The street crime paradox: An ethnographic study of the attractions and repulsions of street culture

Abstract This article draws on ethnographic data from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway to examine movement into and out of street crime. Based on participant observations and interviews with individuals involved in drug dealing and other street crimes, we show that some of the very same aspects of street life that attract individuals, most notably community, violence, and drugs, also motivate attempts to leave it. We conceptualize this dynamic as the street crime paradox. Drawing on Georges Bataille, we argue that these aspects constitute heterogeneous social domains marked by excess, collective effervescence, and contradictory forces of attraction and repulsion. By foregrounding this paradox, the article offers an ethnographic and theoretical framework for understanding criminal trajectories as non-linear, volatile, and emotionally charged.