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Abstract

This study examines the environment and worldview of Sgt. T, a veteran officer in charge of a specialized police unit. Sgt. T, along with his staff of officers and social workers, monitors a major transportation hub in a large urban setting for runaway and homeless youth as well as other minors unaccompanied by adults. The author uses skullduggery, first introduced by Sgt. T to mean “nothing is as it appears,” as an interpretative lens and explores both its dangers and its usefulness. This includes the role skullduggery plays in field access and how it is used in managing interpersonal transactions, maintaining authority, and as an organizing worldview. New priorities and new skullduggeries suggest the inevitable extinction of this youth unit, yet broader lessons are at stake. Empirical material, collected in the field, was primarily conversational and narrative.

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Working the Scam: Policing Urban Street Youth in a New World Context

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