MULHERES, TRÁFICO DE DROGAS E SISTEMA PRISIONAL: REFLEXÕES À LUZ DAS CRIMINOLOGIAS CRÍTICA E FEMINISTA

Abstract

The State, through its official speeches, has vehemently defended the so-called "war on drugs" and imprisonment as its main strategy in the fight against crime. Regarding female imprisonment, one can observe the increase of 625% in the number of women prisoners in the last sixteen years. The Ministry of Justice shows that 62% of these women are responding to drug-related crimes. The scientific literature has pointed out that, in addition to the influence of partners, siblings or children, the frequent reasons for involvement in the illegal drug trade are the difficulties of supporting children and the barriers to entry into the labor market. The general objective of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of imprisoned women, the insertion and female participation in drug trafficking. For that, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten women sentenced for crimes related to drug trafficking and arrested in the city of João Pessoa. As a data analysis strategy, nine categories were created that were explored from the theoretical frameworks of Critical and Feminist Criminology. As main results, was found that the interviewees, just like the incarcerated women in Brazil are young, black and with little schooling. Their lives are marked by low incomes, low schooling and job opportunities restricted to precarious activities, as they point to the process of feminization of poverty. It was also observed that gender issues also directly cross drug trafficking, since in this activity women occupy the lowest positions. Such women are viewed as subaltern and receive unequal treatment of their peers in function of the machismo present also in these activities. It was found that the entry or non-entry of women into drug trafficking is mostly related to a male figure, and it was evident that half of those interviewed did not even act in the illegal drug trade structure. Still, it has been noticed that in the situation of imprisonment being a woman is a factor that intensifies the sentence imposed. It is concluded that the "war on drugs" can be considered a fallacy, since it does not comply with what it is formally proposed, and is therefore a pretext that offers legitimacy to the mass incarceration of women.