ABSTRACT
This chapter updates and greatly expands the case study of Sam Goodman's fencing activity found in Steffensmeier's award-winning 1986 book The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds. Sam Goodman, was a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman. The chapter combines Sam's colorful narrative accounts with substantive commentary by the authors to provide a more nuanced portrayal of criminal careers, illegal enterprise, and the broad landscape comprising the entity called "crime." The thieves and even the other dealers can pull some pretty rank shit. To Sam the people who buy are as guilty as the ones who steal. The public and the ordinary businessman is buying from Sam, surmising the stuff is hot. Especially if they are in a pinch, the shit people will pull. The exceptions to this are very, very few. The line is narrow between the do-gooders and the ordinary joe blow who will take an edge, and even between the do-gooders and people like himself.
