1932

Abstract

When ethnographers study street crime, they anticipate that readers might shame them for shaming the poor. One common response is to compromise the quality of ethnographic data. Another is to pass righteous indignation away from the poor by arguing the causal significance of deindustrialization, class inequalities, racial prejudice, policing, colonialism, or hostility toward immigrants. Almost always, such arguments are gratuitous: The evidence for the structural and historical causes offered by ethnographers does not vary with the situational and biographical variations in behavior that make for high-quality ethnographic data. Nevertheless, if we read around the rhetorical practices that contemporary ethnographers of crime use to shift shame away from their subjects and themselves, we learn how street crime is produced through small criminogenic social circles. Considered as a set, recent ethnographies have significantly advanced knowledge about the social psychology of criminality, and they provide promising leads for improving the understanding of variations in crime patterns over time and across metropolitan spaces.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024507
2019-01-13
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/criminol/2/1/annurev-criminol-011518-024507.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024507&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abbott A 2001.a Chaos of Disciplines Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  2. Abbott A 2001.b Time Matters: On Theory and Method Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Ainslie RC 2013. The Fight to Save Juárez: Life in the Heart of Mexico's Drug War Austin, TX: Univ. Tex. Press
  4. Anderson E 1992. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Anderson E 1999. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City New York: Norton
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Auyero J, Berti MAF 2015. In Harm's Way: The Dynamics of Urban Violence Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Becker HS 1953. Becoming a marihuana user. Am. J. Sociol. 59:235–42
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Becker HS 1958. Problems of inference and proof in participant observation. Am. Sociol. Rev. 23:6652–60
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Becker HS 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance London: Free Press Glencoe:
  10. Becker HS 1966. Introduction to the jack roller. The Jack Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story by CR Shaw v–xviii Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Becker HS 1967. Whose side are we on. ? Soc. Probl. 14:239–47
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Becker HS, Geer B 1957. Participant observation and interviewing: a comparison. Hum. Organ. 16:28–32
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Becker HS, Geer B, Hughes EC, Strauss AL 1961. Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Birdwhistell RL 1970. Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Blumer H 1939. An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki's The Polish Peasant in Europe and America New York: Soc. Sci. Res. Counc.
  16. Blumer H 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
  17. Boukir K 2017. Les « cités » de Montrimond et ses « bandes de jeunes »: Ethnographie des relations d'amitié, de complicité et d'inimitié dans la proche banlieue parisienne (1970–2015) PhD Doctorat nouveau régime Formation Sociologie, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Paris:
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Bourgois PI 1995. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
  19. Bourgois PI, Schonberg J 2009. Righteous Dopefiend Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  20. Bucerius SM 2014. Unwanted: Muslim Immigrants, Dignity, and Drug Dealing New York: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Briggs D 2012. Crack Cocaine Users: High Society and Low Life in South London Abingdon, UK: Routledge
  22. Brooks S 2009. Black Men Can't Shoot Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  23. Bucher R 1988. On the natural history of health care occupations. Work Occup 15:2131–47
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Bucher R, Straus A 1961. Professions in process. Am. J. Sociol. 66:325–34
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Chinoy E 1955. Automobile Workers and the American Dream Garden City, NY: Doubleday
  26. Cicourel AV 1964. Method and Measurement in Sociology New York: Free Press Glencoe
  27. Cicourel AV 1967. The Social Organization of Juvenile Justice New York: Wiley
  28. Cicourel AV, Kitsuse JI 1963. Educational Decision-Makers Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill
  29. Cohen AK 1955. Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang New York: Macmillan
  30. Cohen PN 2016. Survey and ethnography: comment on Goffman's “On the Run. SocArXiv https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hdtgg
    [Crossref]
  31. Contreras R 2013. The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  32. Cressey PG 1932. The Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation and City Life Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Curtis R, Wendel T 2000. Toward the development of a typology of illegal drug markets. Crime Prev. Stud. 11:121–52
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Desmond M 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City New York: Crown Publ.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Desmond M, Kimbro R 2015. Eviction's fallout: housing, hardship, and health. Soc. Forces 94:295–324
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Desmond M, Shollenberger T 2015. Forced displacement from rental housing: prevalence and neighborhood consequences. Demography 52:1751–72
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Didier E 2018. Free from numbers?: The politics of qualitative sociology in the US since 1945. La Marbrure Numérique 2:33–66
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Donovan FR 1929. The Saleslady Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  39. Dreyfus HL 1991. Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Emerson RM 1969. Judging Delinquents: Context and Process in Juvenile Court Chicago: Aldine
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Erikson KT 1957. Patient role and social uncertainty; a dilemma of the mentally ill. Psychiatry 20:263–74
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Ford H 1922. Ford Ideals: Being a Selection from “Mr. Ford's Page” in the Dearborn Independent Dearborn, MI: Dearborn Publ.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Foucault M 1979. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison New York: Vintage Books
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Gans HJ 1962. The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans New York: Free Press Collier-Macmillan
  45. Gans HJ 2018. Sociology and journalism: a comparative analysis. Contemp. Soc. 47:3–10
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Glaser BG, Strauss AL 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research Chicago: Aldine
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Goffman A 2014. On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Goffman E 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates Garden City, NY: Anchor Books
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Goodwin C 1994. Professional vision. Am. Anthropol. 96:606–33
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Gove WR 1975. The Labelling of Deviance: Evaluating a Perspective New York: Halsted Press
  51. Hagedorn J 1988. People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City Chicago: Lakeview Press
  52. Hellemont EV 2015. The Gang Game: The Myth and Seductions of Gangs PhD Thesis, Kathol. Univ. Leuven
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Horowitz R 1983. Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press
  54. Hoyt H 1933. One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise in its Land Values, 1830–1933 Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Hughes EC 1943. French Canada in Transition Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  56. Jackson-Jacobs C 2013. Constructing physical fights: an interactionist analysis of violence among affluent, suburban youth. Qual. Sociol. 36:123–52
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Jacques S, Wright R 2015. Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Jerolmack C, Khan S 2014. Talk is cheap: ethnography and the attitudinal fallacy. Sociol. Methods Res. 43:2178–209
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Jones N 2010. Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Kasarda JD 1989. Urban industrial transition and the underclass. Ann. Am. Acad. Political Soc. Sci. 501:26–47
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Katz J 1996. Families and funny mirrors: a study of the social construction and personal embodiment of humor. Am. J. Soc. 101:51194–237
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Katz J 2002. Start here: social ontology and research strategy. Theor. Criminol. 6:3255–78
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Katz J 2018. On becoming an ethnographer. J. Contemp. Ethnogr. In press. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241618777801
    [Crossref]
  64. Kitsuse JI 1962. Societal reaction to deviant behavior: problems of theory and method. Soc. Probl. 9:3247–56
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Kitsuse JI, Cicourel AV 1963. A note on the uses of official statistics. Soc. Probl. 11:2131–39
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Klein MW 1971. Street Gangs and Street Workers Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
  67. Latour B 1999. Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  68. Lee J 2016. Blowin' Up Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press
  69. Lewis-Kraus G 2016. The trials of Alice Goffman. New York Times Magazine Jan. 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/magazine/the-trials-of-alice-goffman.html
  70. Leovy J 2015. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America New York: Spiegel & Grau
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Lindesmith AR 1947. Opiate Addiction Bloomington, IN: Principia Press
  72. Lubet S 2018. Interrogating Ethnography New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  73. MacIver RM 1942. Social Causation New York: Ginn Co.
  74. Matza D 1966.a The disreputable poor. Class, Status, and Power: Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective R Bendix, SM Lipset xviii New York: Free Press
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Matza D 1966.b Poverty and disrepute. Contemporary Social Problems RK Merton, RA Nisbet 619–69 New York: Harcourt
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Matza D 1969. Becoming Deviant Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
  77. Merleau-Ponty M 1968. The Visible and the Invisible Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press
  78. Merton RK 1957. The Student-Physician: Introductory Studies in the Sociology of Medical Education Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  79. Mills CW 1943. The professional ideology of social pathologists. Am. J. Sociol. 49:2165–80
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Murphy AK, Venkatesh SA 2006. Vice careers: the changing contours of sex work in New York City. Qual. Sociol. 29:129–54
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Ness CD 2010. Why Girls Fight: Female Youth Violence in the Inner City New York: New York Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Park RE, Burgess EW 1921. Introduction to the Science of Sociology Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  83. Paulle B 2013. Toxic Schools: High-Poverty Education in New York and Amsterdam Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Petrunik M 1980. The rise and fall of “labelling theory”: the construction and destruction of a sociological strawman. Can. J. Sociol. 5:3213–33
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Pfaff JF 2017. Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration–and How to Achieve Real Reform New York: Basic Books
  86. Ralph L 2015. The limitations of a “dirty” world. Du Bois Rev 12:2441–51
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Rios V 2015. Decolonizing the white space in urban ethnography. City Commun 14:3258–61
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Rios VM 2011. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys New York: New York Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Ryan W 1972. Blaming the Victim New York: Vintage Books
  90. Schutz A 1962. Collected Papers The Hague: M. Nijhoff
  91. Simon D 1991. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets New York: Houghton Mifflin
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Singal J 2015. The internet accused Alice Goffman of faking details in her study of a black neighborhood. I went to Philadelphia to check. The Cut June 18. https://www.thecut.com/2015/06/i-fact-checked-alice-goffman-with-her-subjects.html
  93. Small ML 2015. De-exoticizing ghetto poverty: on the ethics of representation in urban ethnography. City Commun 14:4352–58
    [Google Scholar]
  94. St. Jean PKB 2007. Pockets of Crime: Broken Windows, Collective Efficacy, and the Criminal Point of View Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Stinchcombe AL 1963. Institutions of privacy in the determination of police administrative practice. Am. J. Sociol. 69:150–60
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Sudnow D 1993. Ways of the Hand: The Organization of Improvised Conduct Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  97. Sugrue TJ 1996. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Suttles GD 1968. The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Tavory I, Timmermans S 2014. Abductive Analysis: Theorizing Qualitative Research Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Thomas WI, Znaniecki F 1918. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an Immigrant Group Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Thrasher FM 1927. The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Venkatesh SA 2006. Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  103. Venkatesh SA 2008. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets New York: Penguin Press
  104. Vigil JD 1988. Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California Austin: Univ. Tex. Press
  105. Wacquant L 2002. Scrutinizing the street: poverty, morality, and the pitfalls of urban ethnography. Am. J. Sociol. 107:61468–532
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Wacquant LJD 1994. Urban Outcasts: Color, Class, and Place in Two Advanced Societies PhD Thesis, Univ Chicago:
    [Google Scholar]
  107. Wacquant LJD 2003. Body & Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer New York: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Waldinger RD 1986. Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades New York: New York Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  109. Whyte WF 1943. Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Whyte WF 1993. Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press. , 4th ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  111. Williams TM 1992. Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Williams TM, Milton T 2015. The Con Men: Hustling in New York City New York: Columbia Univ. Press
  113. Wilson WJ 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Urban Social Policy Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Wilson WJ 1995. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor New York: Random House
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Zelditch M Jr. 1962. Some methodological problems of field studies. Am. J. Sociol. 67:566–76
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024507
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error