Short working paper 2In the article “The Street Code”, Elijah Anderson explains the differences between “honest” people and “street people” that can be applied to theories of social control, labeling, and social conflict approaches when talking about inner-city violence due to cultural adaptations. Anderson's theory examined African Americans living in America's inner cities who are driven to follow the "code of the streets" and work to maintain respect, loyalty, and their own self-image. The "code of the streets" that Anderson refers to is "a cultural adaptation" that is at the root of violent crime in America's inner cities (Anderson Article PDF, 3). Since these people live in predominantly poor neighborhoods with easy access to drugs and guns, as well as high rates of crime and violence, "everyone feels isolated and alienated from the rest of America » (Vold, 187). Anderson continues to distinguish between "decent" people and "street people." “Decent” families live according to a “civil code” which defends values ​​in relation to the rest of society such as maintaining a job, obtaining an education, protecting their children and respecting society. law. Additionally, “street” families tend to fend for themselves and, when young, grow up without adult supervision and are often abused. This alone creates a dangerous environment because children then "learn that resolving any type of interpersonal problem requires quickly resorting to hitting or other violent behavior" (Anderson Article PDF, 5). When raised in an inner-city “street” family, racism is one of the main factors that leads young people to construct a negative view of the rest of society. When these inner city dwellers, middle of paper, would most likely be categorized as a cultural theory because it focuses more on "the role of ideas in causing criminal behavior" (Vold 184). Not only would I classify Anderson's theory as a cultural theory because of his major argument that crime is learned by association, but I would consider the "code of the streets" to be a theory of cultural control. One hypothesis that Anderson is able to conclude is how people on the street justify their criminal behavior, such as denial of responsibility as seen throughout the article when criminals claim that the victim should have been better informed. This directly correlates with the control theory concept that people naturally commit crimes and it is the bonds we make and the constraints we form that will inevitably categorize our behavior as "street" or "deviant." ».”.