Hustlers, beats, and others

by Ned Polsky

Ranging from pool hustling to pornography, analyzes deviant branches of American life, dispels misconceptions about them, and throws light on sociological theory and method. The first chapter examines the alleged causes for the decline of American poolrooms and finds them wanting, traces the rise and fall of poolrooms to historical changes in America's social structure ; the second reports a field study of a deviant occupation, pool hustling, describing the hustler's work situation and career from recruitment to retirement ; the third criticizes criminology textbooks for avoiding the study of uncaught adult criminals in their natural environments ; the fourth presents the first empirical study of the beat delinquent subculture, in which the author corrects some journalistic views such as that most beats are exhibitionists and some sociological ones such as that "retreatist" drug users can meet neither legitimate nor criminal success norms ; the final examines the sociology of pornograp