Culture and Formal Social Control: The Effect of the Code of the Street on Police and Court Decision-making

Abstract

Objectives. Drawing on several interrelated lines of scholarship, we argue that cultural beliefs at individual and neighborhood levels may affect police and court decisions. We hypothesize that individuals who more strongly adhere to the code of the street or reside in areas where the street code culture is more strongly embraced will be more likely to be arrested and convicted, and that neighborhood-level effects will amplify the effect of street code adherence. Methods. To test these hypotheses, data from the Family and Community Health Study are examined using multilevel modeling. Results. Blacks who more strongly adhered to street code beliefs were more likely to be arrested and convicted; this effect was greater among those who resided in areas where the code of the street belief system was more entrenched. Conclusions. The findings highlight the potential usefulness of a focus on culture for understanding the exercise of formal social control.

Keywords:

• street code
• police
• court
• social control
• decision-making

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Acknowledgment

We thank the anonymous reviewers for excellent suggestions in improving this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The data in this study originally were collected with support by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH48165, MH62669) and the Centers for Disease Control (029136-02), with additional funding by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station (Project #3320). Points of view, as well as any errors and omissions, in this paper are the authors and not those of the funding agencies.

Notes on contributors

Daniel P. Mears

Daniel P. Mears, PhD, is the Mark C. Stafford Professor of Criminology at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 112 South Copeland Street, Eppes Hall, Tallahassee, FL 32306–1273, e-mail ([email protected]), phone [phone]). He conducts basic and applied research on a range of crime and justice topics. His work has appeared in Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and other crime and policy journals and in American Criminal Justice Policy (Cambridge University Press) and, with Joshua C. Cochran, Prisoner Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Sage).

Eric A. Stewart

Eric A. Stewart, PhD, Professor, Florida State University, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 112 South Copeland Street, Eppes Hall, Tallahassee, FL 32306–1273, e-mail ([email protected]), phone [phone]). He is the Vice-President of the American Society of Criminology and a W.E.B. DuBois Fellow with the National Institute of Justice, and a member of the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network. His research interests include racial inequality and criminal outcomes; crime over the life course; and contextual- and micro-processes that affect adolescent development. His work has appeared in Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Justice Quarterly.

Patricia Y. Warren

Patricia Y. Warren, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 112 South Copeland Street, Eppes Hall, Tallahassee, FL 32306–1273, e-mail ([email protected]), phone [phone]). Her research focuses on crime and social control with particular emphasis on the complex ways that race, ethnicity, and gender influence sentencing and policing outcomes. Her work has appeared in Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Crime and Delinquency, and other outlets.

Ronald L. Simons

Ronald L. Simons, PhD, is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Center for Contextual Genetics at the University of Georgia, 324 Baldwin Hall, Athens, GA 30602, e-mail ([email protected]), phone [phone]). His research has focused upon onset, amplification, and desistance from various externalizing and internalizing problems. This work has investigated the avenues whereby community conditions, parents, schools, and peers during adolescence, and romantic partners, routine activities, incarceration, and employment during adulthood influence trajectories of maladjustment. His recent work examines how social factors become biologically embedded and influence development and health across the life course. His work has appeared in such journals as Criminology, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and the American Sociological Review.