street smarts

one who is knowledgible at some art of illegal activity. understands the code and conduct held within a certain crime family/ies. the term came from the common street hoodlum who knows how to succeed in areas that don't necessaryly need a formal education to get ahead in life. for instance a group(crew) of criminals enterprise at trafficing and selling narcotics. they need some type of illegal practice for processing, smuggling, marketing and laundering money for their underground buisness. since the buisness is illegal, they set rules and regulations to keep the buisness from toppling. in doing so they from a "family" to keep outsiders from interfering and make their own checks and balances within their own "family" inorder to get rid of any potential rogue members; some of the codes that one would hold is that they: * did not cooperate with authorities * maintained self-control in the face of adversity * carried out vendettas to avenge any slight suffering by his family(gang) * did not forgive or forget * maintained his demeanor within his ranking in a criminal hierarchy it could be as petty like knowning how to card a door open, start a car without keys to a professional con-artist, a hit man, loan shark, ect...