Code Of The Streets By Elijah Anderson: Summary

Jordan Allen
Fall 2014
SOCG 1013
Ms. Collins

Code of the Streets

Code of the Streets is a book set in an inner city neighborhood in Philadelphia written by Elijah Anderson. The “code of the streets” combined with respect, loyalty, and honor is a system used to regulate social interactions within the city. The people within the inner city are pressured into living by the code of the street as a survival mechanism. The book describes the issues that are present within the city like teen pregnancy and the absence of economic opportunity. Anderson used ethnography research methods to obtain his information on the African American’s in certain parts of the city in the 1990’s. His research accounted for street violence and the disadvantaged African American in the communities. The drug industry is one of
A decent family is middle class and hardworking they had mainstream values and attempt to include them in their children’s lives. Decent parents are more willing to use schools and churches to help their children. They also teach their children to be polite and use manners as well as how to defend themselves when it comes to violence and not being another victim to the streets. Street families on the other hand do not identify with society they have a lack of concern and do not really establish a since of family and community. Street parents use the code of the streets as a way to coerce their children into violent behaviors. Family members usually resort in self destructive behaviors like drugs and alcohol. For the children in decent homes it is important for them to grow up street smart and to recognize the street codes, and for the children growing up in street homes it was important for them to know the preparations for drug trades and even sometimes murder. The children in these neighborhoods are brought up on what the family believes to be most valuable to