Elijah Anderson spent much of his career doing ethnographic studies in the poor, inner-city communities of Philadelphia. From his field research, he came to believe that people, especially young black men who lived in the most economically depressed, drug-infested, and crime-ridden sections of the city, had to contend with weakened rules of civil law. In the place of the usual civil laws governing people’s behavior evolved a “code of the street” (Anderson, 1999, p. 9). Anderson argues that at the core of this code is a set of informal rules organized around a search for respect that governs public social
The author’s personal background, his familiarity with the scholarly literature on critical criminology and ethnography, and his three-year study of the 40 young men in Oakland combine to produce a significant contribution to the understanding of how our society oppresses and criminalizes young men of color. Rios’s affirmation of the humanity and aspirations of these young men is quite strong, as is his unrelenting exposé of the social processes which systematically deny their humanity and aspirations. While the grave problems of mass incarceration and police brutality have been widely discussed in numerous books and journals, the other aspects of the “youth control complex” have received less attention, and this book helps to address this gap in the literature. The author’s analysis of the role of probation officers, school officials, and even family members in the “youth control complex” is particularly informative. His discussion of the psychological and social damage inflicted on these young men by “hypercriminalization” is both revealing and
The Moral Economy of Violence in the US Inner City Chicago Journals Field Research conducted in a predominately Puerto Rican neighborhood located inside Philadelphia’s northern section captures true life events. Interviews, statistics, and moral compasses are used to examine The Moral Economy of Violence in the inner city. Bringing forth how an individual’s Scio-economic environment influences morality and decision making through the eyes of Philadelphia’s inhabitants. Bureau of Justice Assistance (1994) Understanding Community Policing A Frame work for
How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.
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.
Kids in the most disadvantaged neighborhood, with low family resources, bad schools, and neighborhoods characterized by violence are the ones who are being punished unfairly and are not given second chances. This is because of the discrimination and the bias of the criminal justice system against poor African-American communities, which represent a concentrated disadvantage in that case. Moreover it affirms the theory that the poor are more likely to get to prison because there is a bias in arrest such as the neighborhood social class that affects the presence of the police and their arrests. In that case 6th street is considered a neighborhood that represents communities that are disadvantaged, and therefore the presence of police is greater than necessary. Instead of having the resources from outside to ameliorate the conditions of the neighborhood and improve schools or academic institutions, the efforts and resources are being invested in the war against crimes, but without giving an alternative solution for their
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.”
In 1985 Robert Agnew a sociologist come to an interest of studying the theory and finds a potential for the theory in explaining several causes of crime in society, but due to its limitation he developed and reformulated the theory to widen its dimension or scope. After revising the theory he come up into General strain theory of crime and builds its foundation in 1992. General strain theory argues that frustrations and anger leads someone to deviance and may result into committing a crime (Agnew, 1992). GST defines strains as negative life events and conditions which are commonly disliked by the people who experience it or negative experiences of a person in a given group (Agnew, 1992; 2001; 2006). Strain is often classified in two distinct types, the Objective Strain and the Subjective Strain.
His areas of study are Juvenile delinquency, Youth violence and Criminological theory. The main argument of the source is that General strain theory provides and explanation of crime and delinquency and that it is the latest and broadest form of strain theory. General Strain Theory represents a revision and extension of prior strain theories. “General strain theory is distinguished from other criminological theories by the central role it assigns to negative emotions in the etiology of offending. It is also distinguished by the emphasis it places on particular strains, especially strains involving negative social relations “ (Brezina, 2018).
Many of the boys pretended that negative interactions and stereotyping did not affect them, but their bravo personas only masked the fear inside. Fear made the boys feel weaker and less masculine, so they would deviate from social norms to regain respect and dignity among their peers and for themselves. Routine patterns of punishment eventually lead the boys to develop an altered view of thoughts, beliefs, and ways of behaving in order to survive the tough life set them. Chapter two concentrates on the history of Oakland, incarceration rates, youth systems of control, and the boy’s resistance to punishment and brutalization. The Oakland ghetto consists of a multiracial community, predominantly African-American and Latino, that are equally targeted and brutalized by police
In Chapter 12 of Readings for Sociology, Garth Massey included and piece titled “The Code of the Streets,” written by Elijah Anderson. Anderson describes both a subculture and a counterculture found in inner-city neighborhoods in America. Anderson discusses “decent families,” and “street families,” he differentiates the two in in doing so he describes the so called “Code of the Streets.” This code is an exemplifies, norms, deviance, socialization, and the ideas of subcultures and countercultures.
a. Use Strain Theory to define and explain the following: i. The theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person Using strain theory, the theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person can be explained as a situation where an individual employs different means of success of getting fed, one that is against the agreeable ways in the society of getting money and feeding themselves. ii. Alcoholics Using strain theory, an alcohol has ultimately rejected the society’s goals of conforming to the societal values such as happiness and a stable job, such an individual essentially rejects the goals because they have been ultimately been unable to live up to the society’s standards. iii.
Agnew’s General Strain Theory in There Are No Children Here Introduction Throughout this semester, we have covered various criminological theories along with their strengths and limitations. These theoretical perspectives provide possible explanations to why individuals commit crimes. In addition to, these theories are indirectly woven within cultural objects such as song lyrics, movies, books, and television.
Strain theory is a crime theory that was developed by Robert Merton, an American sociologist. According to Robert, strain can be defined as the discrepancies that result from the goals that are culturally defined in reference to the means that are institutionalized and available to meet the set goals. As proposed by Merton, there exists a typological deviance that is based on two criteria; an individual’s belief in how the goals should be attained and an individual’s adherence or motivation to cultural goals. According to the theory, certain stressors or strains are responsible in increasing the likelihood of crime activities around the world.
Merton. The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream) though they lack the means, this leads to strain which may lead the individuals to commit crimes. Two major concerns in strain theory are the sources of the strain, stress or how people adapt to the strain. Positivism are theories of social and structure are strain theories.
