University Park, Pa. -- Federal welfare-to-work programs need to provide an array of support services to women crack cocaine addicts in troubled neighborhoods if these women are expected to succeed, says a Penn State researcher.
"These people face psychological dysfunction stemming from physical and emotional abuse," says Dr. Eric D. Cohen, associate professor of sociology at Penn State's Fayette Campus in southwestern Pennsylvania. "Having no other source of income, nearly three-fourths of them engage in prostitution to support a crack cocaine habit. This places them at the economic and social margins of society.
"Because of the damaged clinical condition of these women and the persistent poverty which defines their lives, any serious policy intervention has to offer an extensive, long-term list of substance abuse services, along with tangible support for low-income women with few job prospects and little hope for the future," Cohen adds.
Cohen conducted a survey of 110 women admitted to an intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program in Philadelphia. Most of the program's clients were low-income African-American women. He published his results in the article, "An Exploratory Attempt to Distinguish Subgrounds Among Crack-Abusing African-American Women," in a recent issue of the Journal Of Addictive Diseases.
"At the national level, programs to help Black women addicted to crack cocaine could include provision of safe and stable housing in neighborhoods where drug abuse does not proliferate, adequate child care and training and education that would lead to gainful employment at a livable wage," he notes.
These initiatives would have to be combined with assertiveness training, women empowerment workshops for negotiating with men and a system of mentoring and peer support.
Government policy must also place a high priority on reducing or eliminating crack abuse as well as the high-risk sexual behaviors, especially prostitution, associated with obtaining the drug. Federal welfare-to-work programs, if instituted in neighborhoods where drug use and trafficking are an integral part of the culture, will be able to accomplish little, according to Cohen.
"Crack dealing and crack houses have become the paramount industry in many urban ghetto areas across the country," Cohen says. "Some attempt at moving crack-addicted women to environments where drug cultures do not predominate would be an essential component of any long-term policy initiative."
Seventy-two percent of these women engaged in prostitution to support a crack cocaine habit. In most cases, they had no other source of income, he notes.
"Besides being economically and socially marginalized, most seem to have been psychologically dysfunctional, which predisposed them, for instance, toward high HIV-risk behaviors such as not using condoms in their multiple sex-for-drugs transactions with men," says Cohen.
"Compared to inner city Black women, White women, even among the less privileged, have much lower rates of reported crack abuse," he says. "Social geography places poor Black women in greater physical and cultural proximity to crack than most White women, poor or not poor." Cohen's study was funded in part by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research.
EDITORS: Dr. Cohen is at (724) 430-4273 or at edc1@psu.edu by email.
Journal
Journal of Addictive Diseases