Rethinking the Relationship between Women, Crime and Economic Factors: The Case-Study of Women Sentenced to Death for Drug Trafficking in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper draws upon my doctoral research into the experiences of women who have been sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Malaysia. I utilise this case-study as a lens through which to examine the relationship between women, crime and economic factors. From my data derived from 47 ‘elite’ interviews, as well as legal and media database searches (resulting in information on 146 cases), I argue that current feminist criminological theorising should be updated to incorporate the relationship between women’s crime and precarious work. As I show, precarity is gendered and disproportionately affects women from the global south. Overall, I find that many of the women who have been sentenced to death in Malaysia were engaged in precarious work and drug trafficking was a way to make ‘quick money’ to address economic insecurity. Clearly, capital punishment is incommensurate with the crime.

Understanding the History and Geopolitics of the United States in the Thailand's Golden Triangle: Relations Between Drug Addiction and Trafficking on Malaysian Security

“…Di Malaysia, ancaman keselamatan dadah bukanlah suatu perkara yang baharu, bahkan senario perundangan dan politik semasa mengenai usaha dan pelbagai pandangan pakar untuk menyahjenayahkan (dikriminalisasi) atau memisahkan perlaksanaan hukuman mati terhadap penagih dadah dengan permasalahan penyeludupan dadah telah membawa Malaysia menjadi sebahagian arus perdebatan mengenai dadah sebagai ancaman keselamatan nasional (Kamarudin 2007;Lucy 2021;Zarina 2009Zarina , 2016. Ketika ini, pengambilan dan penagihan dadah masih kekal sebagai suatu kesalahan jenayah di Malaysia.…”

Framing Death Penalty Politics in Malaysia

“…The death penalty in Malaysia has been studied from various angles: the comparative law and the 'war on drugs' perspectives (Harring 1991;Leechaianan and Longmire 2013), the legal and justice approach (Dhillon, Mohammad and Miin 2012), the public perception study (Hood 2012), the 'Asian values' or cultural relativist perspective (Novak 2014), the Islamic or Shari'ah law viewpoint (Aziz 2015), miscarriage of justice due to judicial errors (Lim, Ngeow and Arivananthan 2018), universal human rights and international fair trial standards (Antolak-Saper et al 2020), the criminal justice analysis (Quraishi 2020) and the gender perspective (Harry 2021). These studies have expounded on the reasons for the Malaysian state's retentionist stand, the legitimisation of the death penalty for drug crimes (in particular) and the sociopolitical challenges faced by the abolitionists.…”