Code of the Street
Decency Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City
WW Norton · Print & ebook · October 3, 2000
Unsparing and important. . . .
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- Who it’s for
- A clear-eyed look at how respect shapes public life—and what pressures help sustain its code.
- Themes
- Street codes and respect, Violence and public life, Structural inequality
- Genres
- Urban Life, Criminology, Race & Ethnic Relations
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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.
Continue reading
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.
Rules and Respect
A clear-eyed look at how respect shapes public life—and what pressures help sustain its code.
Come here for
- The unwritten etiquette governing how people negotiate public spaces
- A grounded account of respect as a powerful social currency
Expect
- An examination of violence alongside work, race, drug use, and alienation
- A sobering look at how social pressures shape everyday conduct
Where it sits
| Criminology | 51% |
|---|---|
| Urban Life | 40% |
| Race & Ethnic Relations | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Urban Life
- Authors
- Elijah Anderson
- Publisher
- WW Norton
- Published
- October 3, 2000
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Street codes and respect · Violence and public life · Structural inequality
- Reading lane
- Urban Life