THE CODE OF THE STREET AND INMATE VIOLENCE: INVESTIGATING THE SALIENCE OF IMPORTED BELIEF SYSTEMS

• Author: SONJA E. SIENNICK,ERIC A. STEWART,RONALD L. SIMONS,DANIEL P. MEARS
• Date: 01 August 2013
• Published date: 01 August 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12017

THE CODE OF THE STREET AND INMATE

VIOLENCE: INVESTIGATING THE SALIENCE

OF IMPORTED BELIEF SYSTEMS∗

DANIEL P. MEARS

ERIC A. STEWART

SONJA E. SIENNICK

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Florida State University

RONALD L. SIMONS

School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Arizona State University

KEYWORDS: street code, importation, incarceration, order violence

Scholars have long argued that inmate behaviors stem in part from

cultural belief systems that they “import” with them into incarcerative

settings. Even so, few empirical assessments have tested this argument

directly. Drawing on theoretical accounts of one such set of beliefs—the

code of the street—and on importation theory, we hypothesize that indi-

viduals who adhere more strongly to the street code will be more likely,

once incarcerated, to engage in violent behavior and that this effect will

be amplified by such incarceration experiences as disciplinary sanctions

and gang involvement, as well as the lack of educational programming,

religious programming, and family support. We test these hypotheses

using unique data that include measures of the street code belief system

and incarceration experiences. The results support the argument that the

∗This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH48165

and MH62669) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (029136–

02). Additional funding for this project was provided by the National Institute

on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and

the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station (Project #3320).

All errors and omissions are those of the authors. We thank the anonymous re-

viewers and editor for constructive suggestions for revising the article. Direct

correspondence to Daniel P. Mears, College of Criminology and Criminal Jus-

tice, Florida State University, 634 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL 32306–1127.

(e-mail: dmears@fsu.edu).

C2013 American Society of Criminology doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12017

CRIMINOLOGY Volume 51 Number 3 2013 695

696 MEARS ET AL.

code of the street belief system affects inmate violence and that the effect

is more pronounced among inmates who lack family support, experi-

ence disciplinary sanctions, and are gang involved. Implications of these

findings are discussed.

Scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions of so-

cial order among incarcerated populations (e.g., Irwin, 2005; Sykes, 1958;

see, generally, Sparks, Bottoms, and Hay, 1996). The emergence of histor-

ically unprecedented levels of incarceration during the past three decades

(Clear, 2007; Visher and Travis, 2011) has contributed to a resurgence of

interest in undertaking studies that illuminate how and why inmates be-

have as they do (e.g., Bottoms, 1999; Liebling and Arnold, 2012; Useem

and Piehl, 2008). One of the central theoretical arguments advanced by re-

searchers has been that inmates “import” cultural belief systems conducive

to violence (Irwin and Cressey, 1962; Thomas, 1977; Wright, 1991). Even

so, few rigorous assessments of the salience of imported belief systems have

been undertaken; instead, prior research has primarily examined such di-

mensions as age, sex, race, prior record, educational background, and other

such factors.

This gap is striking because importation theory anticipates that it is cul-

tural belief systems that individuals carry with them into incarcerative set-

tings and is not, per se, the social and demographic characteristics of these

individuals that contributes to violence. Necessarily, given the limited re-

search that has examined directly the salience of imported belief systems

for inmate violence, little is known about the related possibility that the

effects of these beliefs may be altered by other social forces, such as ex-

posure to specific conditions, experiences, or deprivations (Sykes, 1958),

which restrain or reinforce violence-promoting beliefs. The potential for

such interactions derives from theoretical accounts of prison life, which link

the insights offered by importation and deprivation perspectives to suggest

that inmate violence results from a confluence of factors (Bottoms, 1999;

Dhami, Ayton, and Loewenstein, 2007; Tasca, Griffin, and Rodriguez, 2010;

Toch and Adams, 1989). A finding that imported beliefs and in-prison de-

privations interact in predicting prison violence would highlight the impor-

tance of integrating these theoretical models rather than pit them against

each other. Notably, however, empirical tests of this interactive argument

are rare, and none, to our knowledge, examine directly how the influ-

ence, if any, of cultural belief systems may be conditioned by incarceration

experiences.

Against that backdrop, the goal of this study is to contribute to scholar-

ship aimed at understanding conditions of order among inmates and, in par-

ticular, at examining the role that imported inmate cultural belief systems

THE CODE OF THE STREET AND INMATE VIOLENCE 697

may have on violence. Specifically, we draw on prior theory and research to

develop hypotheses about the influence of one type of belief system—the

code of the street (Anderson, 1999)—on inmate behavior and how its effect

may be conditioned by experiences inmates have while incarcerated. To

this end, we first discuss importation theory and its utility for understand-

ing violence among incarcerated individuals. We then discuss Anderson’s

(1999) account of the code of the street belief system and its relevance for

examining inmate misconduct. In so doing, we build on his arguments and

related scholarship to develop two interrelated hypotheses, the first argu-

ing that inmates who adhere strongly to the street code will engage in more

violence when incarcerated and the second arguing that this effect will be

amplified by specific incarceration experiences. We then turn to a descrip-

tion of the data and methods and present the findings, which indicate that a

code of the street belief system increases the likelihood of inmate violence

and that some types of incarceration experiences, such as gang involvement,

amplify this effect. We conclude by discussing the implications of the study

for theory and research, and in particular, we highlight the importance of

integrated theoretical accounts that focus on ways in which inmate charac-

teristics and cultural belief systems combine with incarceration experiences

to influence inmate behavior and social order.

BACKGROUND

IMPORTATION THEORY AND INMATE VIOLENCE

A large literature exists that investigates the conditions of order and vio-

lence in correctional systems (see, generally, Bottoms, 1999; DiIulio, 1987;

Useem and Piehl, 2008). One of the most prominent theoretical accounts

is importation theory, which Irwin and Cressey (1962) developed in part

as a response to Clemmer’s (1940) work on prisonization and to Sykes’s

(1958) argument that prison life entails deprivations conducive to violence.

A central starting point for Irwin and Cressey’s argument was the recog-

nition implicit in much prior work that inmates have past lives that they

do not necessarily leave behind when incarcerated. Indeed, in developing

their theory, they emphasized that scholars, such as Erving Goffman, ac-

knowledged “that inmates bring a culture with them to the institution”

(Irwin and Cressey, 1962: 143), but then they dismissed, wrongly in Irwin

and Cressey’s (1962) view, the potential for such culture and associated be-

liefs to affect the behavior of these individuals while institutionalized. Irwin

and Cressey (1962) then extended their argument to describe individuals

who fit different cultural (thief, convict, and legitimate) belief systems and

how each might contribute to prison violence.