Theories of Crime and "Code of The Street"

Elijah Anderson

In the “Code of the street”, Elijah Anderson analyzed the criminal and the violence in the inner city. He shows the reasons that lead these aggressions, including campaigning respect, fighting for self-image, self-esteem and manhood and the oppositional culture. Those reasons make the children and delinquent get into the violence and the crimination in the city. In this article, Anderson uses some of the sociological theories of crime and he somehow incorporates them in the discussion of the inner-city life. I think both interactionist theories and conflict theory are the most prominent explanations in the article as they act as important roles in it. In my point of view, the interactionist theories are the best choice explaining crime since they are thoughtful and definitely describe the crime.

From “The Code of the Street”, Anderson describes the situation of how the children are treated and lived in the inner city. Children in the inner city are totally influenced by the streets and peers. They tend to hang out with friends after school and have freedom to join the activities or groups that they want. Therefore, they are influenced by their groups and then it “becomes the source of their primary social bonds.” (Anderson, 175)The reason that Anderson shows that is because it refers to the differential association in the interactionist theories. Sutherland who linked crime to differential association tells that “criminal behavior is learned within primary groups, particularly peer groups.” (Giddens, 160) Children from inner city may witness to the violence of adult and, therefore, they will share or mimicked those behaviors to other children.

The labeling theory in the interactionist theory is also an important role for the article. When writing about manhood, Anderson tells that some males from inner city consider themselves as “physicality and certain ruthlessness.” (Anderson, 178) To gain respect, they widely belief that the most effective way is to show “nerve”. It “exposes a lack of fear of dying”. (Anderson, 180) They appear toughly and manly in a conscious way. The secondary deviation from the labeling theory explains it: “when the individual comes to accept the label and see himself as a deviant” (Giddens, 161), they may do deviation or even crime. The example from the article totally adapts the theory. Since those males accept their positions in the society, they can use crime whenever they want as they are supposed to.

Although the conflict theory is somehow opposite to the interactionist theory, Anderson also used it in his own article. The conflict theorists “claimed that as inequalities increase between the ruling class and the working class, law becomes an ever more important instrument for the powerful to maintain order.” (Giddens, 161)However, Anderson argued that “the code of the streets is actually a cultural adaptation to a profound lack of faith in the police and the judicial system.” (Anderson, 172) Since the police seem to represent the white middle class society, the inner city residents feel being alienated and not being cared or protected. After all, Anderson claims that the judicial system is not as important as the conflict theorists said.

Last but not least, Anderson used the subcultural explanation the end of his article. Subcultural explanation argues that “boys in the lower working class who are frustrated with their positions in life often join together in delinquent subcultures, such as gangs.” (Giddens, 160) These gangs may reject middle class value and may engage in criminal behavior. In the article, Anderson talks about why the young people from inner city used to adapt the code of the street. They “have become most alienated and lack in strong and conventional social support”. (Anderson, 182)They think that they have been rejected from the society and so, they need to invest themselves into the subcultural situation to “preserve themselves and their self-respect”. (Anderson, 182)

The reason that I think the interactionist theories is the best choice to explain crime is that they are thoughtful. The theories include different minor explanations and they totally describe the crime. For instance, differential association helps to explain how people start learning criminal and aggression. Labeling theory helps to show how people continue to invest crime.

To conclude, Anderson tried to apply and emphasize the sociological theories of crime in his article. The article totally shows the readers how the theories are related to the reality due to the examples he gives. Therefore, I think the four sociological explanations that I talk about are most prominent in this article.


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Reflection:

After writing this essay, I found that it is quite important and meaningful to combine two sources. When I finished reading “the Code of The Street”, I can easily find some points that relate to the theories in the textbook. I can then compare and contrast the points in both articles. It will be very persuasive if I can quote information from another source to prove what I have read and my thoughts, too.

Moreover, I found that using quotations is very useful because I can clearly tell what I exactly want to analyze through the quotation. It may not be that clear if I use several sentences rather than one or two sentences from textbook. It will be much more information and persuasive, too.