ABSTRACT
Sam Goodman's "wheelin' and dealin'" involvement in the stolen goods trade in American City ended with his arrest and conviction on charges of receiving stolen property. The subsequent imprisonment marked a turning point in Sam's life and criminal career. Structural commitment is mostly what Howard Becker was talking about in his foundational piece on commitment. It represents sources of continuity in criminal careers flowing from opportunities, knowledge, resources, and network ties to useful and trustworthy contacts. Personal commitment is about the subjective availability of crime, including both the willingness and/or the desire to commit it. Commitment helps better understand how past behavior conditions future behavior. In this regard, commitment dovetails nicely with social learning theory's notion of criminal reinforcement. Past actions lead to weaker or stronger commitments or "stakes" in criminality. The commitment framework recognizes explicitly the individual's agency in making decisions and life choices.
