Experience of Interactions with Law Enforcement Officers: Meanings and Influences for Women in Drug Addiction Recovery

Background and Purpose: A high proportion of women struggling with drug addiction are involved in the legal system. Police arrests, incarceration, probation, and parole can be an ordinary part of their life. The punitive nature and hierarchy of the system create an unfavorable social environment for women’s drug addiction recovery. From a therapeutic jurisprudence perspective, the experience can influence their mental health positively or negatively. Particularly, interactions with law enforcement officers (LE), including police officers, correction officers, and other professionals in the legal system, can affect how the women perceive themselves and their drug addiction recovery. However, knowledge about women’s experience with LEs mainly comes from evaluation studies on programs for women involved in the legal system (e.g., inmate substance abuse treatment programs). Little is known about women’s overall experience of interactions with LEs. The study aimed to explore what the experience is like and its influence on women’s drug addiction recovery and mental health.

Methods: A phenomenological study was carried out to explore the experiences, including the context, process, meaning to the participants, and influences. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit twenty-two (22) women who 1) aged 18 or older; 2) had been incarcerated for any conviction that included drug offenses; and 3) had a drug addiction before incarceration. In-depth, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the women participants to understand their experiences in the legal system. All interviews lasted between one and two hours and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Each participant received a 50 dollars gift card as compensation for their time. A thematic coding approach was used to identify the main themes of the women’s experiences of interactions with LEs.

Findings: The women often felt they were not treated as “human” and expected more respect from LEs. They described gender- and race-based bias from LEs that affected their experience in the legal system. Because of the power imbalance, they could be taken advantage of by the LEs, obeying the LEs requests in exchange for free time, food, or better treatment. Interactions with LEs overall formed the women’s understanding of their drug addiction and reinforced the negative image of their identity as a woman who used drugs in the legal system. The experiences had prolonged psychological consequences for these women. Feelings of unfairness, anger, frustration, and emotional distress were common after interacting with LEs.

Conclusions and Implications: The study reveals the emotional toll of interacting with LEs for women with drug addiction, suggesting the need for an in-depth inspection of women’s experience in the legal system. Practitioners working with women with a drug addiction should be mindful of the potential risk from their involvement in the legal system. More efforts are needed to promote protective resources for this population when they are involved in the legal system.