Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

Elijah Anderson

Sep 2000 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

Unsparing and important. . . . An informative, clearheaded and sobering book.—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1999 Critic's Choice) Inner-city black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence, but in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. This unwritten set of rules—based largely on an individual's ability to command respect—is a powerful and pervasive form of etiquette, governing the way in which people learn to negotiate public spaces. Elijah Anderson's incisive book delineates the code and examines it as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope.

Ratings and reviews

Had to review this book for my university assignment. Overall a very interesting book, slightly repetitive to begin but the chapters towards the end help us thoroughly understand the code of the street for both decent and street families and the difficulties they face e.g. widespread labelling from the police and mainstream society, poverty, joblessness and the ongoing influence of the underground economy as a means of survival.

About the author

Elijah Anderson is Sterling Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Yale University. His most prominent works include the award-winning books Code of the Street and Streetwise. He lives in New Haven and Philadelphia.