Code of the Street: Effecting Youths’ Behavior

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Overall theory. Andrea Allen and Celia Lo wanted to devise their research from Elijah Anderson’s, “The Code of the Streets,” that intended to analyze the behavior aspect of young males particularly black urban males that were either incarcerated or attending school. According to Anderson, the apparent problem in inner-city communities is that they are controlled by violence and the unspoken street codes. In a glimpse the street codes is all about self-imaginary and façade that resembles toughness, in which this simple concept on the street defines a person. Therefore Allen and Lo wanted to do a continuation of Anderson’s study by observing the behavior of young males on the aspects of drug trafficking and firearm carrying. Within these two dimensions, they theorized from Anderson’s study that there is a possible connection between their defined definition of being disadvantage and the code of the streets. Amongst this connection, there should be a “co-occurring” relationship that should indicate the presence of increased violence of inner-city male youths. Also, the study was intended to analyze whether the code of streets on the notion of drug dealing was based on race. How to research or ideas fit in with the assigned reading. The study was able to illustrate the dynamics of Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory and Aker’s Social Learning Theory through the simple fact that the study focuses on social behaviors, particularly deviant behaviors that can be the result of society or interactions. These deviant behaviors are typically learned actions as a survival mechanism due to a deteriorating community. Allen and Lo constructed their study from Anderson’s (1999) study of black male behavior within poor neig... ... middle of paper ... ... For one, being disadvantage was measured on being expelled from school, having an absent father, and whether they were employed or not. Of course, there are more ways to measure being disadvantage. Also, there was a lack of measures for students’ history of violence. Furthermore, policy implications based on this study’s finding suggest that programs should be geared toward male inner-city youths’. Programs should develop their community and schooling system, as well as displaying a means for other employment opportunities besides drug trafficking. Thus, there will always be room for future studies and continuation of this topic. Works Cited Allen, A., & Lo, C. (2010). Drugs, Gunds, and Disadvantaged Youths: Co-Occurring Behavior and the Code of the Street. Crime and Delinquency, 1-22. Anderson, E. (1999). The Code of the street.

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