Co-Occurring Behavior

Guided by Anderson’s theory of the code of the street, this study explored social mechanisms linking individual-level disadvantage factors with the adoption of beliefs grounded in the code of the street and with drug trafficking and gun carrying—the co-occurring behavior shaping violence among young men in urban areas. Secondary data were employed from a sample of male inmates and a sample of male high school students. Data analysis indicated that the social disadvantage fac-tor absent father significantly predicted this co-occurring behavior in the inmate sample, whereas the social disadvantage factor history of expulsion did so in the student sample. In both samples, race and adopting beliefs about gun carrying from the code of the street were significant predictors of drug trafficking and gun carry-ing. The results do not suggest that such code-based beliefs ’ impact on drug traf-ficking and gun carrying differs by race. Implications for social policy are discussed. Keywords individual-level disadvantage factors, urban male youth, code-based beliefs, drug trafficking, gun carrying, co-occurring behavior During the 1980s, young urban African American men’s involvement in drug-related crime burgeoned. A point was reached in some inner cities at which 33 % o