1 The book Code of the Street is a book about urban city life in Philadelphia, PA, for African Americans and how unwritten laws are vital to abide and obtain in order to survive. In this book, Elijah Anderson captivates the reader’s attention by presenting extensive research on how Philadelphia natives adopt the laws of the code of the street and how and when to use these codes of survival. He provides several interviews with many different people who are either forced to enter the code of the street or who are the enforcers. Nonetheless, all are victims because the code is a factor in everybody’s life. As I read this book, I noticed how the code of the street could be a good thing and also a bad thing. I say a good thing because, first and foremost, no one wants to be disrespected and I saw how many of the characters adopted this role in the street life to gain respect and to not be fearful and to be viewed as a “tough” guy. I also saw adopting the code of the street as a bad thing because I saw that there were decent people who were forced to engage in the negativity that the street produced on a daily basis. I saw how the good turned into bad while the bad either were campaigning to be badder or campaigning to make something of themselves. You would think that trying to better your life, especially coming from the ghetto, would be two thumbs up but in the city of Philadelphia, as Anderson described, was a hard obstacle to overcome. Hate, jealousy and envy were the dominant attitudes described in Code of the Street. Black on black crime was a norm in Anderson’s book. I look at it as crabs in a barrel. You have a bunch of black people in a barrel, some climbing to the top only to get pulled down by its own kind. There are very few who make it out of the barrel while many enjoyed staying at the bottom. The book Code of the Street introduced a world that is commonly misconstrued and judged to one’s own satisfaction, but what do you do when you are born and raised in the arteries of Philadelphia with a 2 label soon as you come out of the womb? How do you survive in a world that has little to nothing and you are “bound” to do the wrong thing? In this book, Elijah Anderson clarify the misjudgments and explain the ins and outs of survival and how people deal with the everyday strain on living life by the code of the street. One of the characters in Elijah Anderson’s book, Code of the Street was John Turner. John Turner’s story alone could be a summary of the code of the street because he was a man living the street life trying to become decent. It was Elijah who along with a few of his friends, that helped John through his everyday struggles as a black man. John Turner was twenty-one when Anderson met him and already the father of four children from three different women. Since then he has fathered two more children by a fourth woman. He strived to provide for his children and be a good role model which is someone he never had growing up. However, his good intentions and expectations to succeed were often compromised by the pull of the street. John Turner who was the oldest child, grew up with his mother, father, sister, and brother, who had epilepsy. When Anderson met John, John’s father left seven years prior because of his abusiveness, alocoholic addiction, infidelity and his lack of being a provider and a parent. In the book Anderson showed deep compassion, understanding and hope for opportunities to help John succeed in life. He assisted John with his legal troubles and employment so he could achieve his dreams of having a good life. Although John envisioned a good life, the oppositional culture in which his identity derived, prevented him from having a substantial reality outside the inner-city and its way of life. Ultimately it impeded him of certain opportunities, major opportunities that is. As a native of Philadelphia, street-oriented values such as respect, achieving status, 3 having several girlfriends, multiple children from multiple mothers, drugs, wealth and violence were all important outlooks to survive the underground economy he considered life, especially being taught that at an early age. Because of negative experiences, prejudice and the absence of real job opportunities led John to become a casualty of the street culture he once so tried to avoid. Now keep in mind that John has a high school diploma which seems hard to many to come by, and he is still unable to obtain a “decent” job. Being African American has a lot to do with his misfortunes and disadvantages because of the everyday prejudices and discriminations. John's socio-economic status that was perceived by others, and his pre-instilled perceptions of authority were major factors in how he handled himself when he faced the legalities of court, probation, or anything else he viewed as a challenge or issue. Just as he would start to have a foot in the door on the right path, something always brought him a step or two back which would either land him in jail, obtaining fines, or without a job which discouraged him of the real world. While working at a legitimate jobs, such as the union job Anderson got him and the jobs working at restaurants, trying to do the right thing always started off encouraging and positive, then his hard work and effort were rewarded with low pay and/or disrespect from co-workers which seemed much easier for him to sell drugs. When Anderson met Turner, Turner had serious problems with the law, HE COULDN’T STAY OUT OF TROUBLE! He had violated probation. Turner had a girlfriend named Aubrey. Aubrey lived on the other side of Turner in West Philadelphia 4 where she was having problems with the youth there. One night she called Turner about it and being as though Turner was in great affiliation of the code of the street, he felt the need to be a “man” and protect his woman by getting his mother’s gun and going to her house in his claims, to scare off the guys. Unfortunately, his “code of the street” behavior turned around and kicked his ass because he got caught with the gun by the police. He told the officers the truth in hopes of not getting arrested but because he was carring an unregistered gun they had to arrest him. All the while, he was on probation and had a probation officer that he did not see eye to eye with. He thought they had an informal relationship to where he could call her if he couldn’t make it to the office. In court the probation officer totally switch it up on him, mainly because she could lose her job for having an informal relationship with a client and plus Turner began to get out of control with the informality. He received a fine of $1,500. After his release, his mother got him a job with her as a Lab Technician where he would collect urine making $16,000 a year. This built his self-esteem. Unfortunately again, Turner was driving and was pulled over and got arrested for not paying his fine. The judge sentenced him to 13 weeks in jail and a fine of $1,300. His employer told him to quit because of legal issues and his position would be held but that turned out to be false because upon release there was no position waiting for him.
Everywhere Turner inquired about a job he was told to fill out an application and they would call but he never received what he hoped for, a phone call. He eventually found employment at an Italian Restaurant as a bus boy making $100 a week. John would sometimes argue with his boss because he would split up John’s pay. He then got fired for punching one of the white guys in the face for using the word nigger frequently. He was 5 called to come back the next day for a great work ethic. John felt trapped at this point because he was making only $400 a month and he had to help his family out, he was considered the sole provider and he felt good about that but at the same time, less of a man because he was trying to make ends meet the best he could, he was struggling. He considered himself a decent father that lacked only in the financial department.
He went to court and was assigned another probation officer who was white and showed little concern for John. He felt John put himself in the position he was in. Obviously lacking knowledge on the victims of the code of the street. Anderson wanted to help him the best he could because he felt that he deserved a fair chance so he pulled some strings to get him into a union job. Now one of the top dogs at the union was Anderson’s friends, who in turn was black. He was skeptical about hiring John because he was black. When black people hire other blacks they have to be careful because of the bad reps they have. John was arrested about a week after his interview with the job for beating up his girlfriend. He was released and received a phone call on when he could start. He started the job, he would report to the job at night and would report back to jail after work. He never had a problem with his boss until he as well as his co-workers began to make fun of his personal life with the many females he had as well as children and how he was a “jail bird”. His co-workers were intimidated and upset because they were working class men and John was a working class jail bird. They didn’t want him to have the same privilege as them. He continued to work until he quit to prove a point and that’s when his baby mothers started acting up because no money was coming through. 6
John’s mother became sick and left to move down south. John not wanting to be away from his mother moved with her. Anderson saw John about a year after him quiting the job and they sat and had a conversation to catch up on whats been going on in Johns life. John informed Elijah that he moved down south. He then began to tell Elijah how he was selling drugs before he left which came less of a surprise but more of a shock because he thought John was seriously trying to do the right thing without being illegal. Turner described how he was considered the man when he was selling drugs and how crack is the key thing to mess up a person’s life. He described the ins and out of dealing drugs and the awful stories of others. He stated he would make 15-$1600 a night. He stated how dangerous the drug game is and what made him stop. He stopped because of how fast the money would go. The more money you made the more you had to give up in dues.
I found that john turner was an example of many theories of crime causation and theories of victimization. There are many John Turners in the world who suffer from the code of the street and who are misunderstood. As I read about the many crime theories I saw an explanation as to why the John Turners cope the way they do with their everyday hurdles, and it’s simply because, THAT’S ALL THEY KNOW! Before I get into the many theories of crime causation, let me introduce the theories of victimization that I saw fit into the characteristics of John Turner.
Lifestyle Theory is when crime is not a random occurrence but rather a function of the victim’s lifestyle and demographic makeup. Now, with the knowledge of this theory, John Turners face was in clear view. Because John Turner was a native of the urban city in 7
Philadelphia, he didn’t choose this life of survival, he was forced into it and was made to adapt to the code of the street which in summary could be stated as, you either lay down or get down. John Turner was a man who was let down many times, saw the wrongs of the streets and made hisself adjust to it the best he knew how because it was his lifestyle, his way of living.
Deviant Place Theory which was developed by Sociologist, William Julius Wilson, can be described as, the greater a persons exposure to dangerous places, the more likely people will become victims of crime and violence. Now, living in the urban city of Philadelphia with their being staging areas on every corner and often times in the homes next door, he was suseptable to commit crime and engage in violence because of the negativity he was exposed to. In my opinion, the environment has a significant role, if not more significant to one’s parents. I say that because your peers has the most influence then your parents and most of the times a child is more likely to follow their peers and listen to their peers until they are capable of getting their own minds and determine the right way to go, but that is rare growing up where John calls home.
Rational Choice Theory was developed by the famous Cesare Beccaria, was described as one of the theories of crime causation that is the view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act. Basically, an offender commits crime through free will. I applied this theory to John because he made a lot of bad decisions and put himself in the

8 predicament he constantly found himself in. He wasn’t forced, he simply exercised his right to free will. In reading Code of the Street, I noticed how the Strain Theory applys the John Turners story. Many strain theorist believe that an individual want to do right such as provide for their family, get an education and get a decent job, but is deprived of that because there is a socioeconomic class that prevents the “American dream”, which was exactly John’s case. Another concept of Johns story can be traced the theory of anomie which was produced by Robert Merton. The theory of anomie basically states that, every individual are living in a world with the same opportunities but some are stratified by classification that locks them out of the opportunity structure. With that being mentioned, if you take a look at John Turners story for a moment, you will see that every effort he made to do right by finding a job to support his family he was let down because of his classification: African American male who tried to cheat the system and manipulate any and everybody who fell for his nonsense. He has strikes against him no matter how much he tried to put good into play. John Turner had several chances to clean up the “norm” and provide a better life for himself as well as his family, but because he was a victim of the code of the street from birth he didn’t stand a chance. Inside of the street life he was the man, nice cars, clothes, money and women, but in the decent world and above, he was just a black male that had problems written all over him.

Bibliography

Siegel, Larry J. (2010,2007). Criminalogy: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Anderson, Elijah. (1999). Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City.New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.