Book Review: Barbara Denton Dealing: Women in the Drug Economy Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2001. 214 pp. (incl. index). AUD$29.95 (pbk) ISBN 0—86840—627—9
| DOI | 10.1177/17488958020020010506 |
| Published date | 01 February 2002 |
| Author | Eileen Baldry |
| Date | 01 February 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminal Justice 2(1)
As Mike Maguire notes in his foreword, this book’s main focus is on
perpetrators of ‘criminal violence’. Unfortunately, even on this limited remit, I
was disappointed by the overall text.
Barbara Denton
Dealing: Women in the Drug Economy
Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press, 2001. 214 pp. (incl.
index). AUD$29.95 (pbk) ISBN 0–86840–627–9
• Reviewed by Eileen Baldry, University of NSW, Australia
Prue, Chris, Pam and all the other women who populate this book are
successful drug entrepreneurs in Melbourne, Australia. They are skilful, alert
managers of their businesses, employing, disciplining and looking after their
workers and customers and turning over large profits. Building networks of
suppliers, workers and buyers often drawn from family and friends and based
on a reputation for assertiveness, trustworthiness and reliability, is essential in
this business. Prison is an extension of their enterprises as, during the rare times
they are incarcerated (virtually never for serious drug dealing — they are too
smart), they carry on their drug trade in gaol and use the time to enhance their
social standing. Stints in prison provide more contacts for their networks as
well as future business partners and are viewed as part of the game. This is not
Triad or Mafia-land. These are middle range importing, wholesaling and
retailing businesses. There is an astonishing normalcy about this world as it
slips between the licit and illicit economy, ethical and corrupt practices,
individuals who are police, magistrates and prison officers as well as clients and
colleagues, supportive families and trustworthy colleagues and workers who
turn informer.
And so the lives and worlds of these women drug dealers are revealed. This
is ethnography at its best. Compellingly and well written, it challenges common
typologies of women in the drug trade. These women do not lead the exploited,
chaotic lives typically associated with women into drugs. They are women who
...
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