For an undergraduate ethnography class, author Alice Goffman chose to work in a campus cafeteria where she met Miss Deena, a 30 year employee who supervised it. Goffman quit her job once the class concluded, but she remained in touch with Miss Deena and even offered to tutor her grandchildren Ray and Aisha who were high school students. She began to tutor them two or three nights per week in Miss Deena's home, which afforded her a close personal relationship with the teenagers and over the ensuing months their family members. Goffman furthered her relationship with these family members from tutor to neighbor and friend by moving into the neighborhood of Aisha's mother. Goffman eventually met Aisha's cousin Ronny, a 14-year-old freshly released from a juvenile detention facility, who lived about 15 blocks away on 6th Street. Ronny played matchmaker and set up a date between Goffman and Mike who grew up on 6th Street next door to Ronny's grandmother. Goffman primarily agreed to go on the date to pacify the concerns of Aisha's family as to her motivation for spending so much time with the adolescent, but Mike continued to remain in contact with her afterward even though there was no romantic link. Goffman soon began visiting Mike and his circle of friends on 6th Street, and in March 2003 Mike agreed to Goffman's request of allowing her to use his life as the subject of her undergraduate thesis due the next year. Eventually, she spent 8 years on 6th Street living and socializing with young urban black males who are the subjects of this fascinating book.
In an Introduction that references Sociologists David Garland, Loic Waquant, and legal scholar Michelle Alexander, Goffman links the rise of mass imprisonment to life on 6th Street with special emphasis on the distinction between “clean and dirty” people. The difference pertains to the risk of arrest, and those who assist or remain with “dirty” people such as grandmothers, mothers, and girlfriends who are called “riders.” The first opening chapters revolve around people considered “dirty” as they consistently face arrest for various reasons. Chapter One introduces the young men she observed—Chuck, Tim, Mike, Reggie, Anthony, Ronny, and Alex who are all African American living at or below the poverty level. Goffman informs readers about the scope of this problem—living on the run—by reporting on a household survey she conducted of the 6th Street neighborhood. Of the 308 men between 18 and 30 years old she interviewed, 144 had a warrant issued for their arrest due to delinquencies with court fines and fees or missed court dates. The City of Philadelphia had roughly 80,000 open warrants in the winter of 2010 with a small percent due to new criminal activity (called body warrants) and the vast majority due to missing court, unpaid court fees, or technical violations of probation or parole (called bench warrants). Warrants alter the lives of these young men in ways described throughout the book.
The physical “art” of running from the police is covered in Chapter Two. Goffman describes how males pass this down to their younger siblings and mates so they can develop an almost instinctual awareness of the police presence as well as learn how to navigate the alleyways and identify places and residents who will hide them for a short period. For the young men with warrants, the police became a large obstacle to avoid as their net of entrapment extends to public hospitals, workplaces, public places, daily routines, and neighborhood spots. From 2002 to 2010, Goffman witnessed 71 times that a woman discovered her partner or family member was wanted by the police. Fifty eight of these women decided to shield or protect the person from the police. The third chapter explores what happens when the police try to locate a wanted man. The police use various threat tactics to force females to reveal the wanted man's location. The threats pertain to arrest, eviction, revoking child custody as well as presenting disparaging evidence such as having another girlfriend and other moral appeals. While police, courts, and incarceration pose serious threats to the lives of her subjects, Goffman discovered these legal troubles can be turned into personal resources. Chapter Four shows how jails can be safe havens, bail offices are used as personal banks, being wanted provides excuses for personal failures, and threats of prison worked as a tool for social control. As courtrooms and law related meetings like probation visits become the center of their lives, young males develop their social lives around it. Mothers assume a special role as they tend to serve as organizers for their sons troubles. For example, they organize visits to the jails, collect bail money, and solicit reference letters for trial. Knowing someone who is wanted provides opportunities for extra income to family members and friends. Chapter Six discusses how wanted men paid money to their younger cousins to pretend to be them when their probation officers made their nightly call. In addition, commodities such as “clean” urine, prepaid cell phones, or various services legally compromised people would need were sold by family and friends to wanted men. The vast majority of residents of 6th Street were law abiding people which Goffman focused on in Chapter Seven. She introduced groups of people who created clean lives through legitimate jobs with social lives centered on indoor activities like playing video games or older family members who created a safe haven within the homes of wanted people.
Goffman draws excellent conclusions in the final section of the book especially in the areas of police tactics in urban areas and police-community relations. Her methodological note in the appendix can stand alone as an essay for a research methods class. I look forward to assigning my Sociology of Law class this book as it educates and entertains readers in equal fashion due to the superior writing abilities of Goffman.
