Confessions of a Dying Thief

Contents

First Author’s Prologue

Acknowledgments

PART I: Introducing Confessions

1. Confessions’ Data and Contributions

2. Sam Goodman: Homecoming and Farewell

PART II: Sam’s Life Unfolds: Chronology and Turning Points

3. Conceptual Themes and Tools

4. Sam’s Narrative: Onset of Sam’s Criminal Career

5. Commentary: Doing Burglary

6. Sam’s Narrative: Sam’s Burglary Career Escalates

7. Commentary: Trading in Stolen Goods

8. Sam’s Narrative: Running a Fencing Business

9. Commentary: Criminal Capital for Illegal Enterprise

10. Sam’s Narrative: Skills, Character, and Connections

11. Commentary: “Moonlighting” Phase of Sam’s Criminal Career: Shifting Commitments to Crime versus Legitimacy

12. Sam’s Narrative: Continuity or Desistance After Sam’s “Last Fall”?

PART III: Crime Pathways and Organization

13. Commentary: Social Organization of the Underworld: Stratification, Continuity, and Change

14. Sam’s Narrative: Social Organization of Theft and Criminal Enterprise

15. Commentary: Organized Crime and Racketeering

16. Sam’s Narrative: Racketeering, Organized Crime, and the Mafia

17. Commentary: Ebbs and Flows of Criminal Careers

18. Sam’s Narrative: Pathways Into and Out of Crime

PART IV: Sam Takes Stock: Dealing with Dying

19. Commentary: Rewards and Rationales of Crime, and Images of Criminals

20. Final Confessions: Sam Takes Stock