It's Easier for the Bulls Now: Official Statistics and Social Change in a Canadian Heroin-Using Community

Abstract

The notion that official statistics have an unknowable relationship to the “actual” volume and morphology of criminal activity is now part of sociology's conventional wisdom. This article examines a seldom-addressed element in the repertoire of possibilities that official statistics might reveal — the nature of the deviant community itself. Using qualitative data, it suggests community solidarity has eroded and certain adaptive practices have been abandoned. These changes have facilitated enforcement.