“the Social Ecology of Youth Violence” Summary Essay

“The Social Ecology of Youth Violence”

Author: Elijah Anderson

In the essay, “The Social Ecology of Youth Violence” Elijah Anderson writes about families, the youths, and their peers. This essay talks about the “decent” and “street” people in Philadelphia. It gives an insight of how a change in the global economy and jobs can affect an inner-city community/the neighborhoods. It gives a pretty in-depth detail of what happens in “decent” communities; how the people here interact with each other and how they see and think about one another. Meanwhile, in the “darker” side of the city, there are people who are called “street” people. People who act in a criminal-like behavior. Here, residents are predominately black. This inner-city community shows a lot of struggle. There is a big difference in how people interact here compared to the “decent” neighborhoods. The essay also shows the changes people (mainly youths, as they still have time to grow and develop). It shows how youths can change through interactions with different parties (family, friends, etc.). Overall, the essay mainly focuses on the inner-city community of Philadelphia, and the changes everyone goes through within the community.

Starting off, there is Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood that mainly has a white community, but it is starting to become mixed racially and ethnically. People here are educated and are pretty wealthy. According to the essay, people in this community don’t seem to mind the difference in race. Interaction is actually pretty casual and relaxed. The residents here follow the code of civility, which is basically following the laws set by the government. Though everything in Chestnut Hill is pretty normal, there is no doubt some suspicions around black people because, it is difficult to tell whether one is from one of the poorer communities trying to commit a criminal act.

In the poorer inner-city community, the community has gone through a lot of changes. What started all of this problem was the change in the global economy, and the lost of industrial jobs. Basically, these jobs moved elsewhere As the jobs moved elsewhere or got eliminated, white people would move out of the community, out of the city. With white residents moving out, that meant less public services for the remaining people. Buildings are boarded up and parking lots are empty. When black people try to relocate to other areas, they get discriminated because housing prices are too expensive for them. To add on, some might not have a vehicle so they rely on public transport, but even that is not available due to lack of public services (mentioned before). Also, because of the lack of public services, the security of the community has weaken. There are less police officers to help when someone is in trouble. Obviously, all this change affected the community in a bad way. The