Effective interventions for drug using women offenders: A narrative literature review

Abstract

A detailed understanding of the effectiveness of interventions designed to meet drug using women offenders' (DUWOs) complex needs is essential to maximise success. This article reports on a narrative literature review of evaluations of interventions designed to assist DUWOs in their recovery from drug use and in their desistance from offending. It aims to identify gaps in that research and point to possible directions for future studies. It shows that successful interventions are likely to be intensive, of significant duration, multi-dimensional and inter-disciplinary. Evaluations must similarly be designed to take into account all individual and structural factors. Qualitative longitudinal research which incorporates DUWOs' opinions on their needs might best inform the development of interventions tailored to meeting those needs. Evaluation design should acknowledge the importance of progress as well as outcomes and be designed to follow DUWOs through their whole sentence rather than focusing on a single intervention/point in time without the context of what came before and what might or should happen in the future.

Dimensions of Crime Involving Women in Drug Trafficking - Literature Review From Dependent Behavior to Relapse

“…The same aspects were discovered in studies conducted by Dotherte, Jacinto, Sales, & Murphy (2009) on a sample of 80 drug dealers in California, but also by Ludwick, Murphy and Sales (2015) on a sample of 160 drug dealers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Grace (2017) concludes that in the UK, another factor involved in drug trafficking is drug use itself. Women use drugs not only for pleasure, but also to cope with difficult life circumstances, such as domestic abuse, and addictive behaviour thus becoming a compensatory measure in the absence of effective coping strategies.…”

Producing gender-blind drug knowledge and representations in prison spaces

“…For example, whether women's prisons needed to or indeed had already implemented any treatment strategies tailored to NPS users. There is substantial evidence that tailored drug treatment for women in prison can be very effective, and this is especially important as women consistently report high levels of substance dependence in these contexts (Simpson and McNulty, 2008;Grace, 2017). Therefore, any prison strategies in response to NPS would need to be informed by women's drug practices.…”

“…There is now a considerable amount of research highlighting the ways framing in policies contributes to this underrepresentation (Moore et al, 2015;Wincup, 2016Wincup, , 2019Thomas and Bull, 2018;Brown and Wincup, 2020). Furthermore, women in the criminal justice system occupy a minority status and thus drug interventions have often not considered the specific treatment needs of incarcerated women sufficiently (Fazel et al, 2006;Corston, 2007;Simpson and McNulty, 2008;Fazel, Yoon and Hayes, 2017;Grace, 2017;Ministry of Justice, 2018). Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) is an independent but government affiliated policy institution.…”

Women as vulnerable subjects: A gendered reading of the English and Irish drug strategies

“…There are other points in the strategy at which women's vulnerability may have been noted. Whilst women make up a small proportion of two of the other vulnerable groups (offenders and veterans) and their distinct experiences have been noted (Grace, 2017;Jones and Hanley, 2017). This is particularly surprising in relation to women who appear before the criminal courts as the lens of vulnerability was used by Baroness Corston (2007) to argue for a woman-centred approach to criminal justice.…”