Internet Exercises

Exercise 1

Collins and Makowsky note: “[Elijah] Anderson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is a researcher of the inner city, the poorest and most desperate parts of the African-American ghettos. He spends months and years at his sites, hanging around, getting to know people and becoming known by them, seeing things from the inside” (p. 263).

Go to http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1057946. After you have listened to the audio file, answer the following questions:

1. Describe the “code of the street” as Anderson sees it.



2. Explain how this code is the only element that keeps social life from spiraling out of control in America’s ghettos.



3. Do you think anything can be done to improve the situation in our nation’s ghettoes? If so, what?

Exercise 2

Collins and Makowsky observe: “Juries are more likely to convict low-status defendants, less likely to convict high-status persons” (p. 275).

Go to http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/?view=usa&ci=0195085582. This link provides a review of one of Donald Black’s books, Sociological Justice. After you have read the contents, answer the following questions:

1. What is Black’s overall orientation toward “the law”?



2. Based on this review and the discussion of Black’s work in your text, explain how the law discriminates against minorities and the powerless in society.



3. What does Black suggest to encourage social justice?