Female crack addicts face and suffer many more serious social consequences from this recent drug epidemic caused by crack cocaine and both social policies and treatment options have generally failed to address the needs of this group. Female crack addicts are subjected to horrid conditions and are driven into a lifestyle involving prostitution in crack houses because of their addiction and need to obtain crack. The next point is the social isolation many female addicts face due to the stereotypes and expected cultural roles placed on women. Research studies on the relationship between criminal behavior and drugs show how each affects the other and how crack use causes extensive criminal behavior. Finally, we will look at the current policies and treatments available and the lack of adequate treatment programs geared for the specific problems women face.
Interviews and case studies prove that crack cocaine degrades women tremendously. Crack seemed to hit women especially hard more women seem to be addicted. Crack quickly becomes a daily habit and an expensive one, interviews in the book noted some addicts spend up to $600 a day on crack and that any money they get they spend on crack. Binges can last for several days and physical appearance shows constant neglect, similar to heroin addicts, crack becomes their entire life they neglect food, clothes, hygiene and family. Since many female crack addicts have children, this means children or neglected and in some cases abused or exposed to the world of crack. Children are used as sources for obtaining crack and many have turned their own children on to crack or have their daughters engage in sex with male customers or associates to obtain crack.
Crack houses are similar to the opium dens, speakeasies, roadhouses, shooting galleries and get-off houses in the past, however, in these places women were not subjected to the degradation and abuse female crack addicts are subjected to in crack houses today. A crack house can be a place to use drugs, sell or both, or a place to manufacture and package crack. These places can be houses, apartments, abandoned buildings, basements and even automobiles. Many are heavily secured with equipment and people to prevent police raids and in some, exchanges between crack and money are made through slots and holes. Some crack houses are called resort areas and are mainly used by crack addicts. There is an area for cooking crack, using crack and one for sexual activity, these crack houses are run by owners (usually men) to support their own crack habit and are usually filthy and crowded. Personal residences are where most crack addicts gather to smoke crack, and like resort areas, is used only to smoke crack.
The payment method is either with crack or providing sexual services for crack. In these crack houses, the exchange of sex for drugs is a central activity, is seen as a form of prostitution and involves the same risk involved in regular street prostitution, like physical violence, abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and arrest. For many female crack addicts, trading sex for crack in crack houses becomes the only means of survival in a highly dangerous environment. The connection between addiction and prostitution is extremely high, drug abuse can lead to prostitution and prostitution to drug abuse. Many female addicts drift in and out of both street and crack house prostitution. The women involved in these crack houses are often abused, mistreated, and treated like sex slaves by customers. However, the women tolerate this abuse in exchange for a place to live, free crack and perhaps food. Female crack addicts use crack many times in one day and in order to pay for their expensive habit are driven into a certain lifestyle involving detrimental and numerous sexual experiences.
Most, if not all, female crack addicts resort to either street prostitution or crack house prostitution where they live in crack houses and exchange sex for drugs. Both activities open these women up to being victimized and those working in crack houses and exchanging sex for drugs are treated worse than those on the streets, they are subjected to frequent beatings, abuse, rape and have very little control over their bodies or the ability to negotiate how much of a drug and what type of sexual activity or how long the activity will last. Due to the constant need for crack and a place to stay these women have no choice but to engage in high frequency sex with numerous unknown partners, in public and private places within the house, and in all types of sexual activities if they are to get crack.
The more one uses crack, the greater the dependency and the further away they are from conventional norms they begin engaging in uncharacteristic behavior, including demeaning sex. There are prostitutes that use crack and female crack addicts who exchange sex for crack. “Regular” prostitutes look down on female crack users who prostitute and allow themselves to be humiliated in crack houses. Prostitution has long been the easiest, most reliable and best income for women, especially those on drugs, it is the most easy and perhaps predictable way to obtain fast money to maintain a drug habit. Users typically smoke crack for as long as they have crack or have the means to obtain it. Due to the rates of divorce, separation, lack of support, and children to take care of many female crack addicts eventually turn to prostitution to pay for their drug habit and living expenses. However, by doing this prostitution and crack house sex gives women a lower than low status in society, not only by conventional society but by males involved in the drug and street life.
Street prostitutes seem to have some control over the bargaining, prices, and activities, whereas the crack house prostitute seemingly has no control over anything. They cannot bargain or negotiate deals, prices, or what type of sex is involved and if they tried it could result in serious physical harm, not only from customers but also from the crack house owners. There are many similarities between both street prostitution and female crack addicts who prostitute. The differences are based on settings, solicitation, negotiation and payment. Crack house prostitutes are limited to specific freak rooms and sexual activity can be in public or private view. Solicitation is done only when the female addict in the crack house is in need of crack and it is usually conducted informally.
The negotiation that goes on is expected. There is usually no bargaining on prices drugs or sex, and as a result the women are not able to reject any offer. Because of the basic rules of sex for crack there is little negotiating, if she uses the drugs in the crack house she has automatically agreed to have sex with any person that visits the house. Unlike street prostitution, the payment, usually crack, occurs before, during and after the sexual service and the cost is usually much lower than what can be obtained on the street. Street prostitutes are more likely and successful at times to cheat customers out of money or steal money from them, yet, a crack house prostitute has no opportunity to do this and if she tried, is more likely to suffer severe consequences in the form of beatings and other physical abuse. However, since the exchange of sex for drugs is so popular in crack houses many owners will protect the women this is one reason why female addicts choose crack houses instead of street prostitution.
Today, many prostitutes don’t have pimps and even frown on the prospect of giving money to someone else. However, crack house prostitutes give a percentage of their profits or drugs to the house owner and street prostitutes that use crack houses for sexual purposes only and exchange money for sex are usually required to give the house owner a portion of their earnings. Crack does not have a physiological limit on the maximum daily dosage intake. Heroin addicts typically need a few doses a day because of the longer effects of the high and alcoholics can only consume so much before getting sick or passing out crack users use until the supply is gone. The short duration of the high causes the user to seek the drug many times a day and female addicts who are driven by their addiction spend days in crack houses, using drugs and exchange sex for drugs.
Female addicts’ lives are chaotic and everything revolves and centers around seeking and smoking crack, even though some try to take care of responsibilities, like their children, they become secondary to crack. The majority of women in the studies exchanged sex for crack not for the sake of sensual pleasures but as the only way for them to obtain crack, so another concern is the likelihood of AIDS and HIV among these women. Even though most of the drug use related to the disease is with intravenous drug use, the amount of sexual activities with numerous drug addicts puts these women at a greater risk for getting the disease. There are few differences between suburban women with drinking problems and female crack addicts in the inner city both have similar motives for taking drugs. The only difference is that crack addicts have more severe problems and a lower social status. Women suffer psychological, social and cultural stigmatization when they use and especially become addicted to drugs. In past years, women addicts took drugs, including alcohol in secrecy to avoid detection.
Crack use by women violates stereotypical roles of behavior expectations and usually results in social isolation and a feeling of shame toward their drug use that keeps them using drugs. Drug use is more acceptable for males; risk-taking, deviant and aggressive behavior is more common and related to males not females. Gender role expectations are not just expected by society but the individual accepts these expectations as well, which can cause internal conflict. Deviant behavior is more deviant in females than in males and dealt with more harshly so the deeper the drug involvement the more likely the stigma will be permanent and the more one uses crack the further isolated they are from society. Rates of divorce and separation for women on drugs are higher than that for males and if they are still married their spouses tend to be dependent on drugs as well.
Many female addicts are faced with having their children taken away from them, and as proven by the many case studies done. Most female crack addicts cannot take care of themselves let alone their children. Their lifestyle can definitely be harmful to their children many have neglected and caused their own children to become addicted to crack and involved in the same crack life they are/were involved in. Drug abuse by women tends to cause more problems for the family than male addicts it can destroy the whole family and children seem to be more negatively affected. Studies have shown that it can produce a trend of drug abuse from generation-to-generation. The support from friends and families also tends to be less for females than for males, a study of 100 crack users in treatment found that 50% more women than men reported no one would provide support.
Female drug users tend to come from families with severe problems like violence, abuse, drug abuse and mental illness and women tend to get started using drugs by being introduced to it by boyfriends or husbands. Women tend to use drugs for self-medication purposes, a way of coping with situational factors in their past and present lives. Pregnancy and childbirth complications arise because of drug use for women and children born to female addicts, known as crack babies, have many more emotional, physical and psychological problems. One of the reasons crack may be so addictive is that it makes the person escape from their reality and since most female users live in the inner city the issues of unemployment, welfare, violence, taking care of children by themselves, and even depression is so overwhelming that for users crack takes them away from all concerns and failures. They are able to focus and be successful at obtaining crack and the high is seen as the only thing they can achieve.
According to studies, by the time a women is using crack, she is likely to have used other drugs and been involved in other criminal behavior before her crack addiction. Studies show that increased drug use could affect criminal behavior by making risky behavior psychologically easier. The fact that the use of crack causes compulsive use would eventually cause the women to engage in even more risky behavior. Increases in drug use have a negative social and psychological affect on individuals and will further their dedication to a street addicted lifestyle. The more involved one is in drugs and crime the greater participation in the drug subculture. Because crime is seen as a way of obtaining drugs the idea of convergence, which means street addicts and career criminals are the same people, is apparent by the increasing numbers of people arrested who test positive for drugs.
Crack and crime is closely related due to the fact that users have to engage in criminal behavior to sustain their crack habit. Crack causes erratic behavior; the short-lived euphoria causes addicts to engage continuously in criminal behavior. The case studies show that users are unable to maintain steady employment and lack an education; over half had not graduated nor held a legitimate job. The most common crimes committed were drug sales – most of the females that sold crack received crack as payment for drug sales or sex for crack. Other crimes committed are property theft, larceny, and overwhelmingly prostitution. Prostitution provides a more consistent and higher income. Also, female crack users are not likely to be arrested for criminal activity only for possession. Studies show a clear relationship between criminal involvement and crack use it also mentioned that female adolescent users that became involved in crime the earliest started as street level drug dealers.
A vicious downward cycle exists; drug dealing leads to an increase in more significant criminal activity, which leads to more crack use, which leads to more drug dealing. As shown, higher involvement in crack leads to a higher involvement in criminal behavior and long-term involvement in crime. Women are likely to enter a program designed by men and for men. The type of therapy is designed for men, women need a broader range of treatment, including childcare issues, medical, psychological, and support. Women are more likely to seek treatment because of social pressures, pregnancy and childcare issues but even though they may seek medical and counseling treatment those living in poverty areas often don’t know where to turn to get help. There are many barriers to treatment; scarce programs, lack of finances, child related issues, lack of women oriented services and appropriate referral networks, low self-esteem, sexism in treatment programs, lack of attention to specific needs of women, lack of job opportunities, assertiveness, unresolved psychiatric, and other emotional and psychological disorders.
Another issue is that of pregnant crack addicts and whether they should be treated as a public health problem or a criminal justice issue. Prosecutors believe the threat of criminal charges can deter women from using drugs, however, it can also deter them from receiving treatment because of the threat of charges and losing their children. Treatment interventions should be focused on getting women out of the crack houses, followed by long term residential treatment, AIDS education, and teaching them how to be empowered, assertive, sexually responsible, and increase self-esteem. Focusing on a demand reduction policy in response to social and psychological problems is more effective than supply reduction and instead of rehabilitation, which is a return to the previous life, the goal should be on habilitation, which focuses on building a positive self-image and socializing the women into a more productive and responsible life than what she had previously.
Another aspect is the exchange of sex for drugs in crack houses and the idea of hypersexuality. Media accounts that mention crack as the ultimate turn-on or some sort of hypersexuality myth due to the high frequency of sex that takes place in crack houses are misleading and uninformed. Even though the pharmacological effect of cocaine that releases inhibitions on behavior can cause an increase in sexual behavior this is not the main reason female crack addicts engage in sordid sexual behaviors. Not to mention, once one becomes addicted to crack cocaine, their sexual desire diminishes greatly.
The main reason female crack addicts engage in high frequency sex with numerous unknown partners without any concern for modesty, morality diseases, or self-respect is due to the need to pay for their drug habit. Compulsive use and the high cost of their habit causes a willingness to obtain the drug through any means; consequently the female psychologically tolerates humiliating sex for crack exchanges in crack houses as an economic necessity.
It is obvious that the need to supply their crack habit will cause them to engage in any behavior. If they are willing to abandon, and in some cases, sell their own children it should be obvious that they are willing to engage in harmful and risky behavior.
The evidence really proves how demeaning and harmful crack addiction is, especially when research proves the reality that goes on in crack houses. The neglect and abandonment of children, crack addict babies, and pregnant users is of real concern and extremely important and should have been examined more thoroughly, but it was mentioned as if it was of secondary importance. Also, based on the title of the book there should have been more focus on the personal lives of crack addicts, aside from the sexual activities.
