Cognitive Bridges

The Case of High School Undercover Officers

Bibliographic Data

ID10564166
AuthorsBruce A Jacobs (University of Missouri–St. Louis, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume37
Issue3
Pages391-412
Publication date1996-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1533-8525.1996.tb00745.x
OpenAlexW1964656229
LanguageEN
References cited63

This article explores the problem of social integration from a position of isolation. It uses the experiences of high school undercover officers to consider the problem conceptually. Officers must move from new student to peer to drug purchaser without any informant assistance and with severe time constraints. Three specific techniques are used to trigger this process: class clowning, retreatism, and troublemaking. Each is a variation on the single theme of rebellion. I argue that these techniques generate interpersonal familiarity from a distance by creating reputations that drug dealers identify with and vest legitimacy in. Reputation substitutes for introductions informants could otherwise give, establishes a pretransaction comfort zone, and lays the interpersonal groundwork officers need before they can solicit drugs. Officers' behavior is conceptualized through the notion of a cognitive bridge, a hybrid of interactionist and microstructural principles. Data are drawn from interviews with thirty undercover officers who operate from a large western U.S. municipality

Bridge (graph theory · Class (philosophy · Cognition · Criminology · Epistemology · Interpersonal communication · Legitimacy · Political science · Process (computing · Public relations · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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