Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes
Writings by the sociologist Randall Collins
Researchers on violent criminal organizations have grown more intrepid over the years. Until the 1980s, most information came from interviews in prison, reminiscences of ex-members, or by hanging out in neighbourhoods that had local gangs. Some researchers have been taking the dangerous step of participant observation inside the group itself.
Here I will focus on four pieces of insider research: by an FBI agent who spent six years infiltrating the Mafia; Alice Goffman, a white woman who spent six years with a black street gang; Italian sociologist Alessandro Orsini, who went underground to observe both the Red Brigades-- Left ideologists practicing political assassinations-- and a Fascist militia.
Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes
Abandoned Footnotes