The Mediating Effect of Street-Code Attitudes on Criminal Offending among Latinos

• In Event: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality, and Offending

Abstract

The Code of the Street is a normative system of values that emphasizes the use of violence to avoid moral self-sanctions, and achieve respect and status among peers. This individual-level study draws from Elijah Anderson’s (1999) Code of the Street theory to examine racial/ethnic differences in levels of code-related attitudes and criminal offending with special attention to Latinos. Using a racially/ethnically diverse sample of serious adolescent offenders from two large U.S. cities and controlling for socio-demographic and risk factors, we test whether street-code attitudes are a mediating mechanism linking race/ethnicity and criminal offending. Results obtained from path mediation models showed negative direct and total effects of race/ethnicity on criminal offending. More importantly, there is evidence of at least one mediation effect of race/ethnicity on criminal offending. These results confirm and extend Anderson’s theory to describe adherence to street-codes among serious adolescent offenders, and among other racial/ethnic minorities such as Latinos. Based on these findings, theoretical and policy implications of this study are discussed.

Authors

• Carlos Rojas-Gaona, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

• Christopher Sullivan, University of Cincinnati