Sexed Work

This is the first detailed account of the economic lives of women drug users. It is located at the boundaries of three disciplines - criminology anthropology and sociology - and based on three years of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in New York City. Set in a neighbourhood plagued by drug use and AIDs the book reveals the economic lives of a group of women whose options have been severely circumscribed not only by drug use but also by poverty racism violence and enduring marginality. It is a fascinating account with Maher drawing extensively on the women''s own words describing how structures and relations of gender race and class are articulated by divisions of labour in the street-level drug economy. The book challenges the impoverished set of characterizations which dominate the literature critiquing both feminist and non-feminist representations that view women lawbreakers as driven by forces beyond their control. It graphically illustrates the role of the drug economy as a site of cultural reproduction by drawing attention to the specific practices by which gender and race dimensions of inequality are constituted and contested in street-level drug markets. This is a rich nuanced and theoretically sophisticated study of `crime as work'' which will be compelling reading for all those interested in the ways in which women deal with the intersection of gender race and work.