Identities, Boundaries, and Accounts of Women Methamphetamine Users

Abstract

Drug users often define themselves as functional users and depict others as dysfunctional (i.e. junkies). Previous research on the social identities of drug users has focused on the symbolic boundaries they create to distance themselves from stigmatized others. Investigators have yet to focus on how users account for their own boundary violations. Here, we examine the narratives of 30 former women methamphetamine (meth) users to determine how they make distinctions between functional and dysfunctional meth users (i.e. “meth heads”). The distinctions they make are based on users’ abilities to maintain control of their lives and to hide their use from outsiders. Those who saw themselves as functional but who engaged in behaviors inconsistent with this image accounted for these behaviors to maintain desired identities. We show the complexity of drug users’ identities and illustrate how anti-drug campaigns that provide grotesque caricatures of drug users may prolong drug using careers.

Keywords:

• social identity
• qualitative methods
• neutralizations
• methamphetamine

Notes

¹ We actively recruited African-American women to gain their perspective, which accounts for the relatively high proportion of them in the sample (see Kerley, Leban, Copes, Taylor, & Agnone, 2014).

² We refer to these types of users as “meth heads” throughout the paper because it was the most commonly used term among the interviewees.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heith Copes

Heith Copes is an associate professor in the Department of Justice Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He earned his PhD in sociology from The University of Tennessee. His primary interests lie in understanding the decision-making process and identity construction of offenders. He is the author of the monograph, Identity Thieves: Motives and Methods (2012, Northeastern University Press). He has published over 50 articles and chapters on deviance and crime.

Lindsay Leban

Lindsay Leban is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2012, she was selected for a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at UAB. She is the 2013 Outstanding Undergraduate Student for the Southern Criminal Justice Association.

Kent R. Kerley

Kent R. Kerley is an associate professor in the Department of Justice Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He earned his PhD in sociology from The University of Tennessee. His primary research interests include corrections and religiosity. He is the author of the monograph, Religious Faith in Correctional Contexts (2014, First Forum Press/Lynne Rienner Publishers). His research has also appeared in top journals such as Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Justice Quarterly, Social Forces, and Social Problems. He has received funding for his research from the National Science Foundation and the Religious Research Association.

Jessica R. Deitzer

Jessica R. Deitzer is a graduate student in the Department of Justice Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Penn State University. In 2012, she was selected for a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at UAB.