A drastic rise in the number of regular crack cocaine users nationwide has lead to a disturbing concomitant phenomenon: the exchange of sexual services for crack or for money to buy the drug. Major American cities have seen increasing numbers of these men and women, commonly referred to within the drug subculture and in rap lyrics as "skeezers" or "crack whores," who dramatize the intersection of the major social issues of the 1990s: drugs, AIDS, gender roles, and the crisis of the inner city.
Crack Pipe as Pimp is the result of an 18-month study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse - the first of its kind - during which research teams in Miami, Chicago, Harlem, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Newark, and Philadelphia spent time in crack houses, apartments, and on the street conducting more than 300 detailed interviews with prostitutes, drug dealers, and homeless people about trading sex for crack. Vivid descriptions of different types of the exchange - including infrequent opportunistic sex; compulsive, crack-driven street prostitution; and desperate, often violent, crack house exchanges - graphically illustrate the frenzied daily lives of these crack users. The authors explore how the characteristics of the drug, the psychological and emotional histories of the individuals, and the social-cultural context in which the sex-for-crack phenomenon occurs have all contributed to its rise and growth.
Contributing to the book's timeliness in the age of AIDS, Crack Pipe as Pimp explores the very serious threat of the heightened spread of the HIV virus - commonly considered most prevalent among intravenous heroin users - through these encounters. The study reveals that the sex-for-crack exchange is not merely a seamy part of life in the inner city but, rather, a mounting problem with implications for the entire nation. Crack Pipe as Pimp must be read not only by social anthropologists and researchers but by students and professionals in the fields of criminology, drug abuse treatment, health policy, psychology, public policy, sociology, and urban studies - indeed anyone who is concerned about the nation's future.
