NCJ Number
187141
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 30 Issue: 4 Dated: Fall 2000 Pages: 767-788
Editor(s)
Kathy G. Padgett
Date Published
2000
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper focuses on the impact of crack addiction on poor women who were in, or became involved in, the sex trade (prostitution). Studies contend that many of these acts go beyond conventional understandings of prostitution and constitute abusive sexual encounters.
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an intensive interview study with 30 women who are heavily involved in crack use and obtain it primarily by selling or trading sex. Experiences in the effects of crack and the meanings of addiction for these women are examined. A number of issues are considered: how women became involved in drug use, in the sex trade, and in other crime; what they like and dislike about crack; their perception of male-female differences in sexual response to crack; and the violent encounters that typify daily interactions with customers and dealers. Conclusions are drawn that their addiction to crack has magnified their extreme vulnerability arising from conditions of poverty, arrest histories, loss of family, exposure to violence, and histories of sexual abuse. Yet, they also possess a repertoire of interpersonal skills and street knowledge that aid their survival in a difficult and sometimes violent social environment. The study refutes the view that cocaine makes these women “sexually immoral”, as was believed in earlier eras. The stereotype that crack using women are unfit mothers was in a sense upheld by the women themselves. Most had given up their children or had them taken away. It is argued that they were acting in the best interest of their children. Effective intervention strategies for problem cocaine use depend, in part, on motivation for change which is noticeably absent in most of this population. The participants are positively inclined toward more services and support in their immediate community. These types of broad harm reduction measures, such as housing, medical attention, and safer work conditions, might realistically focus on keeping the women alive and HIV negative rather than ending their crack addiction. References