Persistence, Desistance and Rational Deviance – a narrative analysis of Finnish youth selling drugs for financial profit

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how young people in Finland make sense of profit-oriented drug selling and construct drug dealer identities. Drug use and related harms have increased globally in recent years. In Finland, an increase in minors selling drugs for financial profit has been noticed by the police and a non-governmental youth work organization Children of the Station. The aim of this thesis is to expand knowledge on young people’s drug selling through a qualitative approach, and to address a research gap in a field that has predominantly relied on survey data in studies of youth drug dealing. A narrative analysis was conducted on semi-structured interviews with young people who have started selling drugs for financial profit while underage. The theoretical framework of this study draws on narrative criminology and narrative identity theory. These frameworks provide insight into how young drug sellers justify their involvement in illicit and potentially harmful activities through storytelling, and how they navigate the moral boundaries that shape their decisions regarding the continuation of their drug-selling careers. The findings show that while the initiation into drug selling was narrated as an outlet for personal empowerment that emphasized individual agency, the continuation of selling was not narrated as a similarly voluntary choice. Moral boundary work was negotiated by framing oneself as a “good” seller in opposition to unethical seller who, for example, sell to children and by describing drug selling as a business, thereby legitimizing illegal activity as a rational choice. These findings highlight how young drug dealers wish to be perceived as intelligent and responsible sellers, opposing the media’s narrative of deviant youth who glorify crime.