Analysing women’s presence in the illicit drugs market: Conducting a systematic review of the literature

This presentation outlines preliminary findings from my follow-up to the metasynthesis of the literature on women’s activities in the illicit drugs market carried out by Maher and Hudson in 2007. In recent years, works on women’s activities in the illicit drugs market topic have proliferated, but we lack a comprehensive overview of the progresses made in this field, as well as possible persistent knowledge gaps. This presentation will provide such a preliminary overview by departing from Maher’s and Hudson’s (2007) methodology, which will facilitate then-and-now comparisons of the state of the art.

My preliminary findings indicate women’s supposed marginality in the illicit drugs market remains a crucial theme in this field: most studies tend to highlight women’s victimisation at the hands of drug-involved men and the entrenched sexism of the criminal “underworld”. However, there is a growing body of literature, particularly located in the sub-field of narrative criminology, that seeks to redress this imbalance by showing women as important actors in the illicit drugs market, whilst still recognising their structural vulnerability in the illicit drugs market.

I will argue that research on women’s involvement with drugs has become slightly more nuanced since Maher’s and Hudson’s metasynthesis, but more work needs to be done in this sense. I conclude my presentation by outlining some future avenues of investigation for this field that appear particularly fruitful.