Social Relationships of Crime-Involved Women Cocaine Users

Abstract

Social relationships play a significant role in drug use and recovery, perhaps especially for women. Research on social relationships among crime-involved women drug users is reviewed, including both well established findings and more recent topics of inquiry. Several open questions about social relationships of women drug users are then examined in data from a study conducted in the Miami (Florida) metropolitan area in 1994–1996. For a study of barriers to drug treatment for crime-involved women cocaine users, over 400 women were interviewed in treatment programs and an equal number were recruited on the street. Respondents were asked about their social relationships during the last 30 days on the street in regard to both legal and illegal activities. This included crime partnerships, help obtaining cocaine, living arrangements, help with living expenses, children and help with child care, help with several ordinary problems, and pressures to enter treatment. The analysis looks at how much social support crime-involved women cocaine users have in their ordinary daily activities, who provides this support, and findings from this data set relative to open questions in the literature.