On The Run Alice Goffman Analysis

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City is a book written by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor named Alice Goffman. Goffman’s book is written after her completion of a six-year ethnographic observation of a poor black community in Philadephia. This observation allowed Goffman to really understand the sudden prison boom and the hidden practices and surveillance practices lying in this one community. The completion of Goffman’s observation assignment also points out her main argument of her book which is that high imprisonment rates, as well as the intensive policing and surveillance that comes with them, are causing a transformation of black neighborhoods into communities filled with suspects and fugitives . In sum, Goffman 's …show more content…
Goffman’s personal experiences with the sixth street boys is a huge contribution to this argument for the reason that Goffman witnessed these men get thrown in jail or have to run for their lives with her own two eyes. Goffman 's ethnographic observation also shows that her main argument is very much so accurate for the simple reason she lived in the community for six years. Goffman had moved to the community so she could be closer to the boys when she was conducting her observation, this would allow her to be aware first hand of the abundance of police around her. Even though living in the community itself would give her a good amount of information regarding the life in the community members, Goffman had gone above and beyond by conducting interviews with law enforcement officers that gave her all the information she would have needed regarding the heavy police presence. Not only would this information account for the conditions of the community of sixth street but it would also account for the reason for mass imprisonment in …show more content…
The dialog between Goffman and these boys really adds to the book, for the simple reason this conversation actually happened between and was not made up. The use of dialog with these boys also allows the reader to get a sense of the emotion behind having to always wonder what each day will bring for the sixth street boys. Goffman had lived through the experiences of watching these boys houses get raided to watching them go to jail. I highly recommend this book to people who are intrigued with learning about our world 's criminal justice system. This book really does show that in recent years it has gone awry by the use of statistics as well as Goffman 's interviews with law enforcement officers. Even though this book is based on the criminal justice system in America, It makes you wonder if the cases would vary depending on where you are located in the world. This book defiantly will open people 's eyes to what is really happening in our society that is unknown to