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On the Run Alice Goffman

On the Run By Alice Goffman

On the Run by Alice Goffman


$28.49
Condition - Very Good
Only 2 left

Summary

Over the years, the War on Drugs has done almost nothing to prevent drugs from being sold or used, but it has nonetheless created a little-known surveillance state in America's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The author introduces us to a cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance.

On the Run Summary

On the Run by Alice Goffman

Forty years in, the War on Drugs has done almost nothing to prevent drugs from being sold or used, but it has nonetheless created a little-known surveillance state in America's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Arrest quotas and high-tech surveillance techniques criminalize entire blocks, and transform the very associations that should stabilize young lives-family, relationships, jobs - into liabilities, as the police use such relationships to track down suspects, demand information, and threaten consequences. Alice Goffman spent six years living in one such neighborhood in Philadelphia, and her close observations and often harrowing stories reveal the pernicious effects of this pervasive policing. Goffman introduces us to an unforgettable cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance - some of them small-time drug dealers, others just ordinary guys dealing with limited choices. All find the web of presumed criminality, built as it is on the very associations and friendships that make up a life, nearly impossible to escape. We watch as the pleasures of summer - evening stoop-sitting are shattered by the arrival of a car full of cops looking to serve a warrant; we watch - and can't help but be shocked - as teenagers teach their younger siblings and cousins how to run from the police (and, crucially, to keep away from friends and family so they can stay hidden); and we see, over and over, the relentless toll that the presumption of criminality takes on families-and futures. While not denying the problems of the drug trade, and the violence that often accompanies it, through her gripping accounts of daily life in the forgotten neighborhoods of America's cities, Goffman makes it impossible for us to ignore the very real human costs of our failed response-the blighting of entire neighborhoods and the needless sacrifice of whole generations.

On the Run Reviews

On the Run tells, in gripping, hard-won detail, what it's like to be trapped on the wrong side of the law with no way out-the situation of so many young black Americans today. A brilliant fieldworker and a smart analyst of what she saw and heard, Goffman has made a lasting contribution to our understanding of the administration of the law, urban life, and race relations, in a book you will never forget reading. (Howard Becker, author of Writing for Social Scientists)

About Alice Goffman

Alice Goffman is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Madison.

Additional information

GOR006173057
9780226136714
022613671X
On the Run by Alice Goffman
Used - Very Good
Hardback
The University of Chicago Press
20140501
288
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - On the Run