The Sliding Scale of Snitching: A Qualitative Examination of Snitching in Three Philadelphia Communities

We conducted an in-depth interview study with 77 young men in three moderate to high-crime neighborhoods in Philadelphia to hear their stories about community violence and relations with police. In this article, we have analyzed how Latino, African-American, and white young men experience policing a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological forum (Randolph, N.J.) N.J.), 2015-06, Vol.30 (2), p.265-285
Main Authors: Clampet-Lundquist, Susan, Carr, Patrick J., Kefalas, Maria J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community
Cooperation
Crime
Cynicism
Decision
Hispanic Americans
Investigations (Law Enforcement)
Males
Neighborhoods
neighborhoods crime
Neighbourhoods
Police
policing
social control
U.S.A
Violence
violence, youth
Whites
youth
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We conducted an in-depth interview study with 77 young men in three moderate to high-crime neighborhoods in Philadelphia to hear their stories about community violence and relations with police. In this article, we have analyzed how Latino, African-American, and white young men experience policing and how they discuss the guidelines around cooperation with the police and what they view as snitching. Contrary to popular perception, talking to the police is not always banned in poor or high-crime neighborhoods. Instead, the respondents present a variety of personal rules that they use to assess when cooperation is called for. We argue that the policing they experience within disadvantaged neighborhoods shapes their frame of legal cynicism, which in turn makes decisions not to cooperate with the police more likely.
ISSN:0884-8971
1573-7861
DOI:10.1111/socf.12162