Alice Goffman Essay

Alice Goffman has completed research for black men in and out of incarceration in the United States, from poor, metropolitan communities, which little education. Blacks receive discrimination from officers through stereotyping and racial profiling. The police are patrolling areas of poverty because of the high crime rate blacks have in cities, including Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago. The discrimination leads to blacks not being able to get jobs, afford a healthy lifestyle, and support their family. Goffman has done research to examine why black citizens fear the police’s presence instead of feeling safe. This research was expanded over six years to see the honest truth of discrimination. Alice was friendly with men and women of

color to understand their point of view and to see what their daily lives included. The men Alice were friends with were the people she was doing research on. Alice followed her friends lives for six years while they were not in jail, on probation, or in jail. More police officers were supervising citizens to make more arrests. The increase in the police is due to police having to meet rising quotas of UF-250 forms, the zero-tolerance policy, and to make communities feel protected. The UF-250 form was required to be filled out by officers when doing a stop and frisk to ensure they were following correct protocol. The zero-tolerance policy was carried out to treat all crimes equally serious and dangerous. The increase in officers did the opposite of making the communities feel safe. From Goffman’s research, officers that patrol in cities found that people who lived there felt threatened or scared rather than protected and safe. Goffman recognizes citizens worries as, “The fear of being sent to jail” (Goffman 355). Citizens are constantly worried that they would be going back to jail. Although, the police were striving to have citizens inform other people in the community of the officer’s presence to keep illegal contraband off the streets. Within the first year and a half of her research, Alice had witnessed the police break down doors and brutally beat young men. She is not the only one to witness this, which spreads a fear that the police are out to get citizens rather than help them. Alice’s friends were in and out of jail very often, were making money illegally, and did not have a place to call home. Alice claims that men who did not have anything to worry about were still scared that they were going to get arrested because the police would find a reason to arrest them. Due to the zero-tolerance policy, underprivileged citizens sat in jail for unpaid court fees because they were not able to get jobs out of jail and were arrested for previous violations that had not been solved at the time. People were scared to turn to the police for help because they thought the police could not understand their actions to be legal; even though people thought to just be taking matters into their own hands to solve their problems instantly. Goffman explains that wanted men are using being wanted as a crutch for not being able to live sustainable lives. Her friends were always trying to avoid the cops at all costs because they did not want to get sent back to jail. Her friends tried to remain unnoticed and out of sight so they would not return to jail. Blacks believed the cops were out to get them and if they had nothing to fear, they would still get them for something.
Key Terms or Concepts:
Panoptic Power
Panoptic power is used according to Foucault, a French Philosopher, as a form of surveillance. The police were in neighborhoods patrolling on foot and by motor vehicle to bring awareness to the communities they were watching. This surveillance made people fear the police because citizens in the communities did not think of this as protection. They believed the police were patrolling in order to catch the criminals. Police were trying to minimize crimes by their presence and keep contraband and illegal weapons off the streets. Yet, panopticism was not an effective way of surveillance in cities. People were finding ways around the police. Panopticism is mainly used in prison systems because prisoners are able to be seen at all times. So the extent of surveillance that the police were giving was only good to a certain extent.
Secondary Deviance
Secondary deviance is being defined in this text as being deviant because a person is labeled deviant. This is seen in situations where Alice’s friends get out of jail and are feeling taken advantage of because of previous situations they put themselves in before they went to jail. For example, her friend Mike was out of jail and a car that he legally bought, was set on fire because Mike made a deal with a drug dealer to sell drugs and give him the money for it. When Mike entered the jail, the police took all of his money, therefore, he was not able to follow up his end of the deal with paying the drug dealer for the drugs. Since Mike’s car was caught on fire, he felt the need to shoot at the drug dealer. This is deviance taken too far.

Quotation Analysis:
“Wanted people’s inability to turn to the police when harmed can lead young men to use violence to protect themselves or to get back at others” (Goffman 347).

Goffman explains this quote as secondary deviance. She observed her friends get into more unnecessary trouble due to illegal actions they could not involve the police in. The men were taking matters into their own hands as they thought they were going to end the violence, with more violence. Her friends believed they had to get even with people who did them wrong. Many people took part in these “self-help crimes” because of the illegal things happening such as drug deals and warrants out for arrest of those who were involved. The police were not to get involved in keeping citizens out of jail.

“Children learn at an early age to watch out for the police and to prepare to run” (Goffman 343).

Goffman explains that children as young as five years old know exactly what the police say when they stop someone. Two children imitated a police officer stopping someone for drugs and seized the items from the pocket of the suspect. Although this entirely pretended, the children both knew what the police officer and the suspect would say and do. Police’s presence is not necessarily a good thing when it involves children learning to run from the cops, instead of cooperating respectfully. The fear of police officers are being spread into so many people that children are

involved.
“Young men worried that they would be picked up by the police and taken into custody even when they did not have a warrant out for their arrest” (Goffman 344).
Throughout Alice’s six-year research, she saw that men, no matter what status they were in with the law, feared the police. They believed they were always going to be in trouble for what they had done in their past, who their acquaintances were, and their presence. The police put fear in these underprivileged citizens. These people were always “on the run” as Alice says; explaining when they were not in jail, they had to find every reason to avoid going back and to not get caught with what they were currently doing.
Synthesis:
Throughout my first and second source evaluations, the theme of racial profiling is evident due to high crime rates. The term furtive that was used in my first source evaluation ties in with panopticism. Police officers were looking for furtive behavior which includes suspicious behavior. Panopticism is the surveillance police officers are providing with their presence. My first source evaluation includes that only 1.5% of stop and frisks result in finding a weapon. Like mentioned before, young men of color are worried that they will be stopped by the police even when they are not doing anything. Citizens within communities which police patrol in, are likely to not bring weapons onto the street because of the police’s presence. With the police stopping 2.3 million frisks, as stated in my first source evaluation, citizens who do not have anything to be worried about, are in fear of being stopped and harassed because of their skin color.
Overall Source Evaluation:
Alice Goffman provides extensive, personal research to why citizens fear the cops. The research provided shows how Alice knew these friends before they were in and out of jail. Goffman got a sense of what houses her friends grew up in and how they made their money. She follows her friends on a six-year research journey to discover why citizens are in constant fear of the police. With secondary deviance, citizens tried to handle their problems on their own, without getting the cops involved; due to the illegal actions that took place. The officers that patrolled certain communities that were populated mainly by blacks, tended to be at a disadvantage from their socioeconomic status. Her friends turned to illegal ways to make money because they were not able to get jobs with their background of little education. Citizens within these black populated communities feared the police because the citizens believed they would be stopped for unjust reasons pertaining to their skin color. Racial profiling is a theme to my research paper. The end to stop and frisk was due to unconstitutional racial profiling. This source limits me to Alice Goffman’s friends she made, who are a few men and women of color. The friends she made had different opinions regarding the police which is useful information because the police are feared by people who have had bad encounters with them. The source is timely because it was published in 2009 and stop and frisk was still continuing then. Alice Goffman uses sources such as philosopher Michel Foucault, the Federal Bureau of Investigation website, and many university presses which are all credible sources. Michel Foucault’s idea of panopticism can be spoken more of because the surveillance of police officers can only be so useful in reducing crimes when citizens in the communities are finding ways to go around the officers to handle their situations themselves. Also, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website will provide accurate facts and statistics that I can cite from. Alice asks herself what the relationship between wanted men have with town locals would be like. Are opinions influenced on the severity of the crime that wanted people have done?