The Code Of The Street By Elijah Anderson

The Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson is a theory developed by Anderson himself that demonstrates the explanation of the high rates of violence and the life of inner-city people, mainly African-Americans, living in Philadelphia. In some of the most economically depressed and drug- and crime-ridden pockets of the city, the rules of the civil law have been severely weakened, and in their stead a “code of the street” often holds away (Anderson 9). The “code of the street” is known as a set of informal rules leading to the public behavior known as violence, deterrence, the possession of respect is at the heart of the code, and the belief that there are two different types of families known as “decent” families and “street” families.
When it …show more content…
Poverty in this area is extremely high which makes things very hard for these people to live there. Anderson conducted research to observe the people in inner-city Philadelphia living such a stressful lifestyle in a poor and violent atmosphere that causes young people to go by the “code of the street” as a guide. Anderson himself went to this area to conduct his research by observing the people that live in inner-city black neighborhoods. He conducted interviews of people and these people told him their story of living in inner-city Philadelphia.
Living in the inner-city black neighborhood, there is the constant fear of the “decent” families living in a bad neighborhood that deals with people using the “code.” Anderson interviewed a “decent” family and the mother of the family told him her story when she and her family had to resort to the “code” to get out of an issue that had occurred with one of her five children. Marge was her name, she raised her children well to be different than the other kids (not street), her daughter had an issue with another girl that was always picking on her. One day when her daughter was at the house just reading a book and the girl that always picked on her daughter resorted to have a fight on the front porch that Marge had to separate them. The other girl left but came back with more people to help her finish off the fight that she had with Marge’s daughter. Marge and her family had to resort to the “code” and deal with the violence of other people and fight