HEROIN USE, CRIME, AND THE "MAIN HUSTLE".

The relationship between expensive drug use and criminal behavior has been the subject of continuing debate among social and behavioral scientists. One focus of this debate concerns the extent to which addicts are criminal specialists. This paper attempts to explore the basis for the "main hustle," a concept familiar to street heroin users. The main hustle implies that while addicts may engage in various and sundry crimes from time to time, most addicts have one or two crimes with which they are skilled and on which they rely for most of their criminal income. The main hustle is examined here with data from 768 regular-active heroin users. These data provide strong evidence for the main hustle. Moreover, contrary to much of the literature in the area, there is no evidence that women are more criminally indiscriminate than men. The data do suggest that daily users may engage in a broader variety of crimes than do less-than-daily users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]