Vol. 8 No. 2 (2023): Violencias y sistemas penales en América Latina
Dossier

Women and drug trafficking in Peru: trajectories to crime between violences and resistances

Adriana Isabel Fernández Godenzi
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Bio
Valeria Lindley Llanos
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Bio
Macarena Gonzalez Espinosa
Bio
Ana Sofía Carranza Risco
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Bio

Published 2023-11-20

Keywords

  • mujeres - género - violencia - tráfico ilícito de drogas - trayectorias de vida
  • women - gender - violence - drug trafficking - life trajectories
  • mulheres - gênero - violência - tráfico ilícito de drogas - trajetórias de vida

How to Cite

Fernández Godenzi, A. I., Lindley Llanos, V. ., Gonzalez Espinosa, M. ., & Carranza Risco, A. S. . (2023). Women and drug trafficking in Peru: trajectories to crime between violences and resistances. Uruguayan Review of Anthropology and Ethnography On Line: ISSN 2393-6886, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v8i2.1893

Abstract

In Peru, more than half of the women in prison are incarcerated for a crime related to illicit drug trafficking (IDT). In this article we analyze, from a feminist approach and narrative analysis, 57 interviews with women imprisoned in the six prisons with the largest population imprisoned for IDT in Peru. The results show five trajectories towards IDT: 1) Involvement due to economic urgency, 2) Involvement due to deception, 3) Involvement because IDT is validated as work, 4) Involvement linked to their partner relationship, and 5) Involvement due to unexpected and painful events. In feminist research, trajectories allow us to narrate realities that transcend individuality, showing the impact of macro-social circumstances and structural failures in everyday lives. From the analysis, we observe that both structural violence—linked to economic precariousness and scarce development opportunities—and the construction of a traditional feminine subjectivity—expressed in “being of others” and “being for others”—place them in situations of vulnerability for their involvement in this crime, which coexists with different levels of autonomy and agency on their part.

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