Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijlcj Vulnerabilities, victimisation, romance and indulgence: Thai women's pathways to prison in Cambodia for international cross border drug traﬃcking Samantha Jeﬀries a,* , Chontit Chuenurah b,1 a School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griﬃth Criminology Institute Griﬃth University, Mount Gravatt Campus 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt, Queensland 4122, Australia b Thailand Institute of Justice, GPF Building 15-16th Floor, Witthayu Road Lumpinee, Pathum Wan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Women Drug traﬃcking Southeast Asia Feminist pathways ABSTRACT There is an extensive body of western research exploring women's pathways to prison. These studies show that the lives of convicted women are typically characterised by extensive child- hood and/or adulthood victimisation, mental ill health, men's inﬂuence/control and economic marginalisation. Non-western feminist pathways research is nevertheless sparse as are studies on women imprisoned for drug traﬃcking. Using life history interviews with Thai foreign national women imprisoned in Cambodia for international cross-border drug traﬃcking, this paper ex- plores the circumstances and criminal justice experiences propelling them into prison. Results reveal four distinct pathways to prison: 1) the criminogenic pathway, 2) the romantic suscept- ibility pathway, 3) the domestic violence pathway, 4) the self-indulgent pathway. 1. Introduction The ‘war on drugs’ (global and domestic), ensuing prohibitionist policies and harsh punishment for drug related crime, has led to signiﬁcant growth in women's incarceration numbers across the globe (Banks, 2011; Unlu and Ekici, 2012: 298–299; Kensy et al., 2012: 3; Barnoux and Wood, 2013: 24; Fleetwood, 2014: 8). Drug traﬃcking oﬀences, for example, account for a disproportionate number of women in many prison systems (Banks, 2011; Barnoux and Wood, 2013: 24; Fleetwood, 2014: 8). Although the majority of people arrested for drug traﬃcking are men, women comprise a not insigniﬁcant minority. The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs estimates that women represent around 20% of the drug traﬃckers arrested world-wide and since the war on drugs, prison populations have evidenced a steady increase in the number of women incarcerated for this type of oﬀending (Unlu and Ekici, 2012: 298–299; Kensy, et., al., 2012: 3; Fleetwood, 2014: 8). While research on women's participation in cross-border international drug traﬃcking is sparse, being limited to only a handful of studies undertaken in Europe or the Americas, results show that women are most frequently drug couriers who carry drugs across international borders for someone else (Kensy et al., 2012: 3; Fleetwood, 2014: 7). Generally, women drug couriers are not career criminals (i.e. habitual/repeat oﬀenders), most are ﬁrst-time oﬀenders and few have established links to criminal organisations (Huling, 1995: 15; Unlu and Ekici, 2012: 299). The role of women drug couriers tends to be characterised by a lack of control. They https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2018.12.001 Received 29 June 2018; Received in revised form 6 December 2018; Accepted 21 December 2018 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: s.jeﬀries@griﬃth.edu.au (S. Jeﬀries), chontit.c@tijthailand.org (C. Chuenurah). 1 The viewpoints, ﬁndings and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reﬂect the view of the Thailand Institute of Justice. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 1756-0616/ © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Please cite this article as: Jeffries, S., International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2018.12.001