Abstract
From 1989 to 1995 my colleague Richard Wright and I studied hundreds and hundreds of active offenders. When I say “studied” I mean interviewed, followed, observed, created experimental conditions, re-interviewed, cross-validated results, obsessed about ethics, worried about their safety and ours, rode around with them in cars, read and reread transcribed interviews and most provocatively went on “walk-abouts” with them past the sites of their most recent crimes while they were “miked up.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
All quotes are reprinted verbatim, as was the convention Richard and I used in our work. Street Daddy’s responses are in italics and the interviewer’s questions are in bold.
References
Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence and the code of the inner city. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Bennett, T., & Wright, R. (1984). Burglars on burglary: Prevention and the offender. Aldershot, UK: Gower.
Curry, D., & Decker, S. H. (1997). What’s in a name?: A gang by any other name isn’t quite the same. Valparaiso University Law Review, 31(2), 501–514.
Decker, S. H. (1995). Slinging’ dope: The role of gangs and gang members in drug sales. Justice Quarterly, 11(4), 1001–1022.
Decker, S. H. (1996). Collective and normative features of gang violence. Justice Quarterly, 13(2), 243–264.
Decker, S. H. (2000). Legitimating drug use: A note on the impact of gang membership and drug sales on the use of illicit drugs. Justice Quarterly, 17(2), 393–410.
Decker, S. H. (2001). Doing fieldwork with active gang members: Gettin’ down on the set. Focaal, 36, 97–104.
Decker, S., Pyrooz, D. C., Sweeten, G., & Moule, R. C. (2014). Validating self-nomination in gang research: Assessing differences in gang embeddedness across non, current, and former gang members. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 30(4), 577–598.
Decker, S. H., Pyrooz, D. C., & Moule, R., Jr. (2013). Disengagement from gangs as role transitions. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(2), 268–283.
Decker, S. H., Pyrooz, D. C., & Moule, R., Jr. (2014). Disengagement from gangs as role transitions. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24(2), 268–283.
Decker, S. H., & Van Winkle, B. (1996). Life in the gang: family, friends and violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Decker, S. H. Wright, R., & Logie, R. (1993). Perceptual deterrence among active residential burglars: A reseach note. Criminology, 31(1), 135–147.
Decker, S. H., Wright, R., Redfern, A. K., & Smith, D. L. (1993). A woman’s place is in the home: Females and residential burglary. Justice Quarterly, 10(1), 143–162.
Logie, R., Wright, R., & Decker, S. (1992). Recognition memory performance and residential burglary. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 6, 109–123.
Moule, R. K., Jr., Pyrooz, D. C., & Decker, S. H. (2013). From ‘What the f#@% is a Facebook?’ to ‘Who doesn’t use Facebook?’: The role of criminal lifestyles in the adoption and use of the Internet. Social Science Research, 42, 1411–1421.
Pyrooz, D. C., Decker, S. H., & Moule, R. K., Jr. (2014). The contribution of gang membership to the victim-offender overlap. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 51(3), 315–348. doi:10.1177/0022427813516128.
Pyrooz, D. C., Moule, R., Jr., & Decker, S. H. (2013). Criminal and routine activities in online settings: Gangs, offenders, and the Internet. Justice Quarterly. doi:10.1080/07418825.2013.778326.
Sandberg, S., & Copes, H. (2012). Speaking with ethnographers: The challenges of research drug dealers and offenders. Journal of Drug Issues, 20, 1–22.
Wright, R., & Decker, S. (1994). Burglars on the job: Streetlife and residential break-ins. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Wright, R., & Decker, S. (1997a). Armed robbers in action: Stickups and street culture. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Wright, R., & Decker, S. (1997b). Creating the illusion of impending death: Armed robbers in action. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Review, 2(1), 10–18.
Wright, R., Decker, S. H., Redfern, A. K., & Smith, D. L. (1992). A snowball’s chance in hell: Doing fieldwork with active residential burglars. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 29, 148–161.
Wright, R., Logie, R., & Decker, S. H. (1995). Criminal expertise and offender decision-making: An experimental study of the target selection process on residential burglary. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 32(1), 39–53.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Decker, S.H., Smith, D.L. (2015). A Conversation with Street Daddy: Pulling Back the Curtain on 20 Years of Ethnography. In: Maltz, M., Rice, S. (eds) Envisioning Criminology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15868-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15868-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15867-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15868-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)