TOURO COLLEGE-COURSE SYLLABUS
Department: Sociology
Course Title: Youth and Urban Community
Course Number: GSO 240 GA
Prerequisites: GSO 121
Credit Hours: 3
Developer: Abbott Katz
Date of Last Update: February 6, 2004
Course Description
The ethos of the inner city is captured in part by the “code of the street”, the central
theme of Elijah Anderson’s book that details the lifestyles of two largely – but not
completely – disparate groups.
Objectives
How does Anderson’s work distinguish itself from the kind of reporting a newspaper
might offer on the same topic? An interest in demonstrating what is sociological about his
analysis is a central objective. And how accurately do his examples illustrate the code of
the street? We hope to introduce other sociological sources to supplement the book’s
treatment of the subject.
Content
Introduction – Defining the populations to be studied; distinguishing between “decent”
and “street” categories.
Chapter 1 – Elaborating through interviews and case histories the “decent” and “street”
characterizations. The culture of poverty.
Chapter 2 – Campaigning for respect; internalizing the code; and elaboration of “staging
areas” (compare to the early definition of the term in the book).
Chapter 3 – Drugs, Violence and Street Crime. Sociological theories about crime.
Midterm Exam
Chapter 4 – The Mating Game. Street courtship. How does this relate, if at all, to the
code? Street family structure.
Chapter 5 – The Decent Daddy
Chapter 6 – The Black Inner-City Grandmother in Transition
Chapter 7 – John Turner’s Story
Conclusion – The Conversion of a Role Model: Looking for Mr. Johnson
Final Exam
Additional distributed readings:
 Asian-American Gangs (http://www.asian-nation.org/gangs.shtml)
 Excerpts from G. Suttles, The Social Structure of the Slum
 Excerpts from Martin Sanchez-Jankowsi, Islands in the Street (a multi-ethnic
ethnography of gangs)
Course Requirements
 Regular prompt attendance
 Midterm and final
Grading Guidelines
 Midterm
 Final
 Class participation
40%
40%
20%
Methodology
 Lecture and class discussion
 Essay exams
Course Text
Anderson, Elijah, Code of the Street, W.W. Norton & Company, New York and London,
1999
Bibliography
Berkeley : University of California Press, c1991.
Casella, Ronnie, “Being Down”: Challenging Violence in Urban Schools foreword by
Jean Anyon, New York: Teachers College Press, 2001
Freedman, Marc. The Kindness Of Strangers : Adult Mentors, Urban Youth, And The
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Glasgow, Douglas G. The Black Underclass : Poverty, Unemployment, and Entrapment
of Ghetto Youth 1st Vintage Books ed, New York: Vintage Books, 1981
Jankowski, Martín Sánchez, Islands in the street : gangs and American urban society,
Le. C.N.,“Asian American Gangs”, http://www.asian-nation.org/gangs.shtml
Miller, Walter B. Violence By Youth Gangs And Youth Groups As A Crime Problem In
Major American Cities : [Washington] : National Institute for Juvenile Justice and
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Mincy, Ronald B. (ed),Nurturing young Black males : challenges to agencies, programs,
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Rodriguez, Joseph,.East Side Stories : Gang Life in East L.A., photographs by Joseph
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Sadowski, Michael (ed.), Adolescents at School : Perspectives on Youth, Identity, and
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Suttles, Gerald D. The Social Order of the Slum,: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner
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Thrasher, Frederic Milton, The gang; a study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago.Abridged, and
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Weis, Lois and Michelle Fine, (eds.) Construction Sites : Excavating Race, Class, And
Gender Among Urban Youth, New York : Teachers College Press, 2000.
Wyrick, Phelan A. Vietnamese Youth Gang Involvement. [Washington, DC],: U.S.
Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, 2000.