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The illegal cigarette market in a socioeconomically deprived inner-city area: the case of the South Bronx
  1. Marin K Kurti1,
  2. Klaus von Lampe2,
  3. Douglas E Thompkins3
  1. 1Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA
  2. 2Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA
  3. 3Department of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Klaus von Lampe, Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 Tenth Avenue #422, New York, NY 10019, USA; kvlampe{at}jjay.cuny.edu

Abstract

Objective To determine the scope of the cigarette black market in a socioeconomically deprived inner-city area in the US, taking the South Bronx in New York City as a case study.

Design The South Bronx Litter Pack Survey collected discarded cigarette packs (n=497) along 30 randomised census tracts to quantify the prevalence of counterfeit, legal and out-of-state tax stamps.

Results It was found that 76.2% of cigarette packs collected avoided the combined New York City and State tax. More specifically, 57.9% were untaxed (counterfeit or bearing no tax stamp), for 18.3% taxes were paid outside of New York City (including other states and New York State only). Only 19.4% of tax stamps collected indicated that New York City and New York State taxes were paid. 4.4% of the cigarette packs could not be analysed because the tax stamps were not discernible. The finding that the majority of cigarettes did not have a tax stamp or bore a counterfeit tax stamp suggests that these cigarettes were being bootlegged, most likely from Native American Reservations.

Conclusions The present study highlights the importance of examining the illegal cigarette market in socioeconomically deprived regions of the US, where tax avoidance and black market activities appear to far exceed levels found elsewhere in the country including Chicago and New York City at large.

  • Illegal cigarette trade
  • litter pack survey
  • bootlegging
  • native American reservations
  • illegal tobacco products
  • low/middle income country
  • taxation
  • surveillance and monitoring
  • socioeconomic status

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Footnotes

  • Funding Funding was provided by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Graduate Research Scholarship.

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was first published Online First. The value 15.8% has been updated to 18.3% in the sentence, '...for 15.8% taxes were paid outside of New York City (including other states and New York State only).'; in the sentence, 'Overall, this means that 57.9% of the cigarette packs were untaxed (no tax stamp or counterfeit), for 15.8% taxes were paid...'; and in the Percentage column of the Out of New York City taxes paid 'Total' row in table 1.