Engagement in property crime by drug users is often regarded as driven by the need to support a habit and/or as merely an aside to involvement in the drug “industry.” This paper examines a group of successful women drug dealers in Melbourne—most of whom are also illicit drug users—and maps their involvement in property crime. It concludes that property offenses are tightly integrated with the women's drug businesses. Success in property offending is a characteristic of successful drug dealers, and stolen property and money plays a key part in the trade—providing a lucrative source of income, gifts, payments, and rewards. Property crime provides excitement and other, valued, intangible satisfactions, including status and self-esteem.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AkerstromM.1985Crooks and squares. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
2.
AnglinM.HserY.1987Addicted women and crime. Criminology, 25, 359–397.
3.
BiernackiP.1979Junkie work, “hustles,” and social status among heroin addicts. Journal of Drug Issues, 9, 535–549.
4.
CovingtonJ.1985Gender differences in criminality among heroin users. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquents, 22, 329–354.
5.
CulliverC.1993Women and crime: An overview. In CulliverC, (Ed.) Female criminality: The state of the art. New York: Garland Publishing.
6.
D'ArcyM.1995Women in prison: Women's explanations of offending behaviour and implication for policy. Unpublished Masters Thesis, School of Law and Legal Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
7.
DentonB.1994Prison, drugs and women: Voices from below (National Drug Strategy, Research Report Series, Report No. 5). Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services.
8.
DentonB.O'MalleyP.1999Gender, trust, and business. Women drug dealers in the illicit economy. British Journal of Criminology, 39, 513–530.
9.
DentonB.2001Dealing: Women in the Drug Economy. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
10.
ElliotD.HuizingaD.MenardS.1989Multiple problem youth: Delinquency, substance use, and mental health problems. New York: Springer-Verlag.
11.
FaganJ.1994Woman and drugs revisited: Female participation in the cocaine economy. Journal of Drug Issues, 24, 179–225.
12.
FaganJ.1995Women's careers in drug use and drug selling. Current perspectives on aging and the life cycle, 4, 155–190.
13.
FaupelC.1991Shooting dope: Career patterns of hard-core heroin users. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
14.
Fitzroy Legal Service1988Women and imprisonment in Victoria. Submission to the Social Development Committee into Community Violence, Fitzroy Legal Service, Melbourne.
15.
HserY.AnglinM.McGlothlinW.1987Sex differences in addict careers: Initiation of use, American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 13, 33–57.
16.
HuntD.1990Drugs and consensual crimes: Drug dealing and prostitution. In TonryM.WilsonJ. (Eds.), Drugs and crime. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
InciardiJ.PottiegerA.FaupelC.1982Black women, heroin and crime: Some empirical notes, Journal of Drug Issues, 12, 241–251.
18.
JohnsonB.GoldsteinP.PrebleE.SchmeidlerJ.LiptonD.SpuntB.MillerT.1985Taking care of business: The economics of crime by heroin abusers, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
19.
KatzJ.1988Seductions of crime, Aldine, Chicago.
20.
LeonardM.1994Informal economic activity in Belfast, London: Athenaeum Press.
21.
MillerE.1994Assessing the risk of inattention to class, race, ethnicity and gender: Comment on Lyng. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 1530–45.
22.
NurcoD.ShafterJ.BallJ.KinlockT.1984Trends in the commission of crime among narcotic addicts over successive periods of addiction and nonaddiction. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 10, 481–489.
23.
PettiwayL.1987Participation in Crime Partnerships by Female Drug Users, Criminology, 25: 741–766.
24.
PrebleE.CaseyJ.1969Taking care of business: The heroin user's life on the street. International Journal of the Addictions, 4, 1–24.
25.
SargentM.1992Women, drugs and policy in Sydney, London and Amsterdam, Dartmouth: Ashgate Publishing Company.
26.
SteffensmeierD.1983Organization properties and sex-segregation in the underworld: Building a sociological theory of sex differences in crime, Social Forces, 61, 1010–1032.
