Review of Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

The Elijah Anderson’s article, “Code of the Streets” is a perfect illustration for cultural arguments because it involves environments that are susceptible to learning a criminal culture; even up to a point of promoting that type of criminal behavior as “normal”. It also has links to Differential Association and Social Learning theories of crime

Drug use and gang violence is used frequently throughout the book. in the book. In the book it talks about “Dallas Winston waving a gun around until the police shoot him.” In one of the articles that I pulled off the internet it talked about how “Gang membership also means that you

The correlation between gangs and drugs has always been an issue for the United States government. Major cities often overlooked the problem of youth gang violence, thinking it was only a 1960’s trend. Sixty years later, gangs and drugs continue to be a problem, but in an increasing number within urban, suburban and rural areas in the United States. People may characterize this problem with words such as violence, increase drug activity, and delinquencies, but not many seem to see the bigger picture. Lack of interaction, collaboration, and strategies from law enforcement, youth centers, businesses, churches, and political icons are increasing gang violence and drug related offenses in major cities. In such cities as Chicago, minority groups are the most vulnerable to joining a gang, which then leads to an involvement with drugs; they are faced with barriers – lack of family support, poverty, segregation, unemployment, etc. An incident that happened in Chicago history is the closing of the Cabrini-Green Project, where people involved with gangs had to find a new home, scattering gang-members throughout the city, and eventually leading to their spread and growth.

Elijah Anderson is a sociologist who is also the author of Code of the Streets. His main purpose of this book was to conduct research in poor inner city neighborhoods. He wanted to know why people who reside in certain neighborhoods act the way they do. Anderson wanted to understand how people follow the Code of the Stress and what influences them to follow this code. The code of the streets is defined as a set of unwritten rules an individual follows when they are in the streets or in the hood.

The section that really summed up the entire chapter for me was Elijah Anderson’s section of “The Code of the Street.” The part that I felt was the most authentic was Anderson’s quote; “People are being told day in and day out that they are not respectable…so every encounter becomes an opportunity for salvaging respect.” No matter what a person faces, whether it be social disorganization, strain, or violent subcultures, the one thing that a person strives for is respect. In order for someone to gain respect in areas or places where none is given, a person must change and demand respect in ways they see fit, such as violence. I think that every theory in this chapter really boils down to respect and a way of attaining that respect from others,

Once we finished watching the documentary street gangs of Los Angeles two theories were most prevalent in my mind for why there was gang formation in that area. The first being Travis herschi’s “social bonds”. Second being Walter miller’s “focal concerns”. Social bond theory is not a crime causation theory but a pro social behavior theory that helps explain deviance. This theory identified four social bonds that promote adherence to society’s laws and values. The four bonds being: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. If there was any weakness in any of these four areas would be an explain for the cause of delinquency. Focal concerns theory is different than many other theories because it is not the rejection of middle-class

Our product is Jamba Juice and our target country is Spain. We chose this product because it has grown to become one of the nation’s best-known smoothie chains, emphasizing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and because the company is looking for international expansion opportunities. We chose Spain as our target country for expansion of our product due to its current economic status and economic growth forecasts for the future. This combination provides the firm with an opportunity to offer our product to a growing economy and marketplace.

In The Street, Ann Petry describes the life of Lutie Johnson, a single mother who lives in a poverty-stricken area in Harlem, New York. Petry details all of Lutie’s problems, along with the diverse individuals she encounters and their issues as well. Being that the particular area the story is set in a lower-class area, the issue of injustice arises. Lutie, as well as the other characters, face some sort of injustice living on “the street.” Petry’s powerful novel was written to explain the injustices people like Lutie face in the real world, and how these injustices impact their lives.

Elijah Anderson’s Code of Street is an ethnographic study of several neighborhoods in Philadelphia in the early to mid-1990s. This book is mainly focus on the criminal elements, economical, educational, social, and judicial system in the African American communities. Anderson did several interviews, field observations and researches for four years to demonstrate the internal factors that hold on inner cities. Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner cities are the most significant key arguments in this book. Author aim in this book is to concentrate on the social and cultural aspects of the interpersonal violence, which is undermining the quality life on the urban communities. Furthermore, it explains the drugs culture, scarcity of sustainable jobs, racial discrimination, and frustration in impoverish neighborhoods.

During the civil war, these young kid’s parents fled to America to find a means of making a living for their child because there were no jobs during the war. When the parents left, the kids were left in the care of their grandparents. “My grandparents saw me as a burden, and never gave me a penny or, even worse, love…” (55-56). Nonetheless, the kids are the blood of the grandparents and the grandparents neglected the kids and thought only about themselves and what they would do in order to survive during this time. For instance, the parents would send back money for the family and the grandparents would leave little to none for the kids. Families were taken apart because of this war and were driven to ravage in the streets. “…As a result, I left my home and bound for the streets.” What do you think was waiting for them on the streets? Gangs. These gangs “took in” the kids that were left alone, and taught them how to survive on the streets. Once again, violence through gangs were the only thing that they could do in order to earn money. “What is the only way gangs earn money?” Mr. Brubaker asked. The class had a verity of different answers, but the most pivotal role that money is involved, is with the trade and distribution of drugs. These drugs affect the people that are in the gangs. It goes against their morals and

caused strains amongst police and citizen relationship in many communities in urban areas. This social

The life of dealing drugs not only involves oneself, but it also involves family members and those who are close. Luke Bergmann experienced this first hand through his ethnographic studies of people living in Detroit that were actively involved in drug dealing. His studies discovered that many of the lives were centered on drug trade to make ends meet. This is because families had no job opportunities, so the parents take part in drug trade and the children only can follow in their footsteps. The dealing of drugs negatively affect the lives of individuals and families, Dude Freeman’s in particular. His mother, Jessie Lee, was separated from Dude at an early age because of gambling debt and the addiction to crack. (Bergmann 2008:90) Jessie’s sister, Ruby, had taken custody of Dude at an early age and eventually adopted him. Ruby herself had been apart of the drug trade herself. Her boyfriend who she had been living with, Marvin Robinson, was involved in the drug trade his entire life. His role in the drug trade often lead Ruby constantly moving from place to place. He was selling crack out of the house and Ruby moved because she wanted no part of it. During this time “Marvin had a lot of jobs but never kept them.” (Bergmann

We learn from the book that the number of drug dealers has a correlation with the loss of jobs of East Harlem residents. Losing jobs prevents people from providing basic needs to themselves and their family. Most of the residents who live in El Barrio are Latino such as Porto Ricans, Mexicans, and Dominicans. Latina/os are a key population in which to study substance abuse. Given their levels of poverty, minority status, and residential concentration in areas with wide drug and alcohol distribution, Latina/os are considered at risk for substance abuse (Verissimo, Gee, Ford & Iguchi, 2014). As stated by Philippe, the main point of this book is not about substance abuse, it is about his first hand experiences with the culture and poverty of East Harlem. It is about the struggles that people there have to go through in order to survive in an extremely poor area of one of the riches city in the world..

Throughout this class, we have discussed the war on drugs and statics involving drug crimes, but these first few chapters of No Way Out really altered my view about drug dealers and drug related offenses. I never dreamed that these communities were highly developed social organizations that allow people to survive under such dangerous circumstances. I was also astounded by the fact that many of these families choose to stay in these dangerous communities, because they feel safest here. These neighborhoods have an internal structure that keeps people safe amid the large numbers of drug deals and violent acts.

Since the mid 1990s there has been a significant and continued reduction in the nation 's rate of violent crime. Not long ago, the picture was not so positive. The use of illicit drugs began to be more widespread, and governments at all levels responded by strengthening enforcement forces against drug law violators, attempting to block illegal drugs at the borders, working with other countries to take down the criminal organizations that produce and distribute drugs, and increasing efforts to reduce demand for drugs (Dept. of Justice, 2005). In addition, serious crimes, including violent ones, committed by juveniles began to increase at a fast pace. By the late 1980s, violent crime committed by juveniles had reached epidemic proportions. This was tied in part to an increasing market for cocaine and especially its offshoot, crack, in the 1980s and by the easy access to weapons. As crime worsened, the police made more arrests; lawmakers began passing harsher laws; the number of cases prosecuted by the courts increased; and the number of people in prisons or jails, or under probation and parole supervision, reached new highs. Over time, there were changes in policies concerning crime and criminals, the resources invested in fighting crime, and the bodies that we rely upon to prevent crime and carry out the law.