Book review: Alice Goffman, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480614563220 |
| Author | Alexes Harris |
| Published date | 01 February 2015 |
| Date | 01 February 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
563220TCR0010.1177/1362480614563220Theoretical CriminologyBook reviews
research-article2015
Theoretical Criminology
2015, Vol. 19(1) 131 –143
Book reviews
© The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480614563220
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Alice Goffman, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, The University of Chicago Press:
Chicago, IL, 2014; 288 pp.: 9780226136714, $25.00 (cloth)
Reviewed by: Alexes Harris, University of Washington, USA
This book is a dramatic and illustrative account of how the practice of mass conviction
and incarceration has seeped into impoverished African American communities. Alice
Goffman spent six years living in a poor Black neighborhood in Philadelphia to study the
economic and social life of its residents, and documenting their perceptions of the crimi-
nal justice system. This book is a visceral account of how a group of Black men have
adapted to living under constant surveillance, sleeping, working (or not), and socializing
in the shadow of the contemporary criminal justice system. This story provides strong
evidence for the importance of a national discussion about the intent and purpose of the
various ways the criminal justice system has extended its reach into the lives of those
who are racially and economically marginalized in our society.
As a consequence of the get-tough-on-crime movement, the expansion of sentence
types and lengths, and the resulting rise of criminal convictions and incarceration, Goffman
describes how the criminal justice system has come to control the daily routines and social
interactions of inner-city Black men. As Pettit and Western (2004) have documented, incar-
ceration has for many Black men become a new life course transition, and as such, once
released, many remain in a state of liminal legality as a result of court imposed probation
conditions and financial legal debt. Any misstep, failure to report to a probation officer, a
...
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