Social Institutions In Elijah Anderson's The Code Of The Streets

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Social institutions are defined as established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion, and economic and political institutions. In The Code of the Streets, Elijah Anderson plays on the fact that a persons environment can play a big part in a persons behavior. According to Anderson “ simply living in such an environment places young people at risk of falling victim to aggressive behavior.” For example, one of the social institutions mentioned by Anderson in economic standards. Economic standards are relevant in The Code of the Streets, because if a person’s appearance in a sense looks a bit classier then the average person in the area they earn a sense of respect. Respect is a big part of the Code of the Streets because to some it is seen as being treated right. A person’s economic standard in a way reflects whether they deserve respect. For example, lets say you couldn’t afford the latest pair Jordan’s but a group of your peers could, they in a way are now above you in the social chain of respect. This can influence crime, because if a person of a lower income family sees that they can attain respect in a simple way that just so happens to be illegal such …show more content…

Although I feel that other things can contribute to there being crime in urban neighborhoods. I felt as though the three topics that I have stated could possibly be the root of these problems. Ultimately, the one thing that stood out to me, and what I emphasized on a lot was location. The area in which a person is brought up leaves a huge impression on a person. What I feel that Elijah Anderson emphasizes is that in different locations and especially in urban areas two peoples definition of normal and decent can be completely different because they weren’t brought up in the same

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