Although numerous studies have relied on the notion of street culture to explain why offenders commit an array of street crimes, researchers have generally overlooked the social processes that transmit street culture within and across populations. This article examines how personal stories about violent events shape and transmit street culture among active gang members and street-oriented youth. It conceptualizes street culture as a complex system of perceptual schemas that influences how individuals understand or perceive social events. The transmission of culture entails a collective struggle to make sense of social and personal experiences through the utilization and manipulation of cultural ideas. Drawing from ethnographic recordings of conversations between active gang members on the streets of Indianapolis, this study contends that personal narratives about violent events apply and help clarify the meaning of cultural ideas. They also follow a predictable violence script that establishes expectations for when to engage in violence, the intensity of violence to be used during conflicts, and the consequences for inaction.
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