On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City

By Alice Goffman

Forty years in, the War on Drugs has done almost nothing to prevent drugs from being sold or used, but it has nonetheless created a little-known surveillance state in America’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Arrest quotas and high-tech surveillance techniques criminalize entire blocks, and transform the very associations that should stabilize young lives—family, relationships, jobs—into liabilities, as the police use such relationships to track down suspects, demand information, and threaten consequences.

Alice Goffman spent six years living in one such neighborhood in Philadelphia, and her close observations and often harrowing stories reveal the pernicious effects of this pervasive policing. Goffman introduces us to an unforgettable cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance—some of them small-time drug dealers, others just ordinary guys dealing with limited choices. All find the web of presumed criminality, built as it is on the very associations and friendships that make up a life, nearly impossible to escape. We watch as the pleasures of summer-evening stoop-sitting are shattered by the arrival of a carful of cops looking to serve a warrant; we watch—and can’t help but be shocked—as teenagers teach their younger siblings and cousins how to run from the police (and, crucially, to keep away from friends and family so they can stay hidden); and we see, over and over, the relentless toll that the presumption of criminality takes on families—and futures.

While not denying the problems of the drug trade, and the violence that often accompanies it, through her gripping accounts of daily life in the forgotten neighborhoods of America's cities, Goffman makes it impossible for us to ignore the very real human costs of our failed response—the blighting of entire neighborhoods, and the needless sacrifice of whole generations.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Apr 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9780226136851

Reviews for On the Run

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alice Goffman undertook a massive project for her academic dissertation in sociology - an ethnographic study documenting the lives of a group of people living in a predominately black, crime ridden neighborhood in Philadelphia. She ended up doing more than documenting - she lived in and around the 'hood for six years, becoming roommates with two of the young men who figure prominently in her book.Goffman ends up being accepted as part of the scenery in the pseudonymous 6th Street, welcomed by a group of young men and their families to document their lives. And those lives are full of trouble - crime, drugs, poverty, arrests, warrants and any other number of hardships. Goffman immerses herself in part their lives, crossing the impartial observer line in many cases to become a participant.Her statistics regarding young, poor black men are frightening. This book does serve to underscore what we see almost every day on news feeds. We also get to know the friends and families of this core group. Goffman does also make connections with people in the neigbourhood who are 'clean' and trying to make a good life without the crime, guns etc. These subjects are just as interesting, but receive less focus.I did find that some stories were repeated in more than one chapter - Goffman seems to be using certain compelling incidents to illustrate numerous points she wants to highlight. I found the appendix of her own journey to and through the book quite fascinating.On the Run is an accounting from one side of the street. There are some questions as to the veracity of some of the anecdotes and interactions that Goffman describes. Some of her own motives, behaviors and recollections have been called into question. Despite that, On the Run does provide much food for thought - and discussion.Robin Miles was the narrator. She has a voice that is easy to listen to, clear and well modulated She is able to emphasize and empathize with a change in tenor and tone. She's also able to provide suitable voices when one of the subjects of the book is 'speaking'. I thought she interpreted the book well

[froxgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an astonishing, critical field study into the lives of black men and women and the cycle of perpetual incarceration in a Philadelphia neighborhood (and of course in all of urban America). Every cog in this wheel, from the young men to their mothers to the police to the defenders to the judicial and the jailers know the futility and the utter waste these policies leave in their wake. Alice is a white undergrad who starts out as a tutor and becomes a 6th Street neighborhood resident and friend to the "dirty" (men and boys with warrants/criminal records) and the "clean" (same as above but with no record). The span between their lives is seemingly unconquerable and to a great extent based on whether or not their parents had stable jobs.Goffman's position, as the only white woman in this environment, is precarious at first. In her conclusion, she provides insight into her ongoing awareness of her white privilege in this book, the basis for her academic thesis. Her struggles with deciding how deeply to immerse herself into 6th Street make for a tale all of its own.As a member of several anti-racism groups on Facebook, I have mixed feelings about praising this book to the skies - if it was written by a black woman, would any attention have been paid? But I can't ignore how much knowledge I gained by reading On The Run. This is mandatory reading for all progressive people, and might even change a few hearts and minds who currently don't get it.

[sj1335 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be full of answers to the questions that we have all asked. We have always been given vague answers to, why our black youths, mainly male are filling up the prisons. We finally get the answers to many of our questions answered by Ms. Goffman.This was part of Ms. Goffman's thesis which turned into a fantastic book, she wrote it from her own notes and experiences while living in a poor black Philadelphia neighborhood for six years. She became very close with many of the people who lived in an area known as 6th street. She even lived on the block and became roommates with two of the young men who have been in the system from an early age. She describes how hard is to get and hold a job once you've been in the system or even finish school. She witnesses the way the police treat all the members of the neighborhood, from completely random stops of the young men to full out beatings. Most of the young men were on probation or parole for low level offenses. They were constantly getting thrown back into the system for not being able to pay the court costs, etc. It was a never ending cycle they were constantly having court appearances or getting arrested that they couldn't hold down a job regardless how hard they tried. Some were forced to sell drugs just to be able to survive. These young men were constantly on the run because from their prospective everyone was the enemy. The police would put pressure on the young men's mothers who had nothing as it was by night raids by breaking down the door and literally destroy the house. If the person of question wasn't there they would threaten to have whatever benefits they were on cancelled and charge them with harboring a fugitive. A lot of these poor women were terrified, the elderly and sick ones were easy marks for the officers. If the young man had children they would use the same scare tactics with the children's mothers. They were very quick with tossing CPS out to them, which has to be every mother's nightmare. Their own friends weren't immune to this type of "shakedown". They were always threatened with some minor offence that would land them in Jail or Prison. It really opens your eyes to what these young man had forfeit to keep from landing back in the system over something a bench warrant for not being able to pay the fines when they can get arrested showing up for work.This is a fantastic book, I really wish there were more books like this out to make people understand that it's not the youth that are causing the trouble it's our justice system. Reading this book it was like reading about a war zone in our Country. These men were getting it from other gangs, they were hardly a gang themselves, just a group of boys who grew up together. But they had to protect themselves for the violence these others would cause them or it just escalated. This book also tells of some ingenious ways these young people had to patch themselves up since they couldn't go the hospital. Ms. Goffman did an excellent job writing this book and you could even say she risked her life and freedom to get this wonderful, insightful book written. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in our society and that should be everyone. It will help you understand the crisis that is going out not only with the police but the whole justice system. less

[Nicholas Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this to be a fascinating and eye opening account of life amongst those on the fringes of society. The personal details merge well with a sociologists detachment. Highly recommended.

[barlow304 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Alice Goffman’s Ph.D dissertation has turned into an amazing book on the effect of mass incarceration and excessive policing on one poor, black Philadelphia neighborhood. The young men she follows for 6 years of fieldwork struggle to support themselves, to attend court dates, to pay court fees, and to stay away from the police. They are “on the run”. Their lives are chaotic, even as they try to maintain some sense of dignity and honor. At the same time, they also use the criminal justice system with its jails, bonds, and warrants to serve their own needs for sanctuary, banking, and to excuse personal failures.Goffman also covers how the state of being on the run affects the young men’s relationships with family and loved ones. Mothers and lovers shelter and protect men on the run, unless they are turning them over to the police under pressure or in an attempt to protect them from violence. Her book also covers the quiet or “clean” folks of the neighborhood, who have jobs, ambitions, and who avoid street life when they can.This book is somewhat controversial, but many of the complaints about it are the result of academic nit-picking, grievance-finding, or just plain jealousy. On the run should be required reading for anyone interest in criminal justice reform.

[_zoe__1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a work of ethnography, whose author, a middle-class white student, spent years living in a poor black neighbourhood in an attempt to understand what life was like for people in a very different world. It's generated a lot of controversy, including accusations of focusing too much on the criminal elements and treating the community as a source of dramatic entertainment for outsiders, or something along those lines.But I found it really informative and worth reading, especially in light of recent events in Ferguson, Staten Island, etc.—lots of poor black people are getting killed by the police for no good reason, and the police are getting away with it. I didn't know nearly enough about the interactions of the criminal justice system with poor black communities, so I feel like I learned a lot from this book. There's mention of how young children get entangled in the criminal justice system, like one boy who's maybe 11 and is riding in a car with his older brother; it turns out the car is stolen, so the 11-year-old is treated as an accomplice to a crime and the process begins. There's also discussion of how police threaten and intimidate women to make them inform on their sons, brothers, or boyfriends: in poor neighbourhoods, where living conditions aren't always great, it's easy to say that their homes are unacceptable and threaten to take away their children, or just arrest the women themselves for various secondary crimes like obstructing justice etc. There are plenty of violent police raids. The pressure to inform creates an atmosphere of distrust and rips apart the social fabric; men who are wanted by the police have to make a habit of being unpredictable, not letting anyone know where they'll be at a given time, and so on. I also had no idea just how many types of warrants there are for various offenses: besides actually committing crimes, people are often wanted for things like not paying court fees. And men who often have multiple warrants out for their arrest can't take advantage of basic services like medical care; showing up at the hospital when they've suffered a serious injury or their partner is about to give birth can result in arrest, so it's often too risky.So there's lots of thought-provoking material here, and I feel like I learned a lot about a world that was completely unfamiliar to me. My only complaint is the organization of the book in thematic sections; the lack of a continuous narrative made it easy to set the book down, so I didn't read it straight through, and I often found myself wanting to read more about Alice herself and her place in this world. But there's a lengthy afterword where she does talk more about her own experiences, which was also really interesting. She had taken her project so far that she avoided any media that her friends in the neighbourhood weren't also reading or watching, with the result that she had trouble interacting with people in graduate school after missing out on years of typical undergrad experiences. She had developed a fear of young-ish white men with short hair—i.e., people who could potentially be police officers—which made it difficult to interact with some of her professors. Etc.I'm glad I read this one.

[socprof9740 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant book.

[schatzi_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Unfortunately, this is going to be a short review, since I am exhausted. This book is eye-opening, to be sure, but I found myself questioning some of it. In particular, Goffman's claim that an eleven-year-old (Tim) was sentenced to three years of probation because he was riding in a car that turned out to be stolen. Uhh, that's not a crime in Pennsylvania (unless you took a part in stealing the car, which according to Goffman, he didn't - the person driving the car wasn't even aware that the car was stolen). So we're either not getting the entire story here or Goffman made this up; either way, it made me question her truthfulness and accuracy when relating other events to the reader.