Alice Goffman On The Run Essay
On the Run an ethnographic study by Alice Goffman offers an authentic and appalling view on the lives of black individuals who lives within the streets of Philadelphia, specifically young men. These young men struggles to hold on to their dignity and sanity by constantly being on the run from law enforcements due to their illegal acts in order to acquire a livelihood. Goffman spent six years with the 6th street boys gaining her own personal insights, experiences, and challenges of this issues. The goal to bring awareness to others on what these individuals had to face and critically challenge how lives can be changed within areas like this (ZIT zone). She becomes part of the community and familiarize herself with the people around her so that she could help tell their stories. This connection allowed her to thoroughly explain each person and their situation like the lives of Chuck, Tim, Reggie, Mike, Ronny, Alex, and Anthony. These boys always had warrants out for them whether their crime was a misdemeanor or not.
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It gives an insight on how corrupt the criminal justice system is because law enforcers are always trying to meet their quotas and spotting the minorities was their best way. It fails to allow these boys to live their life the way they want and instead they’re always on the run because they can not afford to get caught. Not only does it affect them but the people around them too and it is to an extent that they can not do certain things because of it. For instance, when a friend on the street passes away they can not even pay respect knowing that within a few feet the cops are surveillancing the event as stated by an officer of the Warrant Unit about funerals, “they were a great place to round up people for arrest” (p.35). To take advantage of that and to have such disturbance is indecent on the law enforcement’s hand. A significant amount of the events examined through this research demonstrates the process of degrading minorities. All minorities gets treated brutally especially for women through physical and mental ways because of their relation to these young men. Goffman herself has experienced that throughout the book. Cops would take note on the women involved in the men life and interrogate them by forcefully applying pressure to them, cuffing them, and getting them to talk on behalf where the men were. If they did not cooperate they would be threatened in numerous of ways or manipulate scenarios to cause damage to their bond. For example, Mike and Michelle’s miscommunication and accusation. Michelle was labeled a snitch because Mike thought she had snitched on him stating, “You thought I wasn’t going to find out that you a rat? They showed me everything” (p.83). This method not only puts women at harm but destroys families and relationships. On the run does an excellent job when it comes to displaying why men do not want to go to jail but it also opens another insight to the goods of being in jail because it is considered a safe haven. When the streets got tough between the boys from the other streets, a lot of the boys and their family suggest getting caught by the police on purpose just so they can avoid being killed on streets. Goes to show the conditions of downtown Philadelphia at that time and what it takes for some to be protected even if it comes with a heavy price.
Some strengths of the study are that it prescribes vivid illustrations to everything that goes on throughout the book from describing the places they lived in to painting the details of how much force a cop uses on an individual. Goffman also stays true to portraying what happened but many believe that it is biased because it is coming from her own perspective. A few other flaws includes the idea that it repeats the same content every so often and not in chronological order which makes it difficult to follow along. The research itself is not valid either because it is not generalizable to other places.
Despite those drawbacks, Goffman’s style of writing in this research was very formal yet authentic. Formal in ways because it incorporates the research she conducts throughout the book and lists out her notes in the back to make it easier to reference them. It stayed authentic at the same time because of the language it used content wise. Some words were slang but she had parenthesis after it to help the audience fully understand the meaning behind it. Therefore, the clarity and inventiveness was prominent.
Goffman did achieve the goals in delivering the hardships of these individuals, but unfortunately it is not something that people do not have knowledge on. This kind of contingency has happened for many years and up till this day it still exists. It is something that not many can help on, but it is something they can be aware of and be able to understand that some people do certain things because they have to, not because they want to. For example, resorting to selling drugs to make money because no one would hire them with a criminal background and it is the fastest way to make cash.
Though this book was an interesting read due to Goffman’s focuses on certain individuals, I would not recommend it to others because it gets quite repetitive at times and skips around too much. The book could have narrowed it down to half the size and based on my opinion, there are probably other good books out there that serves the same purpose presenting it exceedingly.
Alice Goffman born in 1982 is an american sociologist, urban ethnographer, and a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She had attended University of Pennsylvania to obtain her bachelor and then earned her PhD at University of Princeton in sociology. Her relation to her only book On the Run (copyright 2014 by The University of Chicago) was that it was a project she took as an undergrad to do a field study on the impact of mass incarceration and policing on African American lives within the streets of Philadelphia. During that six month duration there as an active participant she documented all events that went on to bring awareness to inequality. Though her book had received a lot of criticism for containing inaccurate facts and alleged felonious conduct her book can be used for gender studies, race and poverty classes as well as sociology classes. Goffman currently serves as a reviewer and a board member for different sociological
publications.
It gives an insight on how corrupt the criminal justice system is because law enforcers are always trying to meet their quotas and spotting the minorities was their best way. It fails to allow these boys to live their life the way they want and instead they’re always on the run because they can not afford to get caught. Not only does it affect them but the people around them too and it is to an extent that they can not do certain things because of it. For instance, when a friend on the street passes away they can not even pay respect knowing that within a few feet the cops are surveillancing the event as stated by an officer of the Warrant Unit about funerals, “they were a great place to round up people for arrest” (p.35). To take advantage of that and to have such disturbance is indecent on the law enforcement’s hand. A significant amount of the events examined through this research demonstrates the process of degrading minorities. All minorities gets treated brutally especially for women through physical and mental ways because of their relation to these young men. Goffman herself has experienced that throughout the book. Cops would take note on the women involved in the men life and interrogate them by forcefully applying pressure to them, cuffing them, and getting them to talk on behalf where the men were. If they did not cooperate they would be threatened in numerous of ways or manipulate scenarios to cause damage to their bond. For example, Mike and Michelle’s miscommunication and accusation. Michelle was labeled a snitch because Mike thought she had snitched on him stating, “You thought I wasn’t going to find out that you a rat? They showed me everything” (p.83). This method not only puts women at harm but destroys families and relationships. On the run does an excellent job when it comes to displaying why men do not want to go to jail but it also opens another insight to the goods of being in jail because it is considered a safe haven. When the streets got tough between the boys from the other streets, a lot of the boys and their family suggest getting caught by the police on purpose just so they can avoid being killed on streets. Goes to show the conditions of downtown Philadelphia at that time and what it takes for some to be protected even if it comes with a heavy price.
Some strengths of the study are that it prescribes vivid illustrations to everything that goes on throughout the book from describing the places they lived in to painting the details of how much force a cop uses on an individual. Goffman also stays true to portraying what happened but many believe that it is biased because it is coming from her own perspective. A few other flaws includes the idea that it repeats the same content every so often and not in chronological order which makes it difficult to follow along. The research itself is not valid either because it is not generalizable to other places.
Despite those drawbacks, Goffman’s style of writing in this research was very formal yet authentic. Formal in ways because it incorporates the research she conducts throughout the book and lists out her notes in the back to make it easier to reference them. It stayed authentic at the same time because of the language it used content wise. Some words were slang but she had parenthesis after it to help the audience fully understand the meaning behind it. Therefore, the clarity and inventiveness was prominent.
Goffman did achieve the goals in delivering the hardships of these individuals, but unfortunately it is not something that people do not have knowledge on. This kind of contingency has happened for many years and up till this day it still exists. It is something that not many can help on, but it is something they can be aware of and be able to understand that some people do certain things because they have to, not because they want to. For example, resorting to selling drugs to make money because no one would hire them with a criminal background and it is the fastest way to make cash.
Though this book was an interesting read due to Goffman’s focuses on certain individuals, I would not recommend it to others because it gets quite repetitive at times and skips around too much. The book could have narrowed it down to half the size and based on my opinion, there are probably other good books out there that serves the same purpose presenting it exceedingly.
Alice Goffman born in 1982 is an american sociologist, urban ethnographer, and a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She had attended University of Pennsylvania to obtain her bachelor and then earned her PhD at University of Princeton in sociology. Her relation to her only book On the Run (copyright 2014 by The University of Chicago) was that it was a project she took as an undergrad to do a field study on the impact of mass incarceration and policing on African American lives within the streets of Philadelphia. During that six month duration there as an active participant she documented all events that went on to bring awareness to inequality. Though her book had received a lot of criticism for containing inaccurate facts and alleged felonious conduct her book can be used for gender studies, race and poverty classes as well as sociology classes. Goffman currently serves as a reviewer and a board member for different sociological
publications.