Gender-related vulnerabilities and agencies in drug use and drug sale. An analysis of the relationship between the police and socially included women who use and sell drugs in Bordeaux

The delinquent careers of women in use and sale of drugs have been less analyzed than those of men in France. Gender has been little questioned by research on social supply, even though those arrested by the police for a drug-related reason are mainly young, precarious and racialized men and drug use is becoming more feminized. This article analyzes the trajectories of socially included women into social supply by focusing on their vulnerabilities and agencies, both in their relations with the police and with men who use and sell drugs, in Bordeaux. The results presented are based on 27 interviews with women who use and sell drugs, 12 interviews with men who use and sell drugs, and 11 interviews with police officers and a magistrate. In the studied environment of drug sale and drug use, women are discredited, considered unfit for violence and sexualized, frequently victims of attempted fraud and violence. They can, however, withdraw agency from this gendered stigma, by taking advantage of stereotypes of gentleness and reliability linked to a form of benevolent sexism to build up a clientele, or by mobilizing their sexualization to obtain free or cheaper products. Their discretion with the police is also a central resource. Police officers, driven by a managerial imperative of efficiency, essentially arrest young racialized men. Women are less suspected, but also less controllable due to the small number of women in the police. Women who use and sell drugs are aware of the criteria that guide police profiling, and they mobilize them to reduce the risks of repression, in particular by mobilizing gender performances. Gender thus acts as a selection matrix in the formal sanction of deviant behavior.