The Invisible Woman. Joanne Belknap
The gender differences in NMPD use that Cutler (2016) found included men being more “open and forthcoming,” and in some cases, “arrogant” about their NMPD use; less likely to indicate guilt or remorse about NMPD use; and more risk-taking in terms of engaging in risky behaviors, pushing their limits, and mixing “copious amounts” of NMPDs or NMPDs with other drugs or alcohol (pp. 1140–1141). However, some men recognized lethal dangers and that they had addictions and were scared. Women had fewer NMPD “wild stories,” felt guiltier/more remorseful, and engaged in less risky behaviors. However, women were more likely than men to justify NMPD use by citing its legitimacy because others do it, doctors prescribe it to some people, and even that they were helping their friends or family members by giving them NMPDs, even in cases where it was clear some of these people were dangerously using NMPDs (p. 1142). Turning to the sexist body-image culture discussed in previous chapters, both men and women talked about women’s disproportionate use of Adderall to lose weight (pp. 1144–1145).
Crack.
The advent of crack intensified the sexual degradation of women (Maher, 1995) and resulted in an intensive and “successful” media and criminal legal system “campaign” against primarily poor, African American women replete with racist, sexist, and classist caricatures and misinformation about crack and its consumers (S. C. Boyd, 1999, 2004; Humphries, 1999; Maher, 1997, 2004). Maher’s (1997) classic ethnographic fieldwork with women crack users in the early 1990s in three Brooklyn (New York) neighborhoods reports that income generation within the street-level economy falls into three overlapping and interdependent options: drug-business hustles, nondrug hustles, and sex work. Maher reports that “sex work was the only income-generating activity consistently available to women drug users” (p. 130), and given the risks of “death, rape, and disfigurement” that the sex work entailed, “suggests that overall these women had few [income-generating] choices indeed” (p. 189). Similarly, Erickson and colleagues’ (2000) study of women on crack reported how the women’s addictions “magnified their extreme vulnerability arising from conditions of poverty, arrest histories, loss of family, exposure to violence, and histories of sexual abuse” (p. 769). Both studies (Erickson et al., 2000; Maher, 1997), however, resist simplistic characterizations of these women. Maher (1995) challenges the research presentation of female drug users as “innocent” and “hapless victims,” often lured into both drug use and sex work. “Such accounts perpetuate stereotypical images of women as weak and submissive; as incapable of exercising agency and unable to make any kind of choice in relation to drug use” (p. 132). Erickson and colleagues (2000) note most of these women did not see stopping crack use as an option, and most did not identify their addiction as a problem. Rather, crack was what made their lives bearable or interesting, and sex was the means to smoking crack.
Claire E. Sterk (1999) offers one of the most detailed and comprehensive studies of crack-using women in her ethnographic research on 149 active crack-using women. Her book Fast Lives describes far more variation among these women than is reported in other studies. Sterk identified four categories of crack-using women. Her first category, queens of the scene, had the highest status and the most control over their lives (relative to other crack-cocaine-using women) due to their ability to cook powder cocaine to form crack. Such cooking skills (the irony of this gendered job was not lost on the women) allowed these women access to the upper- and mid-level dealers, who also protected them. In addition to the “queens,” Sterk’s three other categories of women crack cocaine users were the hustlers, who “work” as criminals but not sex workers to support their habits (e.g., stealing cars, pickpocketing, etc.); the hookers, who use sex work (prostitution) to support their habits; and the older struggling rookies, who had no history of drug-using or other illegal activities until their 30s (or later) and were typically unemployed, concerned with social approval, and introduced to crack cocaine by their children. Sterk also reports that the existing research and media representations portraying crack cocaine as an aphrodisiac are misleading in the sense that for both men and women over time, the crack addiction and work to support the addiction result in decreased sexual activity.
Selling/Dealing Drugs
The limited research examining gender differences in selling drugs indicates that it is much tougher for women than men to break into the drug market (Maher & Daly, 1996; Ryder & Brisgone, 2013), and they do so more easily for lower-level drugs, particularly marijuana. Some research contends that women who successfully gain access to drug selling do so through their husbands or boyfriends (Koester & Schwartz, 1993; Maher & Curtis, 1992). Women’s drug selling may be a better indication of the feminization of poverty than of women’s increased drug use (Díaz-Cotto, 1996). More specifically, not all women drug dealers use drugs, but selling drugs is one of the few options many poor women have to make money (Díaz-Cotto, 1996). However, drug addiction can also spin someone into economic marginalization even if she was not in poverty prior to her drug use (see Maher, 1995). Given the connection between women and girls’ crack addiction and trading sex for crack, the advent of crack flooded the streets with new sex workers and thus street sex workers’ pay decreased drastically (Maher & Curtis, 1992; Maher & Daly, 1996). Lisa Maher’s (1995) study of street prostitutes who did not have pimps but exchanged sex for money to support their crack use perceived themselves as independent, despite the disempowerment and male dependence they experienced with street drug dealers and users. Similar to the pimps, the drug dealers took most of the women’s money. Similarly, Lauderback, Hansen, and Waldorf (1992) reported that after continued dissatisfaction with the division of labor and profits from their boyfriends’ crack-selling ventures, a group of young African American women formed a gang and entered into the crack-selling business themselves.
The Links Between SUAS and Other Crimes
As stated, for women and girls, drug addiction is often related to trading sex for drugs (Erickson et al., 2000; Inciardi et al., 1991, 1993; Lichtenstein, 1997; Maher, 1997; Maher et al., 1996; Ratner, 1993; Sterk, 1999), but it is also a risk factor for other types of offending, such as burglary and robbery (S. Decker, Wright, Redfern, & Smith, 1993; Kuhns, Blevins, Bolin, & Cambareri, 2017; J. Miller, 1998; Richie, 2006; Sommers & Baskin, 1994). One study found that drug-using women prisoners reported a greater likelihood than their non-drug-using counterparts of engaging in a wide variety of both property and violent crimes, emphasizing the criminalizing aspect of drug addictions for women (Mullings, Pollock, & Crouch, 2002). A study of women using hard drugs with men reported subsequent “drug-related criminal activities, including check fraud and drug sales, but particularly prostitution” (Ryder & Brisgone, 2013, p. 49).
Theft, Burglary, and Robbery
The three primary property crimes are typically ranked from most to least serious as robbery, burglary, and larceny-theft, and the percentage of women and girls arrested for each is 15%, 20%, and 42%, respectively, consistent with the pattern that the more serious the offense is, the lower women and girls’ representation will be (see Table 4.1 in Chapter 4 and Table 5.1).
Figure 5.1 ● Percentage of Arrests for Larceny/Theft, Burglary, and Robbery in 2018 by Sex
Source: U.S. Department of Justice. (2019). Crime in the United States, 2018: Uniform Crime Reports, Table 42. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/table-42
Theft
Property offenses of a minor nature have often been attributed as female-gender-related, with stereotypes linking women and girls with shopping and portraying them as being tempted by