Citation

Kurtenbach S, Rauf A. Int. J. Conf. Violence 2019; 13: e653.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, University of Bielefeld, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence)

DOI

10.4119/UNIBI/ijcv.653

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Youth violence remains a concern in Germany, particularly in specific "risky" neighborhoods that tend to be socially segregated and ethnically diverse. In this paper we critically compare the results of twenty-seven qualitative interviews conducted in three risky neighborhoods in the German Ruhr area with the code of the street. While this theoretical framework is frequently cited in explaining youth violence, it was based on research in an ethnically homogenous neighborhood in the United States and thus does not engage with questions of diversity. Our findings show that the core of the code of the street is also applicable in heterogeneous contexts, thus extending the generalizability of the theoretical framework. Manifestations of manhood, reputation, and symbolic power were found to be major elements of street culture, although characterized somewhat differently than in the original work.

Language: en

Keywords

code of the street; diversity; Germany; urban sociology; youth violence