Exploring the Measurement Quality of an Attitudinal Scale of Street Code-Related Violence: Similarities and Differences Across Groups and Contexts

Elijah Anderson's "code of the streets" has received considerable attention as a promising approach to understanding youths violence. One area which has received scant attention, however, is the measurement quality of the street code concept. Using data collected from more than 3,300 middle school youths residing in 7 geographically and demographically diverse U.S. cities between 2007 and 2009, the authors seek to answer the following questions: (a) What are the psychometric properties of the attitudes toward street code-related violence scale (in terms of dimensionality and internal consistency) across demographic subgroups (i.e., race/ethnicity, sex, and age groups) and social contexts (i.e., cities)? and (b) To what extent does the level of acceptance of the attitudes associated with street code-related violence vary across demographic subgroups and social contexts? Results illustrate that the scale performs similarly across groups and contexts, but the actual level of acceptance of street code-related violence varies considerably. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.