It's Easier for the Bulls Now: Official Statistics and Social Change in a Canadian Heroin-Using Community

The notion that official statistics have an unknowable relationship to the “actual” volume and morphology of criminal activity is now part of sociology's conventional wisdom. This article examines a seldom-addressed element in the repertoire of possibilities that official statistics might reveal — the nature of the deviant community itself. Using qualitative data, it suggests community solidarity has eroded and certain adaptive practices have been abandoned. These changes have facilitated enforcement.