A register-based investigation of women’s involvement in serious drug crimes throughout the life-course, their pathways in and out of serious drug crime, and the link between these women’s general life-course and their criminal activities.

Aims

The aim of the project is to generate knowledge about criminal careers among women engaged in serious drug crimes in Denmark, and to explore how these careers intersect with the women’s general life-course. To generate such knowledge, the project investigates the characteristics of women engaged in serious drug crimes, when and how frequently these women commit crimes, whether these women are involved in other types of crimes, the relationship between (changes in) the women’s general life-course and their criminal engagement, and whether any differences exist between women and men engaged in serious drug crime. By addressing questions such as these, the project aims to provide insights that can inform preventive measures and policies related to drug crimes.

Background

In recent years, Europol, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), and Danish news accounts have provided evidence that European drug trafficking routes are diversifying, resulting in a considerable amount of cocaine now finding its way into Europe through Danish harbors. Concurrently, accounts from Danish criminal justice agencies have provided evidence of women being involved with smuggling or selling large quantities of drugs in Denmark. Despite these causes for concern, internationally, the vast majority of research on female involvement in drug crime can be characterized as small-sample qualitative studies of lower-level street selling in inner-city drug markets in North America. The aim of this project is thus to expand current knowledge by both utilizing a large national sample and by focusing on upper-level drug crime committed in a European country.

The study

The project utilizes longitudinal register data encompassing all women charged with distributing, importing, exporting, cultivating, and/or manufacturing illicit drugs in Denmark between 2000 and 2020. Additionally, the study incorporates data from a control group and from men charged with serious drug crime in Denmark within the same period. Together, these data include information about the study populations’ work history, psychiatric background, treatment history, marital status, parental marital history, socio-economic attributes and parental criminal involvement.

The project will be carried out between February 2024 and January 2027.

Funding

The project is funded by the BSS Graduate School, Aarhus University, and Ulla V. Bondeson’s Foundation.