Women Who Abuse Substances and How They Perceive Their Interactions with the Police

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to better understand how women who abuse substances perceive their interactions with police officers. Little is known about this topic and how these views affect the women themselves. This qualitative study, which collected data from twenty-five women in five focus groups, attempts to fill this gap. In these groups, women talked about their personal contacts with law enforcement, how they were potentially problematic, and how they believed these interactions could be improved. Suggestions for how practitioners and policy makers can address and potentially improve women’s view of law enforcement are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• substance abuse
• trauma
• police

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Alabama Reserach Grants Committee.