Code Of The Street Anderson Rules Conducting Interpersonal Behavior

When a person’s environment is perpetrated by bouts of minor and major crime on a daily basis, this crime-ridden environment becomes the norm for the people that reside in the area. Some individuals embrace this existence of criminality willingly, while others do their absolute best to look beyond the wrongdoings of the people who cannot seem to escape the law-breaking lifestyle. Society is constantly exposed to images from the media that present a bad image of crime and poverty, which then shapes many of the opinions that society holds today about people engulfed in the low-income environments in the United States. A negative stigma has been created in relation to criminals and the characteristics they exhibit resulting in public disapproval
These rules dictate proper behavior and the appropriate way to respond when challenged with violence or the threat of violence. The rules are established and reinforced through interpersonal contacts in everyday life. Everyone knows that violation of the rules will bring penalties of many magnitudes depending on the severity of the violation. Knowledge of the code is mainly defensive and it is necessary to know the code for operating in public areas such as street corners, grocery stores, and schools. The pervasiveness of the code, and its strict enforcement on the streets persuades even the parents who reject it, to encourage their children to abide by it for their protection and well-being. Respect is the overhanging theme of the code. One is to be treated "right" and granted the respect they deserve. The rules of the street provide a code by which respect is hard earned and easily lost. Clothes, shoes, jewels, language, and grooming reinforce normative expectations of behavior in inner-city neighborhoods. It is important to demonstrate "nerve" on the streets to show people you are not to be messed with. The code exists as a subculture within inner-city neighborhoods because residents, particularly youth, feel alienated from mainstream society. When people have few opportunities to gain respect within mainstream culture, they devise a set of rules
This theory meshes some aspects from both the social disorganization theory and the strain theory. The main premise of the cultural deviance theory is that conformity to the prevailing cultural norms of lower class society causes crime. The lower class subculture has its own set of values, rules, and beliefs that clash with the mainstream values of the middle-class and wealthy. Criminality is a manifestation of conformity to lower class subculture values. Members of the working and lower class commit crimes of different variations as they respond to the cultural norms of their own class in an effort to deal with adjustments of the socioeconomic classes. Anderson gives many arguments to support all three theories within his text. Examples that support the various theories include, but are not limited to, street and decent families, gang formation, teen pregnancy, and high unemployment within the city leading to unconventional ways to make