TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Meth cooking as a job: identity and dirty work JO - Justice quarterly A1 - Erickson, Jacob H. A1 - Hochstetler, Andy A1 - Copes, Heith SP - 849 EP - 869 VL - 38 IS - 5 N2 - People who engage in dirty work manage the stigma of their jobs by employing various narrative techniques that allow them to diminish the work's negative attributes. Doing so enables them to maintain a positive sense of self and to explain continuation in the work. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 33 participants, we examine how people who cook shake methamphetamine make sense of their behavior as an occupation in order to distance themselves from the stigma of meth use and manufacturing. We find they emphasized the rewards of cooking in the context of the hedonistic lifestyle they desired. They enjoyed a perceived status increase, a sense of belonging, and developed pride and satisfaction in cooking. We propose that methamphetamine users' marginalization coupled with experiences cooking combine to create a draw to continued production of methamphetamine fostered by positive elements of an occupational identity that lingers despite great cost.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0741-8825 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2019.1675746 ID - ref1 ER -