Not ‘Fragrant’ at all: Criminal Justice Responses to ‘Risky’ Women

Abstract

Illegal drug use has been increasingly implicated in offending behaviour and can have adverse social consequences for the individuals who come to the attention of the criminal justice system. However, the consequences are particularly problematic for women, for whom the use of 'hard drugs' is considered highly inappropriate, if increasingly common. This paper will consider the ways in which women drug users are depicted as 'risky' women, and will highlight policy responses. It will examine the application of concepts of 'responsibilization' and consider how this is applied to women drug using offenders. The paper will examine the theoretical basis for the differential depiction of drug users on the basis of gender, and will critically analyse the consequences of this for women drug users throughout their contact with the criminal justice system and related service provisions.

The governance of female drug users

“…However, this is not recognised in official discourses of drug policy. Women drug users in prison are often the victims of very serious crimes, notably male violence in its many forms (see, for example, Boyd, 1994;Scottish Executive, 2002;Ramsay, 2003;Malloch, 2004a). However, as a result of their perceived lifestyles, women drug users are denied 'victimhood' as subjects of government, and are consequently rendered punishable.…”

“…In other words, female users have often been the victims of serious crime, notably male violence in its many forms (Malloch, 2004a, p 388). This is important because as a result of their perceived lifestyles, women drug users are denied 'victimhood' as an identity (Richardson and May 1999;Malloch, 2004a), and are consequently rendered punishable.…”

“…The relationship between women drug-using offenders' experiences, not only as lawbreakers, but also as victims of crime, is important in understanding their offending and the impact of drug policies on their lives. Some criminologists have asserted that this is important in relation to understanding women's crime in general (Kennedy, 1992;Faith, 1993;Edwards, 1996;Carlen, 2002;Malloch, 2004a;White and Habibis, 2005). As discussed in the literature review (see Chapter Two, p 26), there is evidence that some women use drugs as a way of 'coping' with trauma and abuse, to self-medicate and block out negative feelings and emotions (Root, 1989;Blume, 1990b;Russell and Wilsnack, 1991;Du Rose, 2006;Covington et al, 2008).…”

Kerbcrawler rehabilitation programmes: Curing the `deviant' male and reinforcing the `respectable' moral order

“…Classically the female sex worker has been targeted as the sexual 'other': fallen women to be cleansed, controlled and rehabilitated (Self, 2006). Female sex workers, like women drug users (Malloch, 2004), are considered 'risky' women as their behaviour defies their gendered identity as well as is believed to be problematic. The central message of victimhood or offender in the current strategy is further enforced by a new law that replaces fines for soliciting offences with 'Compulsory Rehabilitation Orders'.…”

The Scylla state: an alternative understanding of survival sex work and addiction

“…Accordingly, Kalant remarked in 1980 that women's drug use research was a "non-field" (in Ettorre, 2004). When women were included, it was as 'sicker, more deviant and more psychologically disturbed than her male counterpart', suggesting women are subject to amplified pathologizing and moralistic judgements (Ettorre, 2007;Kulesza et al, 2016;Malloch, 2004;Moore and Measham,2014, p.81;Schur, 1984). The greater punitivism and stigmatisation that accompanies these judgements are argued to be responses to non-conformity to expectations of femininity and motherhood (Ettorre, 2007;Malloch, 2004a and b;Moore and Measham, 2014;Mulia, 2000;Schur, 1984).…”