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.
This book is hard to find, but absolutely worth it!
I bought this for the purposes of writing thieves into a story and ho, boy, was it worth it.
I was familiar with a lot of the stuff already, but this is an in-depth look at the “culture” of thieves from the inside.
This book is unlike any other ethnography I have read.
Sutherland’s attempt to triangulate Conwell’s description of professional thieves with other self-identified thieves as well as law enforcement personnel, was fascinating.
Did I enjoy it?
As an ethnology, and based on interviews and commentary, it’s definitely not a light read and I tackled it in smaller chunks.
It’s one of my go-to research books though.
It’s also limited in the time frame and experience it examines, because of it being based on the interview and experience of one person, as well as the limited access to this world in general.
Not to mention that, as explained in the book, a lot of this was already dying out at the time of first publishing in 1937.
That it got a reprint in both 1956 and 1989, speaks volumes as to how well this is put together and how interesting the subject is.
