Goffman2009 Artigo On The Run PDF

On the Run: Wanted Men in a
Philadelphia Ghetto
Alice Goffman
Princeton University
Although recent increases in imprisonment are concentrated in poor Black communities,

we know little about how daily life within these neighborhoods is affected. Almost all
ethnographic work in poor minority neighborhoods was written before the expansion of
the criminal justice system, and the bulk of research on “mass imprisonment” relies on
survey data, field experiments, or interviews, conceptualizing its impact in terms of
current or former felons and their families. Drawing on six years of fieldwork in
Philadelphia, this article shifts the focus from imprisonment and criminal records to the
increase in policing and supervision in poor Black neighborhoods, and what this has
meant for a growing status group of wanted people. For many young men, avoiding jail
has become a daily preoccupation: they have warrants out for minor infractions, like
failing to pay court fees or breaking curfew, and will be detained if they are identified.
Such threat of imprisonment transforms social relations by undermining already tenuous
attachments to family, work, and community. But young men also rely on their precarious
legal standing to explain failures that would have occurred anyway, while girlfriends and
neighbors exploit their wanted status as an instrument of social control. I discuss the
implications of my ethnographic observations relative to prior treatments of the poor and
policing, and with regard to broader sociological questions about punishment and
surveillance in the modern era.
he number of people incarcerated in the prison, and 60 percent of those who did not
T United States has grown seven times over finish high school have prison records by their
the past 40 years, and this growth has been con- mid-30s (Pettit and Western 2004). One in four
centrated among Black men with little educa- Black children born in 1990 had a father impris-
tion (Garland 2001; Western 2006). For Black oned (Wildeman 2009). Such “mass imprison-
men in recent birth cohorts, the experience of ment” (Garland 2001) transmits social and
incarceration is now typical: 30 percent of those economic disadvantage, to be sure. African
with only high school diplomas have been to American former felons face significant dis-
crimination in the labor market, as well as health
costs, obstacles to housing, and large-scale dis-
Direct cor respondence to Alice Goffman,
enfranchisement (Hammett, Harmon, and
Department of Sociology, Wallace Hall, Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (agoffman@prince- Rhodes 2002; Pager 2007; Rubenstein and
ton.edu). I thank Mitchell Duneier for invaluable Mukamal 2002; Uggen and Manza 2002;
support and guidance. Also in Princeton, I am grate- Western 2006). Moreover, imprisoned and for-
ful to Viviana Zelizer, Paul DiMaggio, Devah Pager, merly imprisoned men have difficulties partic-
Bruce Western, and Marvin Bressler. ASR coeditor ipating in sustained ways in the lives of their
Vincent Roscigno, Howard Becker, Philip Kasinitz,
families (see Nurse 2002; Western, Lopoo, and
Jack Katz, William Labov, Steven Lopez, Gillian
Sankoff, Harvey Molotch, Colin Jerolmack, John McLanahan 2004). Their partners and children
Sutton, and the anonymous reviewers gave out- consequently become socially and economi-
standing suggestions. cally disadvantaged in the process (for reviews,
AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2009, VOL. 74 (June:339–357)

340—–AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
see Comfort 2007; Hagan and Dinovitzer findings reveal, the dealings these young men
1999).1 have with the police, the courts, and the proba-
Expansions in incarceration have been tion and parole board grant them an illegal or
accompanied by increases in policing and semilegal status and instill an overriding fear of
supervision in poor communities. While the capture. Suspicious even of those closest to
police were scarcely present in the ghetto them, young men cultivate unpredictability or
decades ago, today, police helicopters can reg- altogether avoid institutions, places, and rela-
ularly be heard overhead, cameras now monitor tions on which they formerly relied. Yet because
people on the streets, and large numbers of being wanted is understood to be deeply con-
young men—including many who have never straining, it can, within the context of limited
been convicted of felonies—have pending cases opportunity, serve as an excuse for obligations
in the criminal courts, are on probation, released that may have gone unfulfilled anyway. The
on bail, issued low-level warrants, and are rou- result is a complex interactive system in which
tinely chased, searched, questioned, and arrest- ghetto residents become caught in constraining
ed by the police. How does this affect daily life legal entanglements while simultaneously call-
in poor Black communities? Unfortunately, we ing on the criminal justice system to achieve a
know little in this regard. Indeed, much of the measure of power over one another in their daily
research literature, which relies on statistical lives.
data, field experiments, or interviews, most
often centers on the consequences of going to THE URBAN POOR AND POLICING
prison. Although ethnographic accounts should
arguably capture what enhanced policing and Ethnographic accounts of poor urban commu-
supervision has meant for the dynamics of daily nities have long included descriptions of peo-
life in poor minority communities, most ethno- ple who commit serious crimes, stand trial, go
graphies were written before the criminal jus- to jail, or find themselves on the run from the
tice system became such a prevalent institution police (see, e.g., Anderson 1978; Liebow 1967).
in the lives of the poor (see, e.g., Anderson Until recently, these people comprised only a
1978; Liebow 1967; Stack 1974).2 small group of criminals in a neighborhood:
This article, building on prior work pertain- most residents of poor Black communities did
ing to the urban poor, as well as broader con- not interact much with the authorities. Before
ceptions of power in the modern era (e.g., the 1990s, in fact, the ghetto was frequently
Foucault 1979), draws on six years of field- described as nearly abandoned by law enforce-
work with a group of poor African American ment.
young men in Philadelphia. In doing so, it offers Anderson (1978:2), writing about street-cor-
an extended ethnographic look at life in the ner men in Chicago in the early 1970s (he
policed and surveilled ghetto that has taken devotes a whole chapter to hoodlums), reports
shape in the era of mass imprisonment. As the that “the police glance over and slow down, but
they seldom stop and do anything. Ordinarily
they casually move on, leaving the street-corner
1 Although this body of research points over- men to settle their own differences.” Venkatesh’s
whelmingly to the detrimental effects of incarcera- (2008) description of the Chicago projects some
tion and its aftermath, this picture is complicated by 20 years later depicts a similar scene, noting that
close-up accounts of prisoners and their families. police simply do not come when called. Instead,
Comfort (2008) shows how women visiting incar- gang leaders step in and maintain an informal,
cerated spouses find that the prison’s regulations in de facto system of justice with the help of proj-
some ways enhance their relationships. As romantic ect leaders and a few neighborhood cops. In
partners, inmates contrast favorably to “free men.” Crack House, Williams (1992:84) likewise
2 Ethnographies of ghetto life published more
describes how, in New York during the late
recently rely on fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1980s and early 1990s at the peak of the crack
early 1990s, before the change in policing practices
boom, police typically did not disturb open air
and crime laws took their full effect (see, e.g.,
Anderson 1999; Bourgois 1995; Venkatesh 2006;
crack sales:
Wacquant 2004; for exceptions, see Jacobs 1999; The police have firm knowledge about selling
LeBlanc 2003). spots, but they usually ignore the spots until com-
WANTED MEN IN A PHILADELPHIA GHETTO—–341
munity pressure builds to a level that forces them and consequences of modern surveillance and
to take action.|.|.|. For the most part, the police power.
stay away.|.|.|. One night I watched a police car, with Foucault (1979) suggested that the modern
lights flashing, move down this street past hundreds era would increasingly be characterized by sur-
of buyers, runners, touts, and dealers marching
by continually making exchanges. Over the car’s
veillance and that state monitoring of citizens
loudspeaker an officer kept saying, “Move on off would become increasingly complete. Building
the block everybody. This is the police.” The buy- on ethnographic insights, my conclusions high-
ers and sellers paid no attention. light ways in which contemporary surveillance
may indeed be taking the forms Foucault
Times, however, have changed. The past few
described in his analysis of panoptic power. Yet
decades have seen the war on crime, the war on
my conclusions also suggest that the conse-
drugs, a blossoming of federal and state police
quences of such surveillance for everyday life
agencies and bureaus, steeper sentencing laws,
may differ from those envisioned by Foucault.
and a near unified endorsement of “zero-toler-
Rather than encouraging self-monitoring, the
ance” policies from police and civic leaders
forms of supervision and policing found in the
(Beckett 1997; Simon 2007). The number of
neighborhood I observed foster a climate of
police officers per capita increased dramatical-
ly in the second half of the twentieth century in fear and suspicion in which people are pressured
cities across the United States (Reiss 1992). In to inform on one another. Young men do not live
2006, more than 14 million people were arrest- as well-disciplined subjects, but as suspects and
ed and charged with a criminal offense in the fugitives, with the daily fear of confinement.
United States, and more than five million peo-
ple were under probation or parole supervision FIELDWORK, THE 6TH STREET
(Glaze and Bonzcar 2006; U.S. Department of BOYS, AND NEIGHBORHOOD
Justice 2007). CONTEXT
In Philadelphia—my field site—the number
of police officers increased by 69 percent When I was an undergraduate at the University
between 1960 and 2000, from 2.76 officers for of Pennsylvania, I tutored a high school student,
every 1,000 citizens to 4.66 officers.3 The Aisha (names of people and streets are ficti-
Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole tious). I began to get to know some of her friends
Department supervised more than 60,000 peo- and neighbors, and in the fall of 2002 I moved
ple in 2006. These people paid the city more into an apartment in the poor to working-class
than 10 million dollars in restitution, fines, Black neighborhood in which she lived. At this
court costs, and supervisory fees that year. In point, Aisha’s mother had begun referring to
Philadelphia, 12,000 people violated the terms me as her “other daughter” and Aisha and I
of their probation or parole and were issued became “sisters” (Anderson 1978; Stack 1974).
warrants for their arrest (Philadelphia Adult When Aisha’s cousin Ronny, age 15, came home
Probation and Parole Department 2007). Even from a juvenile detention center, Aisha and I
more people were issued bench warrants for started hanging out with him in a neighbor-
missing court or for unpaid court fees, or arrest hood about 10 minutes away called 6th Street.
warrants for failure to turn themselves in for a Ronny introduced me to Mike, who was 21, a
crime. Such surveillance, policing, and super- year older than I was. When Mike’s best friend
vision raise important sociological questions Chuck, age 18, came home from county jail, we
about the role of the state in managing poverty began hanging out with him too.
and maintaining racial inequality (Wacquant When I first started spending time with
2001). They also raise questions about the nature Ronny and Mike on 6th Street, their neighbors
and relatives remarked on my whiteness and
asked me to account for my presence. Ronny
3 introduced me as Aisha’s “sister,” and I men-
Data on the number of police off icers in
Philadelphia is taken from the Federal Bureau of tioned that I lived nearby. After a few months,
Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports (1960 through Mike decided to “take me under his wing” and
2000). Population estimates of Philadelphia are taken began referring to me as “sis.” Bit by bit, other
from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. young men in the group started introducing me
to others as their cousin or as a “homie” who dealers. One earned his keep by exotic dancing
“goes way back.” and offering sex to women.
The five blocks known as 6th Street are 93 All but two of the young men lived with
percent Black, according to a survey of residents female relatives, although about half got evict-
that Chuck and I conducted in 2007. At the ed and slept on other people’s couches or on the
busiest intersection, men and boys stand outside streets for months or years at a time. Anthony
offering bootleg CDs and DVDs, stolen goods, slept in an abandoned truck on 6th Street for
and food to drivers and passersby. The main most of the time I knew him, although Chuck
commercial street includes a bullet-proofed later let him sleep in his basement or got the
Chinese food store selling fried chicken wings, women he was seeing to let Anthony sleep on
“loosie” cigarettes, condoms, baby food, and the floor when Chuck spent the night.
glassines for smoking crack. The street also Between January 2002 and August 2003, I
includes a check-cashing store, hair dresser, conducted intensive observation “on the block,”
payday loan store, Crown Fried Chicken restau- spending most of my waking hours hanging out
on Chuck’s back porch steps, or along the alley
rant, and a pawnshop. On the next block, a
way between his block and Mike’s block, or on
Puerto Rican family runs a corner grocery.
the corner across from the convenience store. In
Of the 217 households surveyed, roughly one
the colder months, we were usually indoors at
fourth received housing vouchers. In all but Chuck’s and a few other houses in the area. I also
two households, members reported receiving went along to lawyers’ offices, court, the pro-
some type of government assistance in the past bation and parole office, the hospital, and local
three years. The neighborhood also contains bars and parties. By 2004, some of the young
many people who make their living as teachers, men were in county jails and state prisons; for
bus drivers, parole officers, health care work- the next four years I spent between two and six
ers, and so on. Aisha’s neighbors commonly days a week on 6th street and roughly one day
referred to the area of 6th Street as “nice and a week visiting members of the group in jail and
quiet,” and a place they would move if they had prison. I also kept in touch by phone and through
enough money. letters.
Chuck, Mike, and Ronny were part of a loose The young men agreed to let me take field
group of about 15 young men who grew up notes for the purpose of one day publishing the
around 6th Street and were joined by the fact that material, but I generally did not ask direct ques-
they were, for the most part, unemployed and tions and most of what is contained here comes
trying to make it outside of the formal econo- from observations I made or conversations I
my. They occasionally referred to their group as heard.4 Over the course of this research I also
“the 6th Street Boys” when distinguishing them- interviewed two lawyers, a district attorney,
selves from other street-corner groups, and five three probation officers, two police officers,
of them had “6th Street” tattooed on their arms. and a federal district court judge.
Among the 15 young men, eight were 18 or 19
years old when I met them, four were in their ON BEING WANTED
early 20s, and one was age 23. Ronny was 14
By 2002, curfews were established around 6th
and Reggie was 15. Six years later, Mike was
Street for those under age 18 and video cameras
the only one to have graduated from high school.
had been placed on major streets. During the
Alex worked steadily in his father’s heating and
air-conditioning repair shop, and four others
occasionally found seasonal construction jobs
4 I use quotes when I wrote down what people said
or low-skilled jobs at places like Taco Bell and
McDonald’s. By 2002, the crack trade was in as they spoke (by typing it directly onto a laptop or
decline, as it was in other parts of the country by using a cell phone text message). I omit the quotes
when I noted what people said after an event or con-
(Jacobs 1999). Seven of the young men worked versation, and I paraphrase when I wrote down what
intermittently as low-level crack dealers; others people said at the end of the day in my field notes.
sold marijuana, Wet (PCP and/or embalming Since I did not use a tape recorder, even the speech
fluid), or pills like Xanax. Some of the men in quotes should be taken only as a close approxi-
occasionally made money by robbing other drug mation.
first year and a half of fieldwork, I watched pect, they access Social Security records, court
the police stop pedestrians or people in cars, records, hospital admission records, electric
search them, run their names to see if any war- and gas bills, and employment records. They
rants came up, ask them to come in for ques- visit a suspect’s “usual haunts” (e.g., his home,
tioning, or make an arrest at least once a day, his workplace, and his street corner) at the times
with five exceptions. I watched the police break he is likely to be there, threatening his family
down doors, search houses, and question, arrest, or friends with arrest, particularly when they
or chase suspects through houses 52 times. have their own lower-level warrants or are on
Police helicopters circled overhead and beamed probation or have a pending court case. The
search lights onto local streets nine times. I police also use a sophisticated computer map-
noted blocks taped off and traffic redirected as ping program that tracks people who have war-
police searched for evidence or “secured a crime rants or are on probation, parole, or released on
scene” 17 times. I watched the police punch, bail. The police round up these potential inform-
choke, kick, stomp on, or beat young men with
ants and threaten them with jail time if they do
night sticks 14 times during this first year and
not provide information about the suspect they
a half.
are looking for.
Children learn at an early age to watch out for
In the 6th Street neighborhood, a person was
the police and to prepare to run. The first week
I spent on 6th Street, I saw two boys, 5 and 7 occasionally “on the run” because he was a sus-
years old, play a game of chase in which one pect in a shooting or robbery, but most people
assumed the role of the cop who must run after around 6th Street had warrants out for far more
the other. When the “cop” caught up to the other minor infractions. In the survey that Chuck and
child, he pushed him down and cuffed him with I conducted in 2007, of the 217 households that
imaginary handcuffs. He patted the other child make up the 6th Street neighborhood, we found
down and felt in his pockets, asking if he had 308 men between the ages of 18 and 30 in res-
warrants or was carrying a gun or any drugs. The idence.5 Of these men, 144 reported that they
child then took a quarter out of the other child’s had a warrant issued for their arrest because of
pocket, laughing and yelling, “I’m seizing that!” either delinquencies with court fines and fees
In the following months, I saw children give up or for failure to appear for a court date within
running and simply stick their hands behind the past three years. Also within the past three
their backs, as if in handcuffs, or push their years, warrants had been issued to 119 men for
bodies up against a car, or lie flat on the ground technical violations of their probation or parole
and put their hands over their head. The children (e.g., drinking or breaking curfew).6
yelled, “I’m going to lock you up! I’m going to
lock you up, and you ain’t never coming home.”
I once saw a 6-year-old child pull another child’s 5 I counted men who lived in a house for three days
pants down and try to do a “cavity search.” a week or more (by their own estimates and in some
When Chuck, Mike, and Steve assembled cases, my knowledge) as members of the household.
outside, the first topic of the day was frequent- I included men who were absent because they were
ly who had been taken into custody the night in the military, at job training programs (like
before and who had outrun the cops and gotten JobCorp), or away in jail, prison, drug rehab centers,
away. They discussed how the police identified or halfway houses, if they expected to return to the
and located the person, what the charges were house and had been living in the house before they
likely to be, what physical harm had been done went away.
6 These violations are not the same as the “disor-
to the man as he was caught and arrested, and
what property the police had taken and what had derly conduct” that became the focus of “quality of
life” policing in places like New York during the
been wrecked or lost during the chase.
1990s. “Quality of life” policing arrests people for
People with warrants out for their arrest for minor offenses like urinating in public, jumping turn-
failure to turn themselves in when accused of a styles, or public drinking (Duneier 1999). The young
crime understand that the police may employ a men in this study were initially arrested for more seri-
number of strategies in attempting to locate ous offenses such as drug offenses, and then were
them. In an interview, two police officers served warrants when they failed to show up for
explained that when they are looking for a sus- court dates during the pretrial and trial, to pay court
Young men worried that they would be picked had this bench warrant called the police and got
up by the police and taken into custody even him arrested because they said he had stolen
when they did not have a warrant out for their three pairs of shoes from them. Shawn, a 21-
arrest. Those on probation or parole, on house year-old exotic dancer, was in county jail await-
arrest, and who were going through a trial ing trial for selling crack, a charge that would
expressed concern that they would soon be ultimately be dismissed. Chuck, age 18, had a
picked up and taken into custody for some vio- warrant because he had not paid $225 in court
lation that would “come up in the system.” Even fees that were due a few weeks after his case for
those with no pending legal action expressed assault was dismissed. He spent almost his
concern that the police might “find some rea- entire senior year of high school in county jail
son to hold them” because of what they had awaiting trial on this case.
done, who or what they knew, or what they car- Reggie, then age 16, and his neighbor Randy,
ried on their person. In this sense, being “on the age 19, had detainers out for violating the terms
run” covers a range of circumstances. I use the of their probation, Randy for drinking and
term to mean anyone whose claim to a life out- Reggie for testing positive for marijuana (called
side of confinement is not secure or legitimate “hot piss”). Alex, age 22, was serving a proba-
and who may be taken into custody if they tion sentence, and Steve, age 19, was under
encounter the authorities. People “on the run” house arrest awaiting the completion of a trial
make a concerted effort to thwart their discov-
for possession of drugs. Ronny, age 16, was in
ery and apprehension, as Chuck, age 19, con-
a juvenile detention facility, and Mike, age 21,
cisely put it in speaking to his 12-year-old
was in county jail awaiting trial.
brother:
Between 2002 and 2007, Mike spent about
You hear the law coming, you merk on [run away three and a half years in jail or prison. Out of
from] them niggas. You don’t be having time to the 139 weeks that he was not incarcerated, he
think okay, what do I got on me, what they going
spent 87 weeks on probation or parole for five
to want from me. No, you hear them coming, that’s
it, you gone, period. Because whoever they look- overlapping sentences. He spent 35 weeks with
ing for, even if it’s not you, nine times out of ten a warrant out for his arrest, and in total had 10
they’ll probably book you. warrants issued on him. Mike had at least 51
court appearances over this five-year period,
Police, jail, and court language permeates
47 of which I attended.
general conversation. Young men refer to their
The fact that some young men may be taken
girlfriends as “Co-Ds” (codefendants) and speak
into custody if they encounter the authorities is
of “catching a case” (to be arrested and charged
a background expectation of everyday interac-
with a crime) when accused of some wrong by
their friends and family. “Call List,” the term for tion in this community. It is a starting principle,
the phone numbers of family and friends one is central to understanding young men’s relations
allowed to call from prison or jail, becomes the to family and friends, as well as the reciprocal
term for one’s close friends. lines of action between them.
One way to understand the quantity and qual-
ity of young men’s legal entanglements is to PATHS TO PRISON AND STRATEGIES
look at nine members of the group during one OF EVASION
month. In December 2003, Anthony, who was
22 years old and homeless, had a bench warrant Once a man finds that he may be stopped by the
out for his arrest because he had not paid $173 police and taken into custody, he discovers that
in court fees for a case that had ended the year people, places, and relations he formerly relied
before. He had spent nine of the previous 12 on, and that are integral to maintaining a
months in jail awaiting the decision. Later in the respectable identity, get redefined as paths to
month, two neighbors who knew that Anthony confinement. I am concerned here with the
kinds of relations, localities, and activities that
threaten a wanted man’s freedom, with the tech-
fees at the end of the cases, or to follow the dictates niques he commonly employs to reduce these
of probation and parole sentences they were issued risks, and with some of the contingencies asso-
after or instead of completing time in jail or prison. ciated with these techniques.
HOSPITALS AND JOBS and pistol-whipped him three times, then

grabbed the back of his head and smashed his
Alex and his girlfriend, Donna, both age 22, face into a concrete wall.
drove to the hospital for the birth of their son. Alex called Mike and me to come pick him
I got there a few hours after the baby was born, up. When we arrived, Alex was searching on the
in time to see two police officers come into the ground for the three teeth that had fallen out, and
room and arrest Alex. He had violated his parole the blood from his face and mouth was stream-
a few months before by drinking alcohol and had ing down his white T-shirt and onto his pants and
a warrant out for his arrest. As an officer hand- boots. His jaw and nose were swollen and looked
cuffed him, Donna screamed and cried, and as as if they might be broken. I pleaded with him
they walked Alex away she got out of the bed to go to the hospital. He refused, saying that his
and grabbed hold of him, moaning, “Please parole officer might hear of it and serve him a
don’t take him away. Please I’ll take him down violation for being out past curfew, for fighting,
there myself tomorrow I swear, just let him stay for drinking, or any other number of infrac-
with me tonight.” The officers told me they had tions.
come to the hospital with a shooting victim That night, Alex called his cousin who was
who was in custody and, as was their custom, studying to be a nurse’s assistant to come stitch
ran the names of the men on the visitors list. up his face. In the morning, he repeated his
Alex came up as having a warrant out for a refusal to avail himself of medical care:
parole violation, so they arrested him along
with two other men on the delivery room floor. All the bullshit I done been through [to finish his
parole sentence], it’s like, I’m not just going to
After Alex was arrested, other young men
check into emergency and there come the cops ask-
expressed hesitation to go to the hospital when ing me all types of questions and writing my infor-
their babies were born. Soon after Chuck turned mation down and before you know it I’m back in
21, his girlfriend, age 22, was due with their sec- there [in prison]. Even if they not there for me some
ond child. Chuck told her that he would go to of them probably going to recognize me then they
the hospital, even though he had a detainer out going to come over, run my shit [run a check on
for a probation violation for breaking curfew. his name].|.|.|. I ain’t supposed to be up there [his
Chuck stayed with her until she was driven to parole terms forbade him to be near 6th Street,
the hospital, but at the final moment he said she where he was injured]; I can’t be out at no two
should go ahead without him and that he would o’clock [his curfew was ten]. Plus they might still
got that little jawn [warrant] on me in Bucks
come soon. He sat with me later and discussed County [for court fees he did not pay at the end of
the situation. As we spoke, his girlfriend called a trial two years earlier]. I don’t want them running
his cell phone repeatedly, and he would mute the my name, and then I got to go to court or I get
sound after a ring and stare at her picture as it locked back up.
came up on the screen each time. He said:
Alex later found out that the man who beat
I told her I was on my way. She mad as shit I ain’t him had mistaken him for his brother, who had
there. I can hear her right now. She going to be like, apparently robbed him the week before. Alex’s
“You broke your promise.” I’m not trying to go out
jaw still bothers him and he now speaks with a
like Alex [get arrested], though. You feel me?
kind of muffled lisp, but he did not go back to
Alex spent a year back upstate on the parole prison. Alex was the only member of the group
violation. Just after his son’s first birthday he to successfully complete a probation or parole
was re-released on parole, with another year sentence during the six years I spent there.
left to complete it. He resumed work at his Like hospitals, places of employment become
father’s heating and air-conditioning repair shop, dangerous for people with a warrant. Soon after
stopped smoking marijuana, and typically came Mike, age 24, was released on parole to a
home before his curfew. Three weeks before halfway house, he got a job through an old
Alex was due to complete his parole sentence, friend who managed a Taco Bell. Mike refused
he was on his way home from 6th Street when to return to the halfway house in time for cur-
a man with a hooded sweatshirt covering his face few one night, saying he could not spend anoth-
stepped quickly out from behind the side of a er night cooped up with a bunch of men like he
store and walked Alex, with a gun in his back, was still in jail. He slept at his girlfriend’s house,
into the alley. Alex said the man took his money and in the morning found that he had been
issued a violation and would likely be sent back fact is you filed a statement, you know what I’m
to prison, pending the judge’s decision. Mike saying, gave them niggas your government [real
said he wasn’t coming back and they were going name]. Now they got your mom’s address in the file
to have to catch him. Two parole officers arrest- as your last known [address], so the next time they
ed him the next day as he was leaving the Taco come looking for you they not just going to your
uncle’s, they definitely going to be through there
Bell. He spent a year back upstate for this vio-
[his mother’s house].
lation.
A man with a warrant can get arrested on the Mike returned to the halfway house a few
job even if the police are not specifically search- days later and discovered that the guards were
ing for him. Chuck, who started working at the conducting alcohol tests. He left before they
local McDonald’s when he was 19, was issued could test him, assuming he would test positive
a probation violation for driving a car (his driv- and spend another year upstate for the violation.
ing privileges had been revoked as part of his Three days later the police found him at his
probation sentence). Although he had a warrant, mother’s house and took him into custody. He
Chuck kept working, saying that if the police mentioned that he thought their knowledge of
came he would simply run out the back door. his new address must have come from the time
A couple of weeks later, an old employee he reported the robbery.
got into a fight with three other employees, and Using the courts was no less dangerous.
the police shut down the McDonald’s while they Chuck, age 22, was working in construction. He
questioned witnesses and looked for the women had been arguing with his children’s mother for
who had been fighting. When the fight began, some months, and she stopped allowing him to
Chuck was in the storeroom talking on the see their two daughters, ages one-and-a-half
phone with his girlfriend. He came out, he said, and six months. Chuck decided to take her to
and saw six police officers staring at him. At this court to file for partial custody. At the time,
point he called and asked me to come and pick Chuck was also sending $35 a month to the
up his house keys, fairly certain he would be city toward payment on tickets he had received
taken into custody. When I got there he was for driving without a license or registration; he
driving away in the back of the police car. hoped to get into good standing and become
qualified to apply for a driver’s license. The
THE POLICE AND THE COURTS judge said that if he did not meet his payments
on time every month, he would issue a bench
Like going to work or to hospitals, using the warrant for his arrest,7 and Chuck could work
police and the courts was risky. After Mike
off the traffic tickets he owed in county jail
completed a year in prison he was released on
(fines and fees can be deducted for every day
parole to a halfway house. When his mother
spent in custody).
went on vacation, he invited a man he met in
Five months into his case for partial custody
prison to her house to play video games. The
in family court, Chuck lost his job working
next day Mike, Chuck, and I went back and
construction and stopped making the $35 pay-
found his mother’s stereo, DVD player, and two
ments to the city for the traffic tickets. He was
televisions were gone. A neighbor told us he had
unable to discover whether he had been issued
seen the man taking these things out of the
a warrant. Chuck went to court for the child cus-
house in the early morning.
Mike called the police and gave them a tody case anyway the next month, and when the
description of the man. When we returned to the children’s mother said he was a drug dealer and
block, Reggie and Steve admonished Mike not fit to get partial custody of their children,
about the risks he had taken: the judge ran his name in the database to see if
Reggie: And you on parole! You done got home like
a day ago! Why the fuck you calling the law for?
7 In Philadelphia, the courts can issue an arrest war-
You lucky they ain’t just grab [arrest] both of you.
Steve: Put it this way: They ain’t come grab you rant if a person fails to pay fines for traffic violations
like you ain’t violate shit, they ain’t find no other or misses a court date in regard to these violations.
jawns [warrants] in the computer. Dude ain’t pop A person can also be imprisoned for failing to pay
no fly shit [accused Mike of some crime in an moving violation fines (Philadelphia County, 33
attempt to reduce his own charges], but simple Pa.B. Doc. No. 2745 and Pa.B. Doc. No. 03-1110).
any warrants came up. They did not. Walking out of the mail and stealing credit cards. Their
out of the courthouse, Chuck said to me and his primary income came from taking in foster chil-
mother: dren.
I wanted to run, but it was no way I was getting out Jason lived on Chuck’s block and sold mar-
of there—it was too many cops and guards. But my ijuana with his younger brother. In January of
shit came back clean, so I guess if they is going to 2003, the police stopped Jason on a dirt bike and
give me a warrant for the tickets they ain’t get arrested him for receiving stolen property (they
around to it yet. said the bike came up stolen in California four
The judge ruled in Chuck’s favor, and he was years earlier). Jason did not appear for court and
granted visitation on Sundays at a court-super- was issued a bench warrant.
vised daycare site. These visits, Chuck said, Around this time, Ned and Jean discovered
made him anxious: “Every time I walk in the they might be kicked out of their house because
door I wonder, like, is it today? Are they going they owed property taxes to the city. Jean called
to come grab me, like, right out of the daycare? Jason, telling him to come to the house because
I can just see [my daughter’s] face, like, ‘Daddy, she had some gossip concerning his longtime
where you going?’” After a month, Chuck was love interest. According to Jason, when he
allowed to go to the mother’s house on the week- arrived on the porch steps, Jean’s nephew robbed
ends and pick up his daughters. Chuck appeared him at gunpoint. That night, Jean acknowledged
thrilled with these visits because he could see to me that she would take this money and pay
his children without having to interact with the some of their bills owed to the city. Reggie later
courts and risk being taken into custody for any remarked that Jason should have known not to
warrant that might come up. go to Ned and Jean’s house: as the only man on
While people on probation or parole may the block with a warrant out for his arrest at the
make tentative use of the police and the courts, time, he was vulnerable to violence or robbery
men with warrants typically stay away. During because he could not call the police.
the first year and a half I spent on 6th Street, I Second, wanted people’s inability to turn to
noted 24 instances in which members of the the police when harmed can lead young men to
group contacted the police when they were use violence to protect themselves or to get
injured, robbed, or threatened. These men were back at others. Black (1983) argues that some
either in good standing with the courts or had crimes can be understood as people taking mat-
no pending legal constraints. I did not observe ters into their own hands, that is, punishing peo-
any person with a warrant call the police or ple whom they consider to have committed a
voluntarily make use of the courts during the six crime. This kind of self-help crime is typically
years I spent there. Indeed, young men with carried out when the police and the courts are
warrants seemed to see the authorities only as unavailable (in this case, because people have
a threat to their safety. This has two important warrants out for their arrest and may be held in
implications. custody if they contact the authorities).
First, steering clear of the police means that One winter morning, Chuck, Mike, and I
wanted men tend not to use the ordinary were at a diner having breakfast to celebrate the
resources of the law to protect themselves from fact that Mike had not been taken into custody
crimes perpetrated against them. This can lead after his court appearance earlier that morning.
a person to become the target of those who are Chuck’s mother called to tell him that his car had
looking for someone to rob. been firebombed outside her house and that
Ned, age 43, and his long-time girlfriend fire trucks were putting it out. According to
Jean, age 46, lived on Mike’s block. Jean was a Chuck, the man who set fire to his car was
heavy crack user, although Chuck noted, “she someone who had given him drugs to sell on
can handle her drugs,” meaning she was able to credit, under the arrangement that Chuck would
maintain both a household and her addiction. pay him once he had sold the drugs. Chuck had
Ned was unemployed and occasionally hosted not been able to pay because the police had
“dollar parties” (house parties with a dollar taken the money out of his pockets when they
entrance fee and with drinks, food, and games searched him earlier that week. This was the first
that all cost a dollar) for extra money and car that Chuck had ever purchased legally, a
engaged in petty fraud, such as stealing checks ’94 Bonneville he had bought the week before
for $400 from a used-car lot in northeast shop. After work, he usually went to see his
Philadelphia. Chuck was silent for the rest of the friends from 6th street, and occasionally he
meal, and as we walked to Mike’s car, he said: would stay on the block drinking and talking
This shit is nutty, man. What the fuck I’m supposed until late at night.
to do, go to the cops? “Um, excuse me officer, I Donna and Alex frequently argued over what
think boy done blown up my whip [car].” He going time he came home and his drunken condition.
to run my name and shit, now he see I got a war- In these fights, I observed that Donna would
rant on me; next thing you know my Black ass threaten to call his parole officer and say that
locked the fuck up, you feel me? I’m locked up Alex was in violation if Alex did not return
because a nigga firebombed my whip. What the home at a reasonable hour. Donna also threat-
fuck, I’m supposed to let niggas take advantage? ened to call the parole officer and tell him that
Chuck and Mike discussed whether it was Alex was out past curfew or associating with
better for Chuck to take matters into his own known criminals if he cheated on her, or if he
hands or to do nothing (referred to as “letting did not contribute enough of his money to the
it ride” or “taking an L” [loss]). Doing nothing household. Because Alex was paroled to
had the benefit of not placing him in more legal Donna’s apartment, she could also threaten to
trouble, but, as they both noted, “letting it ride” call the parole office and say that she no longer
set them up to be taken advantage of by people wanted Alex to live with her. If this were to
who understood them to be “sweet.” happen, she explained to me, Alex would be
A few days later, Chuck drove over to 8th placed in a halfway house.
Street with Mike and Steve and shot at the In the early morning after a party, Mike and
young man whom he believed was responsible I drove Alex back to Donna’s apartment. She
for blowing up his car. Although no one was was waiting on the step for him:
injured, a neighbor reported the incident and the Donna: Where the fuck you been at?
police put out a body warrant for Chuck’s arrest Alex: Don’t worry about it.
for attempted murder. Donna: You must don’t want to live here no more.
Labeling theory suggests that those accord- Alex: Come on, Don. Stop playing.
ed a deviant status come to engage in deviance Donna: Matter of fact I’ll give you the choice
because of being labeled as such (Becker 1963; [between prison or a halfway house].
Lemert 1951). This phenomenon is known as Alex: Come on, Don.
Donna: Uhn-uhn, you not staying here no more.
“secondary deviance” (Lemert 1951:75).
I’m about to call your P.O. now, so you better
Declining to engage authorities when there may make up your mind where you going to go.
be concrete reasons for doing so should be con- Alex: I’m tired, man, come on, open the door.
sidered in this context. Young men’s hesitation Donna: Nigga, the next time I’m laying in the bed
to go to the police or to make use of the courts by myself that’s a wrap [that’s the end].
when they are wronged, because of concern
Later that day, Donna called me and listed a
they will be arrested, means they became the tar-
number of reasons why she needed to threaten
gets of theft and violence because it is assumed
Alex:
they will not press charges. With the police out
of reach, men then resort to more violence as a I can’t let that nigga get locked up for some dumb
strategy to settle disputes. shit like he gets caught for a DUI or he gets stopped
in a Johnny [a stolen car] or some shit. What the
fuck I’m supposed to do? Let that nigga roam
FAMILY AND FRIENDS free? And then next thing you know he locked up
Like going to the hospital or using the police and and I’m stuck here by myself with Omar talking
about “Where Daddy at?”
the courts, even more intimate relations—
friends, family, and romantic partners—may Donna stopped short of calling the police on
pose a threat and thus have to be avoided or at Alex and seemed to see her threats as necessary
least carefully navigated. My observations of efforts at social control. This use of the crimi-
Alex made this all too clear. When I met Alex, nal justice system as threat can be seen as par-
age 21, he was on parole and living with his girl- allel to the way in which single mothers threaten
friend Donna. Alex had recently gotten a job at to turn fathers over to child-support authorities
his father’s heating and air-conditioning repair if they do not contribute money informally
(Edin and Lein 1997). I also witnessed women Although Marie did call the cops and get
go a step further and call the police on their Mike taken into custody that day, she was the
boyfriends or kin to punish them or get back at first person to visit him in county jail after he
them. got out of quarantine and she continued to visit
Mike and Marie’s relationship witnessed just him (sometimes wearing a “Free Mike” T-shirt)
such a tension. They had a son when they were throughout his year-long trial. On the day of his
seniors in high school and a daughter two years sentencing, she appeared in the courtroom in a
later. When Mike and Marie were 22, and their low-cut top with a large new tattoo of his name
children were 1 and 3 years old, Mike began on her chest.
openly seeing another woman, Tara. Mike I also observed women use the police and the
claimed that he and Marie had broken up and courts as a form of direct retaliation. Michelle,
he could do as he wished, but Marie did not age 16, lived with her aunt on 6th Street. When
agree to this split and maintained they were Michelle started showing, she claimed that
still together and that he was in fact cheating. Reggie (who was 17 at the time) was the father.
(“He don’t be telling me we not together when Reggie denied he had gotten her pregnant, and
he laying in the bed with me!”) Mike provoked when Michelle said she wanted an abortion, he
expressions of jealousy (called “stunting”) as he refused to help pay for it. Michelle’s aunt
began riding past Marie’s block with Tara on the declared that she and her niece were cutting off
back of his ATV motorbike. Marie seemed infu- their relationship with Reggie and that he was
riated at the insult of her children’s father rid- no longer welcome in their house. Michelle
ing through her block with another woman for threatened to have Reggie beaten up by various
all of her family and neighbors to see, and she young men she was involved with. Reggie typ-
told him that he could no longer visit their two ically stood on the corner only two houses away
children. Mike and Marie spent many hours on from where they lived, and this became a fre-
the phone arguing over this. Mike would plead quent verbal conflict.
with her to let him see the children and she Around the same time, a newcomer to the
would explain that he would have to end things block and to the group shot and killed a man
with Tara first. from 4th Street during a dice game. The slain
Tara said she wanted to fight Marie and man’s associates (“his boys”) began driving up
almost did so one afternoon. Marie stood out- and down 6th Street and shooting at Reggie,
side her house, with six relatives in back of her, Chuck, and Steve. On one of these occasions,
waving a baseball bat and shouting, “Get your Reggie fired two shots back as their car sped
kids, bitch. I got mine!” (Meaning that she had away; these bullets hit Michelle’s house, break-
more claim to Mike than Tara did because they ing the glass in the front windows and lodging
shared two children.) One of Tara’s girlfriends in the living room walls. Although the bullets
and I held her back while she took off her ear- did not hit anyone, Michelle was home, and
rings and screamed, “I got your bitch, bitch!” called her aunt, who called the police. She told
and “I’m going to beat the shit out this fat bitch.” them that Reggie had shot at her niece, and the
One afternoon when Mike was sitting on a police put out a body warrant for his arrest for
neighbor’s steps, a squad car pulled up and two attempted murder.
police officers arrested him. He had a bench After five weeks, the police found Reggie
warrant out for missing a court date. He said hiding in a shed and took him into custody.
later that he never even thought to run, assum- Reggie’s mother and his brother Chuck tried to
ing the police were there to pick up the men talk Michelle and her aunt out of showing up in
standing next to him who had recently robbed court so that the charges would be dropped and
a convenience store. As Mike sat in the police Reggie could come home.8 From jail, Reggie
car, Marie talked at him through the window in called his mother and me repeatedly to discuss
a loud voice:
You not just going to dog [publicly cheat on or
8 This is a fairly common thing to do. Some peo-
humiliate] me! Who the fuck he think he dealing
with? Let that nigga sit for a minute [stay in jail ple get others arrested simply to extort money from
for a while]. Don’t let me catch that bitch up there them, which they request in exchange for not show-
either [coming to visit him in jail]. ing up as a witness at the ensuing trial.
the situation. Once when we were both on the the back door and ran through the alley before
line he said: they could catch him. The officers came back
Reggie: The bitch [Michelle’s aunt] know I was- the next night, breaking open the front door
n’t shooting at them. She know we going through (which remains broken and unlocked to this
it right now [are in the middle of a series of day), and ordered Reggie’s younger brother and
shootouts with men from another block]. Why I’m his grandfather to lie facedown on the floor
going to shoot at two females that live on my with their hands on their heads while they
block? She know I wasn’t shooting at them. searched the house. An off icer promised
Mother: What you need to do is call her up and Reggie’s mother that if she gave up her son,
apologize [for not taking responsibility for her they would not tell Reggie she had betrayed
niece’s pregnancy]. him. If she did not give Reggie up, he said he
Reggie: True, true.
would call child protective services and have her
Reggie did apologize and spread the word that younger son taken away because the house was
he was responsible for making Michelle preg- infested with roaches, covered in cat shit, and
nant. Michelle and her aunt did not show up at unfit to live in.
three consecutive court dates, and after six I was present two nights later when the police
months the case for attempted murder was raided the house for the third time. An officer
dropped and Reggie came home. Michelle’s mentioned they were lucky the family owned the
aunt seemed pleased with this result: house: if it was a Section 8 building they could
be immediately evicted for endangering their
You not just going to get my niece pregnant, then
you talking about it’s not yours, you know what I’m
neighbors and harboring a fugitive. (Indeed, I
saying? Fuck out of here, no.|.|.|. I mean, I wasn’t had seen this happen recently to two other fam-
trying to see that nigga sit for an attempt [get con- ilies.) The police found a gun upstairs that
victed of attempted murder], but he needed to sit Reggie’s mother could not produce a permit
for a little while. He got what he needed to get. He for; they cuffed her and took her to the police
had some time to sit and think about his actions, station. When her youngest son and I picked her
you dig me? He done got what he needed to get. up that afternoon, she said they told her she
While family members, partners, or friends would be charged for the gun unless she told
of a wanted man occasionally call the police on them where to find Reggie.
him to control his behavior or to punish him for Reggie’s mother begged him to turn himself
a perceived wrong, close kin or girlfriends also in, but Reggie refused. His grandfather, who
owned the house, told Reggie’s mother that he
link young men to the police because the police
would no longer allow her to live there with her
compel them to do so. It is common practice for
kids if she continued to hide her son from the
the police to put pressure on friends, girlfriends,
police:
and family members to provide information,
particularly when these people have their own This ain’t no damn carnival. I don’t care who he
warrants, are serving probation or parole, or is, I’m not letting nobody run through this house
have a pending trial. Family members and with the cops chasing him, breaking shit, spilling
shit, waking me up out of my sleep. I’m not with
friends who are not themselves caught up in the
the late night screaming and running. I open my
justice system may be threatened with eviction eyes and I see a nigga hopping over my bed try-
or with having their children taken away if they ing to crawl out the window. Hell no! Like I told
do not provide information about the young Reggie, if the law run up in here one more time I
men in their lives. be done had a stroke. Reggie is a grown-ass man
Reggie, age 17, was stopped by the police for [he was 17]. He ain’t hiding out in my damn house.
“loitering” on the corner and allowed the police We going to fuck around and wind up in jail with
to search him. When the police officer discov- this shit. They keep coming they going to find
some reason to book my Black ass.
ered three small bags of crack in the lining of
his jeans, Reggie started running. The cops lost Reggie’s grandfather began calling the police
him in the chase, and an arrest warrant was when he saw Reggie in the house, and Reggie’s
issued for possession of drugs with intent to dis- mother told him that he could no longer stay
tribute. there. For two months, Reggie lived in an aban-
Reggie told me that the police raided his doned Buick LeSabre parked in a nearby alley-
house the next night at 3:00 a.m. He left through way. Reggie’s mother said she missed her son
and felt she had betrayed him by abandoning be dropped off a few blocks away, and then
him, even though she had not turned him in to waited until the car was out of sight before
the police. When the police finally took Reggie walking inside. For six months, nobody on the
into custody, she expressed relief: block seemed to know where Steve was sleep-
Well, at least he don’t have to look over his shoul- ing.
der anymore, always worried that the law was Cultivating unpredictability helps wanted
going to come to the house. He was getting real men reduce the risk of friends and family
sick of sleeping in the car. It was getting cold out- informing on them. In fact, maintaining a secret
side, you know, and plus Reggie is a big boy and and unpredictable routine decreases the chance
his neck was all cramped up [from sleeping in the
of arrest by many of the other paths discussed
car].|.|.|. And he used to come to the back like: “Ma,
make me a plate,” and then he’d come back in 20 previously. It is easier for the police to find a per-
minutes and I’d pass him the food from out the win- son through his last known address if he comes
dow. home at around the same time to the same house
every day. Finding a person at work is easier if
Whether a man’s friends, relatives, or girl-
he works a regular shift in the same place every
friend link him to the authorities because the
day. Cultivating secrecy and unpredictability,
police pressure them to do so or because they
then, serve as a general strategy to avoid con-
leverage his wanted status to get back at him or
finement.
punish him, he comes to see those closest to him
as potential informants. Mike and Chuck once
discussed how they stood the highest chance of BEING WANTED AS A MEANS OF
“getting booked” because of their friends and ACCOUNTING
relatives’ attempts to “set them up.” Mike noted:
Once a man is wanted, maintaining a stable
Nine times out of ten, you getting locked up routine, being with his partner and family, going
because somebody called the cops, somebody to work, and using the police may link him to
snitching. That’s why, like, if you get a call from
the authorities and lead to his confinement. Yet
your girl like, “Yo, where you at, can you come
through the block at a certain time,” that’s a red when wanted men (or social analysts) imply
flag, you feel me? That’s when you start to think that being wanted is the root cause of their
like, “Okay, what do she got waiting for me?” inability to lead “respectable” lives, they are
stretching: long before the rise in imprison-
I observed wanted men try to reduce the
ment, urban ethnographers described the distrust
chance of their intimates informing by culti-
that Black people felt toward the police and
vating secrecy and unpredictability. Chuck and
Reggie referred to this strategy as “dipping and one another, and the difficulties poor Black
dodging” or “ducking in and out.” Chuck, age men faced in finding work and participating in
20, remarked: the lives of their families (Anderson 1999;
Cayton and Drake [1945] 1993; DuBois [1899]
The night is really, like, the best time to do what- 1996; Duneier 1999; Edin and Lein 1997;
ever you got to do. If I want to go see my mizz
[mother], see my girl, come through the block and
Liebow 1967; Newman 1999; Stack 1974).
holla at [say hello to] my boys I can’t be out in While legal entanglements may exacerbate these
broad day. I got to move like a shadow, you know, difficulties, being wanted also serves as a way
duck in and out, you thought you saw me, then to save face and to explain inadequacies.
bam, I’m out before you even could see what I was Liebow (1967:116) wrote that the unem-
wearing or where I was going. ployed men he spent time with accounted for
When Steve, age 19, had a bench warrant their failures with “the theory of manly flaws.”
out for failure to appear in court, he was deter- For example, instead of admitting that their
mined, he said, never to go back to jail. He slept marriages failed because they could not support
in a number of houses, not staying more than a their spouses, they explained that they were too
few nights in any one place. On the phone, he manly to be good husbands—they could not
would lie to his family members, girlfriend, and stop cheating, or drinking, or staying out late.
fellow block members about where he was stay- For the young men of 6th Street, being “on the
ing and where he planned to go next. If he got run” takes the place of, or at least works in con-
a ride to where he was sleeping, he requested to cert with, the “manly flaws” described by
Liebow as a means to retain self respect in the Mike: I’m cool now because I just paid the school
face of failure. fees. I ain’t want dude to come at my neck [get
Mike, age 21, had a bench warrant out angry], like, “Where the money at? Why you ain’t
because he did not show up to court for a hear- pay?” I wasn’t trying [didn’t want] to hear that bull-
ing in a drug possession case. During this time, shit.
he was not making what he considered to be From this, I gathered that Mike had not gone
decent money selling drugs, and he had been to Parents’ Day earlier in the year at least in part
unable to pay his son’s Catholic school fees for because he had not paid the school fees and
more than a month. Parents’ Day at his son’s did not want to confront the school’s adminis-
school that year was a Thanksgiving fair, and tration. Once he paid the bill, he proudly attend-
Mike had been talking about the day for weeks. ed the next event, a parent–teacher conference.
The night before the fair, Mike agreed to pick The warrant provided him with a way to avoid
up his children’s mother, Marie, and go to the going to Parents’ Day without admitting that he
school around 10:00 the next morning. did not want to go because he could not pay the
The next morning, Marie began calling school fees.
Mike’s cell phone at 8:30. She called around 13 Warrants also serve as an important expla-
times between 8:30 and 9:30. I asked Mike why nation for not having a job. Steve had a warrant
he did not pick up and he said that it was not safe out for a few weeks when he was 21, and repeat-
to go, considering the warrant. At noon, he edly mentioned how he could not get work
finally answered her call. By then the fair was because of this warrant:
almost over and Marie had caught the bus back
and forth herself. She was yelling so loudly that If I had a whip [car] I’d go get me a job up King
Steve, Chuck, and I could hear her voice through of Prussia [a mall in a neighboring county] or
the phone: whatever. But I can’t work nowhere in Philly. That’s
where niggas be fucking up. You remember when
What the fuck good are you on the streets if you Jason was at McDonald’s? He was like, “No, they
can’t even come to your son’s fair? Why I got to [the police] ain’t going to see me, I’m working in
do everything myself—take him to school, pick the back.” But you can’t always be back there,
him up from school, take him to the doctor.|.|.|. And like sometimes they put you at the counter, like if
you on some “I’m falling back. I’m laying low. I somebody don’t show up, you know what I mean?
can’t be up at no school. I can’t do this I can’t do How long he worked there before they [the police]
that.” What the fuck I’m supposed to tell your came and got him? Like a week. They was like,
son: “Michael, Daddy can’t come to the fair today “Um, can I get a large fry and your hands on the
because the cops is looking for him and we don’t counter because your Black ass is booked!” And
want him to get booked.” Is that what you want me he tried to run like shit, too, but they was outside
to say? the jawn [the restaurant] four deep [four police offi-
Mike called her some names and hung up. cers were outside] just waiting for him to try that
Before going back to sleep, he mentioned what shit.
a “dumb-ass” she was: Although Steve now and then invoked his
Do she want me to get locked up? How I’m going warrant as an explanation for his unemploy-
to be there for my kids if I’m locked up? She don’t ment, the fact was that Steve did not secure a job
be thinking, like, she don’t have to look over her during the six years I knew him, including the
shoulder, you know what I’m saying. She be for- times when he did not have a warrant.
getting I can’t just do whatever I want, go wher- James, age 18, moved with his aunt to 6th
ever I want.
Street, and after a while became Reggie’s
Mike seemed convinced that going to the “young-boy.” Like the other guys, he talked
fair would put him at risk, and at the time I about his court cases or mentioned that he had
believed this to be the reason he stayed home. to go see his probation officer.
But a few months later, although he was still Steve, Mike, Chuck, and I were sitting on
wanted for the same bench warrant, he attend- Chuck’s back-porch steps one afternoon when
ed a parent–teacher conference. Reggie drove up the alley way and announced:
Alice: I thought you didn’t want to go up there. “Yo, the boy James he clean, dog! He ain’t got
Remember Marie was mad as shit the other time no warrant, no detainer, nothing. He don’t even
you didn’t go. got like a parking ticket in his name.”
Reggie told us he had just been to James’s accounting for failure. Having a warrant may not
mother’s house across town, and she had com- be the reason why Steve, for example, did not
plained to him that James had not yet found a look for work, but it was a fact that police offi-
job. James’s mother informed Reggie that James cers did go to a man’s place of work to arrest
had no pending cases, no warrants or detainers him, and that some of the men experienced this
or anything “in the system that would hold him” first-hand. In the context of their ongoing strug-
and so should have no problem finding employ- gles, what they said amounted to reasonable
ment. When Reggie finished explaining this to “half-truths” (Liebow 1967) that could account
us, Mike continued the conversation: for their failures, both in their own minds and
Mike: What happened to that case he caught? in the minds of others who had come to see their
Damn that was a little minute ago [a while ago]. own lives in similar terms.
Chuck: I think he spanked that jawn [the case was
dropped].
DISCUSSION
Reggie: I wish I would get my shit [warrant] lift-
ed. I’d be bam, on my J-O [job], bam, on my A-P The presence of the criminal justice system in
[apartment], bam, go right to the bank, like, “Yeah, the lives of the poor cannot simply be measured
motherfucker, check my shit, man. Run that shit. by the number of people sent to prison or the
My shit is clean, dog. Let me get that account.” I
be done got my elbow [driver’s license] and every-
number who return home with felony convic-
thing. tions. Systems of policing and supervision that
accompanied the rise in imprisonment have fos-
Reggie explained how his wanted status tered a climate of fear and suspicion in poor
blocks him from getting jobs, using banks, communities—a climate in which family mem-
obtaining a driver’s license, and renting an apart- bers and friends are pressured to inform on one
ment. Yet the things that Reggie thought a another and young men live as suspects and
“clean” person should do were not things that fugitives, with the daily fear of confinement.
Reggie himself did when he was in good stand- Young men who are wanted by the police
ing with the authorities over the course of the find that activities, relations, and localities that
years that I knew him. Nor were they things that others rely on to maintain a decent and
most of the other men on the block did. Alex, respectable identity are transformed into a sys-
Mike, and Chuck looked for jobs when they tem that the authorities make use of to arrest and
did not have warrants out for their arrest, but confine them. The police and the courts become
others, like Reggie and Steve, did not. None of dangerous to interact with, as does showing up
them obtained a valid driver’s license during to work or going to places like hospitals. Instead
the six years I knew them.9 Only Mike secured
of a safe place to sleep, eat, and find acceptance
his own apartment during this time, and he kept
and support, mothers’ homes are transformed
it for only three months. To my knowledge,
into a “last known address,” one of the first
none of the men established a bank account.
places the police will look for them. Close rel-
Being wanted serves as an excuse for a wide
atives, friends, and neighbors become potential
variety of unfulfilled obligations and expecta-
informants.
tions. At the same time, it is perhaps only
One strategy for coping with these risks is to
because being wanted is in fact a constraining
avoid dangerous places, people, and interac-
condition that it works so well as a means of
tions entirely. A young man thus does not attend
the birth of his child, nor seek medical help
when he is badly beaten. He avoids the police
9 Obtaining a driver’s license requires a birth cer- and the courts, even if it means using violence
tificate or passport, a Social Security card, and two when he is injured or becoming the target of oth-
proofs of residence. Obtaining these items, in turn, ers who are looking for someone to rob. A sec-
requires identification and processing fees. One must
ond strategy is to cultivate unpredictability—to
undergo a physical exam by a doctor, pay for and pass
a written permit test, and locate an insured and reg- remain secretive and to “dip and dodge.” To
istered car with which to take the driving test. Because ensure that those close to him will not inform
men drove without proper documentation, they got on him, a young man comes and goes in irreg-
tickets, which had to be paid before they could begin ular and unpredictable ways, remaining elusive
the application process. and untrusting, sleeping in different beds, and
deceiving those close to him about his where- payback for some perceived wrong. Young men
abouts and plans. If a man exhausts these pos- also turn their wanted status into a resource by
sibilities and gets taken into custody, he may try using it to account for shortcomings or failures
to avoid jail time by informing on the people he that may have occurred anyway. Because being
knows. wanted is understood by 6th Street residents to
Whatever the strategy, a man finds that as be deeply constraining, young men with little
long as he is at risk of confinement, staying income, education, or job prospects can call on
out of prison and participating in institutions like their wanted status to save face and to assuage
family, work, and friendship become contra- the guilt of failing as a father, romantic partner,
dictory goals; doing one reduces his chance of or employed person.
achieving the other. Staying out of jail becomes Contemporary theories of social stratification
aligned not with upstanding, respectable action, and political sociology argue that the criminal
but with being an even shadier character. justice system has become a vehicle for pass-
Family members and romantic partners expe- ing on disadvantage (Western 2006) and “an
rience considerable hardship because of their instrument for the management of dispossessed
association with men who are being sought or and dishonored groups” (Wacquant 2001:95).
supervised by the state. Specifically, I found that The findings presented here confirm these
family members living with a relative or important theses, but my fieldwork also suggests
boyfriend with a warrant out for his arrest are that those so managed are hardly hapless vic-
caught between three difficult lines of action: tims, immobilized in webs of control. Instead,
allowing him to stay in their homes and placing men and women on 6th Street evade and resist
their own safety and security in jeopardy, cast- the authorities, at times calling on the state for
ing him out, or betraying him by turning him in their own purposes, to make claims for them-
to the police. selves as honorable people, and to exercise
It is possible that issuing warrants to a large power over one another.
group of young men for minor probation vio-
lations or delinquencies with court fees, while CONCLUSIONS AND THEORETICAL
straining family life and making it difficult for IMPLICATIONS
men to find and keep a job, also serves to dis-
courage them from committing crime. Although Young men on the run in Philadelphia can tell
this article notes some instances of warrants us something about how power operates in con-
potentially encouraging crime (e.g., by keeping temporary society. Indeed, the policing of the
men from participating in the formal labor mar- modern ghetto may be usefully juxtaposed to the
ket or by leading men with warrants to become influential theory of power Foucault outlines
the target of robbers), I cannot speculate as to in Discipline and Punish (for discussions of
the net effect of such policies on crime or vio- Foucault’s dominant position in the sociology of
lence. The data presented here merely suggest punishment see Cohen 1985; Garland 1990).
that current policies in Philadelphia grant a siz- Foucault’s (1979) theory of power begins
able group of people—before they are convict- with the prison and extends to work houses,
ed of crimes and after they have served a almshouses, military barracks, cities under tight
sentence—an illegal or semilegal status, and regulation during cholera epidemics, and final-
that this status makes it difficult for them to ly to modern society. He argues that popular ille-
interact with legitimate institutions without galities were widespread in early modern
being arrested and sent to jail. society, and sovereigns made no systematic
More surprisingly, the system of low-level attempts to stamp them out. Instead, sovereigns
warrants and court supervision has the unin- intervened sporadically, making gruesome pub-
tended consequence of becoming a resource lic examples of a small number of cases. Taking
for women and relatives who, possessing more the prison as an example, Foucault suggests
legal legitimacy, can use it to control their part- that modern punishment is organized not on
ners and kin. Girlfriends, neighbors, and fami- the principle of occasional fear-inspiring pub-
ly members threaten to call the police on young lic brutality, but on a panoptic system of inspec-
men to “keep them in line,” and occasionally tion, surveillance, and graded rewards and
they call the police or get a man arrested as punishments. The law is enforced systemati-
cally: individuals are carefully monitored and (Foucault 1979; Goffman 1961; Sykes [1958]
examined and files are kept on them. The age 2007). Supervision around 6th street is not
of popular illegality is replaced by the age of based on constant observation and disciplin-
rational discipline. ing, but on a kind of checkpoint or flashpoint
At first glance, the Philadelphia neighbor- system, whereby certain people are only occa-
hood I studied, with its video cameras on street sionally (if not randomly) monitored, searched,
lamps, frequent police stops and searches, and observed, or dispossessed.
monitoring of residents through probation, These occasional examinations (the urine
parole, and house arrest, seems to resemble the test during a probation meeting, the stop and
panoptic fortress town Foucault envisioned in frisk on a street corner, the raid of a house, or
Discipline and Punish (1979). Yet the ghetto the running of a driver’s name in the police
cannot be placed under the general umbrella of database to see if any warrants come up) are put
the panopticon. A different form of power exists to use not—as Foucault envisioned—to dole
there, and with different results for the people out a range of small punishments and rewards
involved. in the interest of correction and training, but to
Foucault suggests that in prisons, army identify people who may qualify for prison and
camps, and other such panoptic places, author- to bring those people into the hands of the state.
ities accomplish cooperation through “constant, This form of power—occasional, incomplete,
uninterrupted supervision” and a system of and for the purpose of identifying candidates for
graded punishments and rewards. People are extreme sanction—does not seem to produce
coaxed into compliance through careful train- orderly subjects. Self-discipline and the inter-
ing, examining, and monitoring, through minute nalization of norms makes little sense in a con-
attention to the movements and gestures of the text in which following the rules (e.g., appearing
body. Eventually, subjects come to internally in court, showing up to probation meetings, or
monitor themselves (Garland 2001). turning oneself in when accused) may hasten
In comparison to places like prisons, monas- one’s removal to prison.
teries, or army camps, the monitoring and super- A final point of comparison: Foucault argues
vision of ghetto residents is incomplete. that power based on fear (the public hangings)
Enclosed spaces make near perfect surveillance was replaced in the modern era by power based
and enforcement possible: people can live on observation, examination, and discipline. In
unlawfully only if they do not get caught or if the 6th street neighborhood, one indeed finds
the authorities look the other way (Sykes [1958] monitoring and supervision, but this monitor-
2007). In spaces like the 6th street neighboring does not put an end to fear. In fact, the lives
hood, however, many people break the law with- of residents are organized precisely around fear,
out the authorities knowing; many others are that is, the fear of being sent to jail.
known to be in violation but the authorities do Garland (1990:168) argues that a significant
not have the resources or the ability (or, to be failing of Discipline and Punish is that it
more cynical, the desire) to locate them all and describes “the control potential possessed by
bring them to justice. This opens up the possi- modern power-knowledge technologies as if it
bility of people existing in the spaces between were the reality of their present-day operation.”
identification, discovery, and apprehension. By studying the ghetto ethnographically, we
Surveillance and supervision in the ghetto are can see how the forms of power Foucault envi-
incomplete not only because people are wide- sioned operating in a panopticon actually pan
ly able to break the rules and to evade the author- out when applied to a neighborhood. People in
ities, but also because the forms of supervision the modern policed ghetto do not live as tight-
do not strive to be all-encompassing in the first ly controlled and disciplined subjects. Rather,
place. Residents of the neighborhood I studied they are living as semilegal or illegal people,
do not find that their movements are tightly coping with the daily threat of capture and con-
controlled and regimented, as they would be in finement. The life of a suspect or a fugitive is
a prison or convent; they do not eat, sleep, and quite different from the life of a captive, even
live together under the watchful gaze of one though broadly speaking, the same forms of
central authority, nor is their privacy and per- power—observation, examination, the keeping
sonal property permanently denied them of files—may sustain them both.
One can of course argue that wanted people, social situation that should be taken into account
poised to perpetuate their own criminality, have if we are to fully grasp the effects of policies like
indeed internalized the norms that disciplining mass incarceration.
powers sought to instill. In this sense, a status
group of fugitives fits nicely into Foucault’s Alice Goffman is a PhD Candidate in the Sociology
functionalist ideas about the production of delin- Department at Princeton University.
quency and its political uses (Foucault
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On the Run: Wanted Men in a

Although recent increases in imprisonment are concentrated in poor Black communities,

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2009, VOL. 74 (June:339–357)

HOSPITALS AND JOBS and pistol-whipped him three times, then

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