

The criminal’s guide to upward mobility - ust
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/crooked-ladder

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rm445
The implication from the juxtaposed stories in the article seems to be that
allowing criminals to gentrify themselves is a better outcome than rigorously
policing them.

But just because the mafiosi had happier outcomes than the crack dealers, it
doesn't follow that the __crime __outcomes are better, which is surely what
the rest of us are concerned about. It seems quite plausible that corrupt and
criminal businesses practices continue to exist (or evolve based on other
pressures) despite criminals not inducting their own children.

The shocking state of inner cities with widespread crack cocaine addiction is
a tragedy, and the policing methods described in the article seem to be about
containment rather than a solution. But taking a laissez-faire approach in
order to allow criminals to gentrify themselves would be quite a stretch.

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paulodeon
Another way of looking at it is that rigorous policing and removal of
corruption from the police and law enforcement is a contributing factor in the
current decline in social mobility.

The article is not at all forthcoming with solutions but it is a good example
of 2nd order effects where removal of one problem (Mafia) leads to the
creation of another (lower social mobility).

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yread
Article about "innovation" hypothesis - that criminals get domesticated and
only use crime as a social ladder.

There is a very interesting comparison of Italian mafia and organized crime
today.

 _When read alongside Ianni, what is striking about Goffman’s book is not the
cultural difference between being an Italian thug in the early part of the
twentieth century and being an African-American thug today. It’s the role of
law enforcement in each era. Chuck’s high-school education ended prematurely
after he was convicted of aggravated assault in a schoolyard fight. Another
boy called Chuck’s mother a crack whore, and he pushed his antagonist’s face
into the snow. In a previous generation, this dispute would not have ended up
in the legal system._

