Research introduced here draws on over two years of ongoing qualitative work of low-level drug dealers in a Mexico City neighborhood. Through interviews and participant observation, we explore the social mechanisms that sustain and facilitate informal drug dealing. Our findings indicate that the sale of illicit products, especially drugs, is a needed supplement to household income that expands and contracts according to economic need. Drug selling is integrated into the context of small licit (front) businesses in which dealers sell small amounts of marijuana and cocaine to trusted clients as a (back) business. These “back businesses” are protected by those who operate them, and family, community members, and corrupt officials who benefit from their existence. Finally, the dealers that we studied occupy a unique niche in the overall structure of drug dealing in the neighborhood by remaining under the radar by not attracting the attention of drug cartels.

中文翻译：

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前台业务–后台业务：墨西哥城社区小型毒品交易的社会解剖

这里介绍的研究借鉴了墨西哥城附近低级别毒贩两年多来正在进行的定性工作。通过访谈和参与观察，我们探索了维持和促进非正式毒品交易的社会机制。我们的研究结果表明，销售非法产品，尤其是毒品，是家庭收入的必要补充，它会根据经济需要而增加和收缩。毒品销售被整合到小型合法（前台）业务中，在这些业务中，经销商将少量大麻和可卡因作为（后台）业务出售给可信赖的客户。这些“幕后企业”受到经营者、家庭、社区成员和从其存在中受益的腐败官员的保护。最后，