ABSTRACT
For residents of inner-city ghettos, especially youth, the code of the street rules the way life is played. The code of the street cannot be ignored because decent and street systems of behavior coexist and constantly interact within the ghetto community. Thus, even children from solid and supportive decent families need to engage in code-switching in order to handle themselves in a street-oriented environment. The code of the street thus emerges where the influence of the police ends and where personal responsibility for one's safety is felt to begin. Those strongly associated with the street, who have less exposure to the wider society, may have difficulty code-switching. Decent and street families deal with the code of the street in various ways. Decent families tend to accept mainstream values more fully than street families, and they attempt to instill them in their children. Street families more fully believe in the code and judge themselves and others according to its values.
