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'Code Of The Street' By Elijah Anderson

400 Words2 Pages
Elijah Anderson, a Yale professor, developed the concept or theory entitled the “code of the street” which explains the reasoning for high rates of street violence among African-American juveniles in a Philadelphia community. The “code of the street” is the way of life for many living in poverty-stricken communities which attempt to regulate behaviors. Anderson observed that juveniles in inner-city neighborhoods who are exposed to racial discrimination, economic disadvantages and alienation from mainstream society may lead violent behavior. The strain, social learning, and labeling theories are all directly related to Anderson’s work. The strain theory implies that crime may occur because of the stress or frustration placed on people when
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In the book " Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City" written by Dr. Elijah Anderson, The William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Sociology at Yale, brings to light the different issues that are regular in the city today. The street codes have a huge influence on the activities and conduct of numerous young people in the inner city or "hood". In the streets, it is stressing, as it is credited to ills like expanded rate of crime, anxiety, drug trafficking and all manifestations of brutality with extreme aftereffect of death. The urban life inside the ghettos majorly pitched into the street codes. Plainly, he brings out the issue of respect.

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The “Code of the Street,” materialized in American’s major metropolitan inner city communities’ predominately homogeneous African American neighborhoods because segments of this population felt disenfranchised from mainstream American due to lack of economic opportunities as well as the distrust between citizens in these communities toward law enforcement. The common belief in among a minority of the population in these neighborhoods is that the criminal justice system is bias toward poor minority groups and every person must fend for himself or herself. Therefore, urban communities have developed a set of socially acceptable norms within these distressed communities coined the “Code of the Street.”

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