ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a career in crime and the world of theft, fencing, and criminal enterprise as experienced by Sam Goodman—a longtime thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman who also was the principal subject of The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds by Darrell Steffensmeier. The major theme in Confessions of the social organization of the underworld and criminal enterprise addresses matters only briefly touched on or implied in The Fence. Another theme of Confessions contributes to the ongoing debate within criminology about the accuracy of popular images and social scientists' ideas about contemporary criminals—especially about chronic or life-course-persistent offenders. For the veteran criminal investigators of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, The Fence was grounded in "the real world" of crime—it provided, as does Confessions, a rich, in-depth understanding of the criminal life and world. Confessions continues in the mode of calling into question sometimes simplistic or overgeneralized popular and criminological imagery.
