CODE OF THE STREET

Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson

Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson

Introduction

Judging from chapters three and four of Code of the Street confirms that Anderson's sociological methodology was based on interviews and personal observations, which provide convincing evidence that living in scarcity and being subjected to discrimination produce a cruel, frequent cycle of cause and effect. Using the ethnographical study he conducted in Philadelphia during the 1990's, which entailed studying African-Americans in deprived areas of the city, he reflected upon the information he obtained from informants and from his own observations, and concluded that a basic cause and consequence of crime in inner cities is the code of the street that prevails in these neighborhoods.

Anderson, a black professor of urban sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and a superb reporter of real life, says the inner city black community is divided, socially, between two orientations, "decent" and "street." The street code is a quest for "respect" by people who are apt to have thin skins and short fuses because they feel constantly buffeted by forces beyond their control. Writing on "The Code of the Street" in the Atlantic Monthly, Anderson says respect in the streets is hard won and easily lost, and losing it leaves the individual naked to the aggression of others seeking to acquire or preserve respect (Anderson, 1990).

Anderson is not censorious of the black middle class which could have leavened the ghetto with role models and encouragement, but which instead has produced what Anderson calls "a kind of diaspora." However, Anderson, who lives where gunfire occasionally disturbs his family's sleep, has various family experiences with the violent possibilities of urban life.

During the 1992 rioting in South Central Los Angeles, his brother's restaurant was burned down because it was sandwiched between two Korean shops targeted by black rioters. Elijah Anderson and his brother both know that the fictional worries of Sherman McCoy are as nothing next to the real-life worries the decent black majority has about the minority that lives by the code of the streets.

Discussion and Analysis

Violence has increased in society and youth often are exposed to situations that end in violent acts. The family dynamic has changed as well with increased divorce, single parent households, and blended families the variability for children to be unconfirmed allows for increased contact to violence as well as expressing violence. Societal acceptance of violent acts has also opens the door for children to face more violent situations. The constant growth of drug and weapon use among today's youth has become an advocate of increased violence against this generation. Violence in society today is caused by weapon access, societal acceptance, drugs and decreased parental supervision (Wilson, 1987).

Anderson says lack of confidence in the police and criminal justice system produces a defensive demeanor of aggression. A readiness to resort to violence is communicated by "facial expression, gait and verbal expressions - all of which are geared mainly to deterring aggression" and to discouraging strangers "from even thinking ...