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Alice Goffman

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City Paperback – April 7, 2015

by Alice Goffman (Author)

443 ratings

Part of: Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries (18 books)

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A RIVETING, GROUNDBREAKING ACCOUNT OF HOW THE WAR ON CRIME HAS TORN APART INNER-CITY COMMUNITIES

Forty years in, the tough on crime turn in American politics has spurred a prison boom of historic proportions that disproportionately affects Black communities. It has also torn at the lives of those on the outside. As arrest quotas and high tech surveillance criminalize entire blocks, a climate of fear and suspicion pervades daily life, not only for young men entangled in the legal system, but for their family members and working neighbors.

Alice Goffman spent six years in one Philadelphia neighborhood, documenting the routine stops, searches, raids, and beatings that young men navigate as they come of age. In the course of her research, she became roommates with Mike and Chuck, two friends trying to make ends meet between low wage jobs and the drug trade. Like many in the neighborhood, Mike and Chuck were caught up in a cycle of court cases, probation sentences, and low level warrants, with no clear way out. We observe their girlfriends and mothers enduring raids and interrogations, "clean" residents struggling to go to school and work every day as the cops chase down neighbors in the streets, and others eking out a living by providing clean urine, fake documents, and off the books medical care.

This fugitive world is the hidden counterpoint to mass incarceration, the grim underside of our nation's social experiment in punishing Black men and their families. While recognizing the drug trade's damage, On The Run reveals a justice system gone awry: it is an exemplary work of scholarship highlighting the failures of the War on Crime, and a compassionate chronicle of the families caught in the midst of it.

"A remarkable feat of reporting . . . The level of detail in this book and Goffman's ability to understand her subjects' motivations are astonishing―and riveting."―The New York Times Book Review

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

April 7, 2015
Dimensions

5.57 x 0.81 x 8.27 inches
ISBN-10

1250065666
ISBN-13

978-1250065667
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Extraordinary.” ―Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

“A remarkable feat of reporting…The level of detail in this book and Goffman's ability to understand her subjects' motivations are astonishing--and riveting.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“Necessary… Goffman's lively prose--communicated in a striking voice rare for an academic--opens a window into a life where paranoia has become routine… She goes beyond her street-level focus to argue something more profound.” ―Baltimore City Paper

“Alice Goffman's On the Run is the best treatment I know of the wretched underside of neo-liberal capitalist America. Despite the social misery and fragmented relations, she gives us a subtle analysis and poignant portrait of our fellow citizens who struggle to preserve their sanity and dignity.” ―Cornel West

About the Author

ALICE GOFFMAN grew up in Philadelphia and attended graduate school at Princeton University. She teaches in the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Reprint edition (April 7, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250065666
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250065667
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.57 x 0.81 x 8.27 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #51,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #75 in Sociology of Urban Areas
- #301 in Criminology (Books)
- #364 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
443 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Greg

Would give this 0 stars if I could!

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2019

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This book is horrible. The author calls herself a researcher while engaging in abhorrent, unethical research practices. Her focus on low-income black men who are involved in crime feels like a beleaguered stereotype. As an educated upper-class white woman, this story was not Goffman’s to tell. This book has earned her profit and credibility in her field; she has profited off of black suffering. Do not buy this book.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

SArmst2547

An excellent, excellent ethnography of a poor, black region in Philadelphia...

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2018

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I really was awed by this book (and am puzzled by what one reviewer (below) has written). Goffman herself came from a privileged and educated background and chose to live for six years (on and off, but I think mostly on) in a poor, black, run-down, and drug-infested area in Philadelphia. One of her main interests was the interaction of police and dropout males from this district. How do children grow in unsafe environments? What happens when there is so much policing brought into the lives of young people? She also contrasts kids who grow up dirty and who grow up clean. She talks about the repetitive violence from drugs and guns (and fists or baseball bats or bricks into car windows), the ties that bind these families together (or forces that stress them apart), the lives of the genders, motherhood, girlfriend-hood, and problems of being a short, pretty white girl in an entirely black area.

I am no expert, but I think this will be a classic ethnography in American anthropology and sociology.

There are some things that Goffman does not talk about, but these were beyond the charge of her research. Specifically, while the presence of police brutality is documented, I was left curious about how the young police officers were inculcated into this blue culture. What holds their "blue family" together? What do police officers do with their fear (other than try to "take control")? At what point of induction into being a police officer does fear and stereotypy become the motif of life?

Add (9-30-18) I did find a good book on this question: Moskos, Peter (2008) Cop: My year policing Baltimore's Eastern District. Princeton Press. Available on Amazon. Moskos graduated from college and joined the Baltimore police force as a rookie. He is scathing about his six-month training, which taught him nothing outside of legal strictures and how to write reports. One of his observations is how police cars detract from getting to know a neighborhood, but all police hate foot patrolling (it is hard, no computers, no flashing lights, seen as a punishment) and thus police really do not know the people of the area. The final chapter is "Prohibition: Al Capone's revenge," a comment on how prohibition actually makes the border between police and the people far more difficult than would legalized drugs and medical care.

9 people found this helpful

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Jason

and epistemological challenges make for great discussions in class

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2017

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While not without its problems, I've taught this book several times now in my anthropology courses. It's a compelling book. The ethical, methodological, and epistemological challenges make for great discussions in class. My biggest complaint-- by far the most interesting and thought provoking part of the book is the almost ignored methodological "note" in the back of the book. This "note" is longer than several of the chapters and is CRITICAL to the book. Why does Goffman try to hide it at the end. You must read the "note" to really understand the whole book and Goffman as an ethnographer. I hope in subsequent editions it is upgraded to chapter status and placed toward the front of the book.

11 people found this helpful

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Kyle Lewis

Interesting

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2018

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It was an interesting book learning about the experiences but felt like the author only blamed the police instead of the individuals. Either a balance or simply stating the facts would have been better in my opinion.

9 people found this helpful

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e-lectra

Everyone should read this

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2020

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Outstanding ethnography that combines theory skillfully blended with dramatic, authentic engagement. Provides an excellent picture of how cascading system effects trap poor black youth in a neighborhood but outside the identity systems that are required for viable lifestyles. Poor neighborhoods don’t have tax bases so they rely on fines, which apply to minor incidents. Youth especially targeted. They can’t pay fines so get bench warrants, unnecessary jail time, and are thereafter flagged, leading to no permanent residences, marginal income, and police persecution.

One person found this helpful

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Jacob P.

Why is this so highly recommended?

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2018

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Goffman repeats herself constantly throughout the entire book and the stories are written as if they were being told from a child. I had to read this for a Sociology class and gave the book away when I was finished.

5 people found this helpful

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Dr J ReadsTop Contributor: Poetry Books

Extreme Research

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2017

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Fascinating account of research. Recommended for those who want to see an extreme example of research in the field.

3 people found this helpful

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Tone Le Lone

Fascinating!

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020

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An excellent book!
It’s rare that a kind of sociological book would keep me interested, but this was fascinating.
Get it!

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Top reviews from other countries

gerardpeter

A. Boogie

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2015

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On the Run describes the lives of young black men in a poor neighbourhood in Philadelphia, here called 6th Street. The author is a young, white female sociologist from an academic family, who spent many years living on 6th Street as part of her research.

The PhD thesis, on which it is based, was recognised by the American Sociological Association as a landmark contribution to the field. The book has become a best seller - astonishing and riveting according to the New York Times.

For many commentators the boys and men of 6th street are “bad” people who make “bad” choices and create a “bad” community. They choose to deal drugs, settle differences with a gun or a knife, skip bail, run from the cops, drive without licenses in cars they don’t own, use false names, cheat on their girlfriends, and always dealing drugs. They are the problem – they draw the criminal system onto themselves. Heavy police activity is appropriate and justified. Zero tolerance.

Goffman argues it may be in part the other way round. Since the 1970s the War on Drugs has dramatically increased the number of people in prison, especially black men. Whole communities - poor black neighbourhoods - live under the constant shadow of the penal system. This causes individual and social responses which appear to make things worse, but actually make sense from the point of view of a young black man without a high school qualification – he is likely to be sent down “anyway”. He strives to delay that event and reduce jail time as much as possible. If running from a siren buys you another three months outside then you run. If giving a false name gets you off a dealing rap then you give a false name. If your speeding ticket stops you getting a license, you get a fake ID. If going to hospital risks you being picked up in the ER, you get treated in your kitchen by a nurse aide who lives on your block.

In fact a whole culture has risen in response to Zero Tolerance- or rather subculture. Alice Goffman produces detailed analyses of daily living, patterns of friendship and partnership, of love and honour, trust and loyalty. All people, she writes, “create a meaningful social world and moral life from whatever cards they have been dealt” – that includes the young men she lived among on 6th Street.

How do you study such communities – off the mainstream, on the margins? How did Alice do this? Not from the outside but from the inside – the method known as participant observation. A method pioneered by American sociologists, also pioneers of the study of urban life. On the Run is especially close to the classic work by Wilfred White, Street Corner Society. So like White Goffman lived among her subjects for many years, sharing their lives and troubles. She witnessed attended 19 funerals and witnessed at least two killings, her clothes being spattered with the blood of one man.

In a long final chapter she describes her method in detail. Her account is revealing. There is always a “danger” that immersion in a subculture leads to loss of focus so any kind of scientific observation is slung. It is clear that Alice formed very strong attachments to Chuck and Mike especially. They gave her the street name A-Boogie. She confesses – among other things – that the murder of Chuck was a profound and personal tragedy. She admits that she drove Mike around town looking for the presumed gunman, a man from another neighbourhood, with the clear intention of killing him and wanting to do this.

That has to be a problem. But.

Her conclusions pull no punches. She observes the persistence of a racial caste system in the United States. She does not see the problem specifically as a racist police force and indeed feels their hands are as tied by their cuffs as much as those of the men they arrest. The problems lie higher and wider in national social and political structures. The big picture.

I think it an amazing piece of research and really important. I can see that much of the way of life revealed may alienate or exasperate those who do not open their doors onto 6th Street - but we have to look beyond and behind. This is the kind of sociology that was called for by C Wright Mills, partisan and emotional, yes, but also rigorous and meticulous and honest. You don't have to be 100% on her conclusions to agree with that.

5 people found this helpful

E. J. Carter-Dunn

Superb urban ethnography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2016

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This is a superb urban ethnography and reads really well.

I like the detailed methodology that Goffman discusses at the end of the book and is proving very useful to my students.

I know people criticise her for "ignoring" the crimes these men make, but she does not. What Goffman argues is that intensive policing of poorer communities is not working and is not solving a wider social issue. Instead, more rehabilitative programmes should be introduced to stop this endless cycle of crime and a lifetime of police, warrants and court.

One person found this helpful

Maggie Allder

A book we all should read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2016

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I found this book as gripping as a novel. At first I wondered if I might find it a bit boring, having read around the subject of urban poverty in the US over several years. However, I soon realized that the author was taking me inside the experience of a broken penal system in a way that nothing I had previously read managed to do. The main text of the book deals with young men who have fallen foul of the heavy policing of black, inner city neighborhood, and with their friends and relatives. However, the preface, epilogue and the appendix, "A Methodological Note" answer many of the questions to which the main text gives rise: How did a young, female, undergraduate student find herself living and working in a poor black neighborhood with teenagers and young adults who many of us would be frightened to encounter? How did the project progress? What were the difficulties and rewards? Anyone interested in the rise of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement, and all policemen and politicians ought to read this. So should anyone who still claims that we live in a post-racial society!

One person found this helpful

Niseach

I would like to have read more about the methodology in terms ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2016

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This is exceptionally well written and provides a fascinating insight into life in Philadelphia's '6th Street' area. In terms of ethnographic studies, it is up there with Waquant's 'Body and Soul' in portraying the realities of life on the American streets. I would like to have read more about the methodology in terms of how she entered, lived in and left the field herself, and particularly how she came to be accepted as a white, middle-class and educated female in the field she describes. I will try and locate her thesis to find out further details about this. My one disappointment is that there is not enough of her own reflexivityin the book. It would be fantastic to hear how the inquiry impacted upon her ethnographic self as so many parts of the book could detail and capture her own emotions, beliefs and actions. The likes of Harry Wolcott do this extremely well.

One person found this helpful

mwandishi

Born to die

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2019

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Goffman's harrowing and insightful account of life for young Black men in a poor US neighbourhood is a real page turner. This book is a welcome addition to the publications on how the criminal justice system treats people from a struggling socioeconomic background. Highly recommended!

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