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Women in the international cocaine trade: Gender, choice and agency in context Jennifer Fleetwood PhD, Sociology University of Edinburgh 2009 1 2 Table of Contents Index of tables ........................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 8 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction to the thesis ....................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1: DRUG TRAFFICKING, WOMEN, MYTH AND MISONCEPTION ..... 16 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 16 Context of investigation: the cocaine trade ................................................................. 16 Crime’s metaphors; imagining drug trafficking .......................................................... 17 Reagan’s war on drugs: the creation of ‘suitable enemy’ ........................................... 18 War on Drugs: women mules as subcategory ............................................................. 19 Drug trafficking as ‘enterprise crime’ ............................................................................ 22 Exclusion of women; generalising from all male samples .......................................... 23 Review of available literature: where are women in drug trafficking literature? ........ 25 The subject of this thesis: subject, scope and territory ................................................... 28 Crime in context: drug trafficking and globalisation ...................................................... 29 Chapter summary and aims of this thesis ....................................................................... 31 CHAPTER 2: WOMEN DRUG MULES: VICTIMISATION AND VOLITION ........... 33 Introduction: explaining women’s presence in the drug trade ........................................ 33 ‘Feminisation of poverty’ ............................................................................................... 33 The drug trade as ‘equal opportunities employer’ .......................................................... 39 Women in the international drug trade: emancipated women or victims of poverty? .... 43 CHAPTER 3: THEORISING WOMEN AND DRUG TRAFFICKING: BEYOND STRUCTURE AND AGENCY ............................................................................................. 45 Introduction: Beyond dualisms, the structured action approach..................................... 45 Social structure; structured action ............................................................................... 45 Gender and structured action ....................................................................................... 46 Structured action: Messerschmidt on masculinities and crime ................................... 47 Structured action: Miller’s critique of Messerschmidt on femininities and crime ...... 48 Miller’s development of structured action theory ....................................................... 50 Theorising in the global context ..................................................................................... 56 Implications for theorising structure and agency ........................................................ 57 Chapter conclusion: Theorising gender and mule-work: beyond victimisation and volition ............................................................................................................................ 59 CHAPTER 4: IMAGINING PRISON: POLITICAL FRONTIER; NARRATIVE LANDSCAPE ......................................................................................................................... 60 Introduction: contextualising the research ...................................................................... 60 The place of prisons in Ecuador in international anti-drug politics ............................ 60 The effects of exporting justice ................................................................................... 63 Prisons in Ecuador: site of globalised politics and exported justice ........................... 65 The place of prison within drug trafficking ................................................................. 65 Contextualising the research site and research subjects .............................................. 68 Prison as a narrative landscape ....................................................................................... 69 Talk and time in men’s and women’s prisons in Ecuador........................................... 70 3 Narrative landscape in the women’s prison: femininity, deviance and repair work ... 70 Landscape of discourses .............................................................................................. 72 Narrative landscape of the women’s prison: summary ............................................... 75 Narrative landscape of the men’s prison: masculinities, imprisoned traffickers ............ 76 Chapter conclusion: prisons in Ecuador ......................................................................... 79 CHAPTER 5: METHODS OF RESEARCH: ETHNOGRAPHY, STRUCTURE AND AGENCY................................................................................................................................. 80 Introduction: methods of research .................................................................................. 80 ‘Getting into trafficking’ ............................................................................................. 81 Wasn’t it dangerous? ................................................................................................... 82 How did you get drug traffickers to speak to you? ..................................................... 84 Data collection ................................................................................................................ 85 Choice of research methods ........................................................................................ 85 Fieldwork: day to day .................................................................................................. 85 Researching drug trafficking in prison: problems and possibilities ............................ 87 Power, authority and representation in the women’s prison ....................................... 89 Countering perceptions of stigma ............................................................................... 91 Collecting data about gender and structure/agency ........................................................ 93 Gendered talk: standard narratives and going ‘off-script’ ........................................... 93 Interviewing for structure/agency ............................................................................... 95 Data analysis ................................................................................................................... 95 Turning stories to evidence ......................................................................................... 96 Process of analysis ...................................................................................................... 96 Researching men .......................................................................................................... 101 Sum up data collected ................................................................................................... 102 Chapter conclusion ....................................................................................................... 103 INTRODUCTION TO FINDINGS OF RESEARCH ....................................................... 104 Defining drug traffic and traffickers ......................................................................... 104 CHAPTER 6: MAKING CONTACTS: HOW MULES GET INTO TRAFFICKING . 107 Amanda’s story ............................................................................................................. 107 Introduction: victims or volunteers? ............................................................................. 109 ‘Who you know’: personal contacts and connections to drug trafficking .................... 111 Unwilling mules ........................................................................................................... 118 Unknowing mules: ‘set ups’ ......................................................................................... 121 The business of setting up and coercing mules ........................................................