Confessions of a Dying Thief: Understanding Criminal Careers and Illegal Enterprise

ISBN-13: 9780202307619 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 414 str.

Darrell J. Steffensmeier; Jeffrey T. Ulmer

Opis

Confessions of a Dying Thief is an in-depth ethnographic study of the world of Sam Goodman, a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman, based on continuous contact with him for many years, multiple interviews with his network of associates in crime and business, and a series of interviews with him shortly before he died. The book updates and greatly expands the case study of Sam Goodman's fencing activity found in Steffensmeier's award-winning 1986 book The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds. The book combines Sam's colorful narrative accounts with substantive commentary by the authors to provide a more nuanced portrayal of criminal careers, illegal enterprise, and the broad landscape comprising the entity called "crime."

Spis treści

I: Introducing Confessions; 1: Confessions ’ Data and Contributions; 2: Sam Goodman: Homecoming and Farewell; II: Sam’s Life Unfolds: Chronology and Turning Points; 3: Conceptual Themes and Tools; 4: Sam’s Narrative: Onset of Sam’s Criminal Career; 5: Commentary: Doing Burglary; 6: Saufs Narrative: Saufs Burglary Career Escalates; 7: Commentary: Trading in Stolen Goods; 8: Sam’s Narrative: Running a Fencing Business; 9: Commentary: Criminal Capital for Illegal Enterprise; 10: Sam’s Narrative: Skills, Character, and Connections; 11: Commentary: “Moonlighting” Phase of Sam’s Criminal Career: Shifting Commitments to Crime versus Legitimacy; 12: Sam’s Narrative: Continuity or Désistante After Saufs “Last Fall”?; III: Crime Pathways and Organization; 13: Commentary: Social Organization of the Underworld: Stratification, Continuity, and Change; 14: Sam’s Narrative: Social Organization of Theft and Criminal Enterprise; 15: Commentary: Organized Crime and Racketeering; 16: Saufs Narrative: Racketeerings Organized Crime, and the Mafia; 17: Commentary: Ebbs and Flows of Criminal Careers; 18: Sam’s Narrative: Pathways Into and Out of Crime; IV: Sam Takes Stock: Dealing with Dying; 19: Commentary: Rewards and Rationales of Crime, and Images of Criminals; 20: Final Confessions: Sain Takes Stock

O autorze

Darrell J. Steffensmeier