The Professional Thief

The Professional Thief

Author: Chic Conwell

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1956

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0226780511

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This monograph by a professional thief—with the aid of Edwin H. Sutherland's expert comments and analyses—is a revealing sociological document that goes far to explain the genesis, development, and patterns of criminal behavior. "Chic Conwell," as the author was known in the underworld, gives a candid and forthright account of the highly organized society in which the professional thief lives. He tells how he learned to steal, survive, succeed, and ultimately to pay his debt to society and prepare himself for full and useful citizenship. The Professional Thief presents in amazing detail the hard, cold facts about the private lives and professional habits of pickpockets, shoplifters, and conmen, and brings into focus the essential psychological and sociological situations that beget and support professional crime.


Book Synopsis The Professional Thief by : Chic Conwell

Download or read book The Professional Thief written by Chic Conwell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1956 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph by a professional thief—with the aid of Edwin H. Sutherland's expert comments and analyses—is a revealing sociological document that goes far to explain the genesis, development, and patterns of criminal behavior. "Chic Conwell," as the author was known in the underworld, gives a candid and forthright account of the highly organized society in which the professional thief lives. He tells how he learned to steal, survive, succeed, and ultimately to pay his debt to society and prepare himself for full and useful citizenship. The Professional Thief presents in amazing detail the hard, cold facts about the private lives and professional habits of pickpockets, shoplifters, and conmen, and brings into focus the essential psychological and sociological situations that beget and support professional crime.


The Professional Thief

The Professional Thief

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1967

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Download or read book The Professional Thief written by and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


The Professional Thief

The Professional Thief

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1937

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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Download or read book The Professional Thief written by and published by . This book was released on 1937 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Empire of Deception

Empire of Deception

Author: Dean Jobb

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1616204966

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“A rollicking tale that is one part The Sting, one part The Great Gatsby, and one part The Devil in the White City.” —Karen Abbott, author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy In a time of unregulated madness, nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. It was the perfect place for a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz to entice hundreds of people to invest as much as $30 million--upwards of $400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. It was an ingenious deceit, one that out-Ponzied Charles Ponzi himself. In this rip-roaring tale of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under-the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man on the town and then on the lam, Empire of Deception proves that the American dream of easy wealth is truly a timeless commodity. “Captivating . . . Dean Jobb tells the story of Leo Koretz, a legendary con artist of Madoffian audacity, with terrific energy and narrative brio.” —Gary Krist, author of Empire of Sin “A brilliantly researched tale of greed, ambition, and our desperate need to believe in magic, it’s history that captures America as it really was--and always will be. A great read.” —Douglas Perry, author of Eliot Ness “Reads like a Gatsby-Ponzi mashup . . . Kudos to Jobb for unearthing this overlooked story and bringing to life a charming, witty, naughty, iconic American crook.” —Neal Thompson, author of A Curious Man “The granddaddy of all con men, Leo Koretz gives Jobb the opportunity to exhibit his impressive research and storytelling skills . . . A highly readable, entertaining story.” —Kirkus Reviews


Book Synopsis Empire of Deception by : Dean Jobb

Download or read book Empire of Deception written by Dean Jobb and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A rollicking tale that is one part The Sting, one part The Great Gatsby, and one part The Devil in the White City.” —Karen Abbott, author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy In a time of unregulated madness, nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. It was the perfect place for a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz to entice hundreds of people to invest as much as $30 million--upwards of $400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. It was an ingenious deceit, one that out-Ponzied Charles Ponzi himself. In this rip-roaring tale of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under-the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man on the town and then on the lam, Empire of Deception proves that the American dream of easy wealth is truly a timeless commodity. “Captivating . . . Dean Jobb tells the story of Leo Koretz, a legendary con artist of Madoffian audacity, with terrific energy and narrative brio.” —Gary Krist, author of Empire of Sin “A brilliantly researched tale of greed, ambition, and our desperate need to believe in magic, it’s history that captures America as it really was--and always will be. A great read.” —Douglas Perry, author of Eliot Ness “Reads like a Gatsby-Ponzi mashup . . . Kudos to Jobb for unearthing this overlooked story and bringing to life a charming, witty, naughty, iconic American crook.” —Neal Thompson, author of A Curious Man “The granddaddy of all con men, Leo Koretz gives Jobb the opportunity to exhibit his impressive research and storytelling skills . . . A highly readable, entertaining story.” —Kirkus Reviews


The Chocolate Thief

The Chocolate Thief

Author: Laura Florand

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: 2011-10-24

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0758279086

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When an American heiress and a French chocolatier butt heads, the business of chocolate is about to become a labor of love in this romantic comedy. Paris Breathtakingly beautiful, the City of Light seduces the senses, its cobbled streets thrumming with possibility. For American Cade Corey, it’s a dream come true, if only she can get one infuriating French chocolatier to sign on the dotted line . . . Chocolate Melting, yielding yet firm, exotic, its secrets are intimately known to Sylvain Marquis. But turn them over to a brash American waving a fistful of dollars? Jamais. Not unless there’s something much more delectable on the table . . . Stolen Pleasure Whether confections taken from a locked shop or kisses in the dark, is there anything sweeter? Praise for The Chocolate Thief “A delectable summer bonbon . . . The Chocolate Thief is for days when you lust not for wisdom, but for a bar of chocolate—at any price—and a hero who understands what is truly important: ‘Every dream I have has you in my apartment, has you in my laboratoire, has you with my babies . . . Every chocolate I’ve made since I met you, I’ve made for you.’” —Eloisa James, NPR.org “It’s like when you find that amazing piece of chocolate—you take a bite, and it sits on your tongue and melts into a pool of liquid heaven: Florand has managed to capture that emotional experience and put it into the pages of her novel.” —RT Book Reviews “[A] comfortable beach read . . . A good, fun read.” —Publishers Weekly


Book Synopsis The Chocolate Thief by : Laura Florand

Download or read book The Chocolate Thief written by Laura Florand and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When an American heiress and a French chocolatier butt heads, the business of chocolate is about to become a labor of love in this romantic comedy. Paris Breathtakingly beautiful, the City of Light seduces the senses, its cobbled streets thrumming with possibility. For American Cade Corey, it’s a dream come true, if only she can get one infuriating French chocolatier to sign on the dotted line . . . Chocolate Melting, yielding yet firm, exotic, its secrets are intimately known to Sylvain Marquis. But turn them over to a brash American waving a fistful of dollars? Jamais. Not unless there’s something much more delectable on the table . . . Stolen Pleasure Whether confections taken from a locked shop or kisses in the dark, is there anything sweeter? Praise for The Chocolate Thief “A delectable summer bonbon . . . The Chocolate Thief is for days when you lust not for wisdom, but for a bar of chocolate—at any price—and a hero who understands what is truly important: ‘Every dream I have has you in my apartment, has you in my laboratoire, has you with my babies . . . Every chocolate I’ve made since I met you, I’ve made for you.’” —Eloisa James, NPR.org “It’s like when you find that amazing piece of chocolate—you take a bite, and it sits on your tongue and melts into a pool of liquid heaven: Florand has managed to capture that emotional experience and put it into the pages of her novel.” —RT Book Reviews “[A] comfortable beach read . . . A good, fun read.” —Publishers Weekly


Harry King

Harry King

Author: Harold G. R. King

Publisher:

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis Harry King by : Harold G. R. King

Download or read book Harry King written by Harold G. R. King and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Confessions of a Dying Thief

Confessions of a Dying Thief

Author: Darrell J. Steffensmeier

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1351526863

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*Recipient of the American Society of Criminology's 2006 Michael J. Hindelang Award for a book, published within the past three calendar years, that is "the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology." *Nominated for the 2007 Outstanding Book Award of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Sam Goodman, was a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman. He had a criminal career that spanned fifty years, beginning in his mid-teens and ending with his death when he was in his mid-sixties. Confessions of a Dying Thief is an in-depth ethnographic study of Sam and his world based on continuous contact with him for many years, on multiple interviews with his network of associates in crime and business, and on a series of interviews with him shortly before he died. The book 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. It 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." To more fully understand pathways into and out of crime as well as the social organization of illegal enterprise, the authors propose an integrative learning-opportunity-commitment framework that combines differential association/social learning theory and an extended conceptualization of criminal opportunity with a three-fold theory of commitment to crime. This framework offers an integrated and more complete way of understanding mechanisms that underlie criminal offending and criminal careers. It also recognizes the complexity and scope of the criminal landscape and its embeddedness in the fabric of the larger society, including its criminal justice system. Sam's illness and death are a sobering backdrop th


Book Synopsis Confessions of a Dying Thief by : Darrell J. Steffensmeier

Download or read book Confessions of a Dying Thief written by Darrell J. Steffensmeier and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Recipient of the American Society of Criminology's 2006 Michael J. Hindelang Award for a book, published within the past three calendar years, that is "the most outstanding contribution to research in criminology." *Nominated for the 2007 Outstanding Book Award of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Sam Goodman, was a long-time thief, fence, and quasi-legitimate businessman. He had a criminal career that spanned fifty years, beginning in his mid-teens and ending with his death when he was in his mid-sixties. Confessions of a Dying Thief is an in-depth ethnographic study of Sam and his world based on continuous contact with him for many years, on multiple interviews with his network of associates in crime and business, and on a series of interviews with him shortly before he died. The book 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. It 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." To more fully understand pathways into and out of crime as well as the social organization of illegal enterprise, the authors propose an integrative learning-opportunity-commitment framework that combines differential association/social learning theory and an extended conceptualization of criminal opportunity with a three-fold theory of commitment to crime. This framework offers an integrated and more complete way of understanding mechanisms that underlie criminal offending and criminal careers. It also recognizes the complexity and scope of the criminal landscape and its embeddedness in the fabric of the larger society, including its criminal justice system. Sam's illness and death are a sobering backdrop th


The Autobiography of a Thief

The Autobiography of a Thief

Author: Hutchins Hapgood

Publisher:

Published: 1903

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis The Autobiography of a Thief by : Hutchins Hapgood

Download or read book The Autobiography of a Thief written by Hutchins Hapgood and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Thief-Taker General

Thief-Taker General

Author: Gerald Howson

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1985-01-01

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9781412839884

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The historical literature of political deviance is sparse. This unusual work, chronicling the history of Jonathan Wild, represents an effort to come to terms with one of the more amazing characters of English social history. Wild was both part of the policy system in eighteenth-century England, and also one of the most adroit criminals of the age. In the 1720s, London suffered the worst crime waves in its history. Civic corruption took place on a staggering scale. The government's answer was to pay a bounty for the capture of robbers, thus creating a class of professional informers. Wild was applauded as the most efficient thief hunter and gang breaker in British society; but his own posse of thief catchers was basically a front behind which he was able to control the underground world, through a complex system of blackmail, perjury, and terror which the book details. All who opposed him were betrayed to the law, and in the struggle for power Wild sacrificed several hundred of his own people to the hangman. No one since his time, with the exception of Lavrenti Beria of the late Stalin era GPU so nearly succeeded in bringing the underworld under the control of one system of power. At one level, this is a biography of the world's first supercriminal. At another, it is a sociology of criminal behavior and its political consequences. Howson sheds fresh light, not only on a figure who has become famous in literature, but more important, on the entire structure of gang life. The book is written "as a "terrifying and fascinating study of a historical epoch; it also offers a completely fresh picture of the birth of modern organized-crime families as part of modern organized political systems.


Book Synopsis Thief-Taker General by : Gerald Howson

Download or read book Thief-Taker General written by Gerald Howson and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historical literature of political deviance is sparse. This unusual work, chronicling the history of Jonathan Wild, represents an effort to come to terms with one of the more amazing characters of English social history. Wild was both part of the policy system in eighteenth-century England, and also one of the most adroit criminals of the age. In the 1720s, London suffered the worst crime waves in its history. Civic corruption took place on a staggering scale. The government's answer was to pay a bounty for the capture of robbers, thus creating a class of professional informers. Wild was applauded as the most efficient thief hunter and gang breaker in British society; but his own posse of thief catchers was basically a front behind which he was able to control the underground world, through a complex system of blackmail, perjury, and terror which the book details. All who opposed him were betrayed to the law, and in the struggle for power Wild sacrificed several hundred of his own people to the hangman. No one since his time, with the exception of Lavrenti Beria of the late Stalin era GPU so nearly succeeded in bringing the underworld under the control of one system of power. At one level, this is a biography of the world's first supercriminal. At another, it is a sociology of criminal behavior and its political consequences. Howson sheds fresh light, not only on a figure who has become famous in literature, but more important, on the entire structure of gang life. The book is written "as a "terrifying and fascinating study of a historical epoch; it also offers a completely fresh picture of the birth of modern organized-crime families as part of modern organized political systems.


The Ethnographic Imagination

The Ethnographic Imagination

Author: Paul Atkinson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-04

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1317917561

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First published in 1990, The Ethnographic Imagination explores how sociologists use literary and rhetorical conventions to convey their findings and arguments, and to 'persuade' their colleagues and students of the authenticity of their accounts. Looking at selected sociological texts in the light of contemporary social theory, the author analyses how their arguments are constructed and illustrated, and gives many new insights into the literary convention of realism and factual accounts.


Book Synopsis The Ethnographic Imagination by : Paul Atkinson

Download or read book The Ethnographic Imagination written by Paul Atkinson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1990, The Ethnographic Imagination explores how sociologists use literary and rhetorical conventions to convey their findings and arguments, and to 'persuade' their colleagues and students of the authenticity of their accounts. Looking at selected sociological texts in the light of contemporary social theory, the author analyses how their arguments are constructed and illustrated, and gives many new insights into the literary convention of realism and factual accounts.