Var är kvinnorna? En innehållsanalytisk och diskursiv studie om kvinnors roller och positioner i organiserad brottslighet inom Sverige

Sammanfattning: Organized crime is generally associated with men. Women in organized crime have long lived under the radar, and it is only in recent years that their participation has begun to be noticed. The aim of this qualitative study (based on feminist IR theory) is to provide understanding on how women in Sweden are involved in organized crime, what roles they play, and how they are discursively represented. Based on semi-structured interviews with female defectors, SIG coordinators and one investigator, as well as court sentences, I employ a qualitative content analytical and discourse analysis building on Bacchi’s analytical framework, What's the problem represented to be? (WPR). The findings show that women hold a variety of practical and moral roles. Nevertheless, women in organized crime are represented by the Swedish government agencies as a side effect of a male security problem, as they are considered to be exploited in criminal networks. The study also demonstrates that there are gendered silences in society that largely marginalize women's experiences of organized crime as women are assigned empty and static subject positions that do not fully reflect their different roles and experiences. By discursively reinforcing gender stereotypes of women, the subject positions available to women contribute to limiting their agency. Keywords: Women, organized crime, feminist IR theory, criminal roles, WPR, content analysis.