Code of the Streets

In the article by Erica Stewart and Ronald Simons entitled “Race, Code of the Street, and Violent Delinquency: a multilevel investigation of Neighborhood Street Culture and Individual Norms of Violence” the authors drew on Elijah Anderson’s perspective to conduct a study which examined whether the prevalence of “street culture” in a community could be used to predict violence in adolescents more so than the adolescents feelings towards “street code values”. In addition they also studied whether the “code of the street” mentality being endorsed in a community had an effect on the attitudes of the community’s youth towards violence. For the study they conducted research in two communities, one where street culture was very prevalent and another where it was not, and surveyed over 700 adolescent African Americans. 

The findings of this study were right on track with Anderson’s theory. In the community that adhered more to the “code of the street” as a whole there were significantly higher levels of “violent delinquency”  despite the fact that many of the adolescents surveyed did not endorse the “code of the street”. Stewart and Simons took this to mean that “street culture” in a community impacts an individual’s tendency to be violent even more so than their own values as they pertain to street culture. This is in accordance with Anderson’s findings. Anderson suggested that urban youths will perpetuate the violence in the community around them as a way to protect themselves and their reputations. 

In reference to the community’s view of street culture on the individuals’ view of street culture Simons and Stewart found that adolescents who live in communities that endorse to the street code are significantly more likely to adhere to it in their own lives. This finding is important to understanding the circle of violence evident in these communities. It is said that “violence begets violence” and this is certainly the case. These children grow up in an atmosphere where violence is the norm and consequences for it are not severe so it is not shocking that their personal attitudes towards “street culture” have a higher tendency to be favorable.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00196.x/pdf