2021
Elijah Anderson
The extent, nature, variation, and causes of crime through an understanding of the code of the street.
Anderson was recognised for his deeply ethnographic studies of violence and social interactions in highly segregated American urban neighbourhoods. His research has deepened our understanding of how social norms and interactions among young people in economically disadvantaged areas can lead to violence.Elijah Anderson
Born 1943 in the US. Elijah Anderson was professor of Sociology at Yale University (United States) at the time of the award.
Showed that understanding the deep mechanisms behind violence in segregated neighbourhoods is a crucial step in better crime prevention.Showed that understanding the deep mechanisms behind violence in segregated neighbourhoods is a crucial step in better crime prevention.
Understanding the social roots of violence
Elijah Anderson was awarded the 2021 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his many years of observations in Chicago and Philadelphia of the mechanisms behind violence in socially and economically segregated areas. His research has yielded rich description of how quickly ‘playful’ language can escalate to a shooting or stabbing. His thick description can help everyone from police to judges and prison staff on how social interactions among young people can instantly lead to violence.
Anderson’s research focuses on some of the most pressing issues of our time: ethnicity, class, and conditions for individuals in urban environments.
Violence in segregated areas
Anderson has found that the pursuit of an ethical, respectable life among economically and socially disadvantaged minorities is difficult yet often achieved.
His years of observing daytime and evening interactions followed by long writeups back at his desk has led to more light on the social structures that influence crime and violence in urban environments.
His research helps us understand how violence occurs in segregated urban environments where, due to prejudice and blocked opportunities, status and honour can become more important than one’s own life and the lives of others. Without these insights, it is difficult to formulate adequate measures to combat gang violence – in American as well as Swedish cities.
Social relationships in the ghetto
Anderson’s first book, A Place on the Corner, is a study of the social relationships of young Black men in an inner-city Chicago ghetto. His second book, Streetwise is about ethnic and class relationships in a gentrified neighbourhood in Philadelphia. His third book, Code of the Streets, examines the nature of inner-city violence. A subsequent book, The Cosmopolitan Canopy, is a study of public space, detailing how different kinds of people meet in urban environments and either get along or don’t. Such public spaces are now observable also in places other than the United States, not least in Sweden.