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Women In China's Heroin Trade: A Niche Market Perspective

Date:
-
Location:
Niles Gallery
Speaker(s) / Presenter(s):
Sheldon Zhang, Sociology Professor, San Diego State University
 
Zhang's three-year field study encountered numerous female entrepreneurs in the heroin trade in southeast China. Many of them were found in prisons serving long sentences, while others were doing small time drug trade on the street as a means to sustaining their own addiction.
 
Drawing on data from a survey of 297 convicted female inmates and in-depth interviews with more than a dozen of active drug dealers in an urban setting, this presentation explains women’s participation in this illicit enterprise, and how gender plays a meaningful role in gaining market share and even strengthens a female dealer’s position in an illicit business that is dominated by men elsewhere in the world.