Code of the Street, Intimate Partner Violence, and Emotional Invalidation

Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street has been central to research on violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, the extent to which the invalidation of one’s emotions influences these relationships remains unknown. We use data from 724 Black and Latino adults to examine how street code beliefs relate to IPV, with a focus on emotional invalidation. We find a positive association between street code beliefs and IPV, which disappears after controlling for emotional invalidation. These results suggest that violence associated with the street code may be better understood as a byproduct of trauma-induced worldviews rooted in expectations of invalidation.