"Why are so many young black men killing each other?" is the title of Elijah Anderson's lecture to be delivered at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, in Penn State Greater Allegheny's Robert and Elizabeth Ostermayer Room. An influential and widely published ethnographer and expert on urban inequality, Anderson will present his research theory described in his book “Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City.”
Anderson, the William K. Lanman, Jr. professor of sociology at Yale, has developed a thesis after extensive research with young Philadelphia neighborhood residents that supports “entrenched poverty, experience with racial discrimination, and chronic exclusion from gainful employment largely account for the vicious cycle of brutality and aggression that dominates many urban streets,” according to a press release issued by Yale.
Also mentioned in the Yale press release is that the National Institute of Justice, a research and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently issued a report reaffirming that Anderson’s “Code of the Street” theory, which will enable the thesis to help policy makers and criminal courts evaluate inner city violence.
Anderson is the William K. Lanman Jr. professor of sociology at Yale University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University (1969), his master’s degree from the University of Chicago (1972) and his doctorate from Northwestern University (1976).
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (412) 675-9052.