Decoding the Code

In this weeks reading Wieder examines the operation of the ‘convict code’ within a half-way house. He begins by outlining the maxims of the code, which focus on the importance of loyalty between residents, and state that this loyalty should be expressed by helping and sharing with others, not taking advantage of the others, not being too friendly with or trusting of the staff, and above all not snitching. Any breaching of these maxims will be met with negative sanctions, ranging from labelling (e.g. kiss-ass or snitch) or exclusion from the group, to much more severe sanctions including abuse, violence, and occasionally death, depending on the severity of the breach. This code helps to reinforce the residents community, and exclude ‘the other’, such as staff, general outsiders and those residents who do not conform with the code.

An understanding of the code also allows others to interpret and make sense of the actions of residents by “placing it in the context of a pattern” rather than just trying to interpret them in relation to the immediate events and context of the actions. This is particularly useful for the staff who worked in the halfway-house, as they could appropriately judge how to react to certain types of behaviour, what behaviour meant, how to best go about getting a positive outcome from a resident, and when attempts by staff to, for example, obtain information or action would prove fruitless and a waste of staff time. It allows staff to rationalise resident actions and connect them to a likely objective, thus allowing them to understand the structure of their environment and perform effectively in it.

Of course codes are not just restricted to deviant groups such as convicts or the environments which they create and inhabit, but are applicable to all people, roles and contexts. For example the code of conduct for a restaurant would be very different to that of a family barbecue, and the code for a teacher in a classroom would be very different to that of a bouncer in a nightclub. In every scenario there are spoken and unspoken codes guiding what behaviours are appropriate and which ones are deserving of negative sanctions, and the severity of these sanctions. They allow the interactants to generate some level of understanding of their context, and to rationalise the behaviour of others, often even when they are in a totally alien situation.

Referencce: Wieder, D. L 1974, 'Telling the Code' in R. Turner (ed.) Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, Penguin Educations, Harmondsworth, pp. 144-172