of Applied Social Research, N.Y.
4.
BeckerHoward1958“Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation,”American Soc. Review, Vol. 23: 652–660.
5.
BeckerHoward1963Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. N.Y. Free Press, New York, N.Y.
6.
BlumbergLeonardShipleyThomasMoorJoseph1971“The Skid-Row Man and the Skid-Row Status Community.”Quart. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 23, No. 4: 909–941.
7.
BlumbergLeonardShipleyThomasShandlerIrving1973Skid-Row and Its Alternatives. Temple Univ. Press: Philadelphia.
8.
BogueD. J.1963Skid-Row in American Cities. Univ. of Chicago, Community and Family Study Centre, Chicago.
9.
DentlerRobertA.LaiT. Erickson1959“The Functions of Deviance in Groups.”Social Problems, Vol. 7: 98–107 (Fall).
10.
GoffmanIrving1959“The Moral Career of the Mental Patient.”Psychiatry, Vol. 22: 123–31.
LoflandJohn1969Deviance and Identity. Prentise-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
17.
LovaldK.StubH. R.1968“The Revolving Door: Reactions of Chronic Drunkenness Offenders to Court Sanctions.”Journ. Crim. Law & Crimonology. Vol. 59: 525–530.
18.
LymanStanfordScottMarvin1967“Territoriality: A Neglected Sociological Dimension.”Social Problems, Vol. 15, No. 2.
19.
MacAndrewC.EdgertonR. B.1969Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation. Aldine Press, Chicago.
20.
MatzaDavid1964Delinquency and Drift. John Wiley: New York, N.Y.
21.
MertonRobertK.1957Social Theory and Social Structure. Free Press: Glencoe, Ill.
22.
OgborneAlanC.ReginaldG. Smart1974Halfway Houses for Skid-Row Alcoholics: A Search for Empirical Evaluation. Addiction Research Foundation, Substudy No. 632.
23.
OgborneAlanC.WilmotRichard1977An Evaluation of an Experimental Counselling Service for Skid-Row Alcoholics (In Press).
24.
PlantMartinReevesCharles1976“Participant Observation as a Method of Collecting Information about Drug-taking: Conclusions from two English Studies.”British Journ. of Addict., Vol. 71: 155–159.
25.
RubingtonEarl1968“The Bottle Gang.”Quart. Journ. of Studies Alc., Vol. 29: 943–955.
26.
RubingtonEarlWeinbergMartin1968Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective. Macmillan Co.: New York, N.Y.
27.
RubingtonEarl1971“The Changing Skid-Row Scene.”Quart. J. Stud. Alc., Vol. 32: 125–135.
28.
SmartReginald1972“Trapped Administrators and Evaluation.”Addictions, Vol. 19, No. 4: 46–58.
29.
StrausRobert1973“Alcohol and Society.”Psychiatric Annals, Vol. 3, No. 10.
SzazThomas1958“The Role of the Counterpholic Mechanism of Addiction.”Journal of American Psychoanalytic Assoc., Vol. 6, No. 2.
32.
TyndelMilo1969“Psychiatric Study of the Chronic Drunkenness Offender.”Canadian Psych. Assoc. Journ., Vol. 14, No. 3.
33.
WallaceS. E.1965Skid-Row as a Way of Life. Bedminister: Totowa, N.J.
34.
WardJ.1975“Skid-Row as a Geographic Entity.”Professional Geographic, Vol. 27, No. 3.
35.
WilmotRichard1977“What Is Rehabilitation?”Inter. Journ. of Offender Therapy and Comparative Crim., Vol. 20, No. 3: 246–255.
36.
WilmotRichardAlanC. Ogborne1977“Conflicts and Contradictions in a Halfway House for Alcoholics: Inside the Black Box.”Journ. of Drug Issues, Vol. 7, No. 2.
37.
WisemanJacqueline1970Stations of the Lost. Prentise-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
38.
YablonskyLewis1959“The Delinquent Gang as a Near-Group.”Social Problems, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall).
