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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Thriving Underground Markets for Fake Identifications

Perhaps "fake" is not the right word. "Issued without compliance with the law" is probably the better word. J.D. Tuccille reviews On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, by Alice Goffman, which is about the strange incentives crime and punishment make in the ghetto. Among other things he notes:
Neighborhoods heavily populated by young men on the run (usually in the most figurative sense, since their lives become circumscribed by familiar people and streets) also create business opportunities for those willing to serve their idiosyncratic needs. One memorable character in On the Run is Jevon, whose memory and ability at mimicry allow him to earn money impersonating men to their parole officers for curfew-checking phone calls. Another, Rakim, augments income from his passport photo business selling clean urine to men facing drug tests. Many local businesses-such as rental car lots and motels-have two price sheets, one for mainstream customers and one for those who have no credit cards or ID. 
Identification itself is a commodity, with employees inside the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation selling drivers licenses-basically, new identities-for a substantial fee. (Other public employees, from court clerks to prison guards, also find it lucrative to sell favors and services.) "The level of social control that tough-on-crime policy envisions-particularly in a liberal state-is so extreme and difficult to implement," Goffman writes, "that it has led to a flourishing black market to ease the pains of supervision."
(Underline added). Look, an easy way to avoid the no-fly list...if you are a criminal.

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