The Moderating Effect of Prosocial Peers on the Relationships Between Peer Delinquency, Neutralization, and Violent Offending

The goal of the current investigation was to determine whether prosocial peer associations can serve as protective factors by interacting with key components of the peer influence effect. A moderated mediation analysis performed on 2,474 youth (52% female) from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) study (mean age = 12.13 years) revealed that Wave 2 prosocial peer associations moderated the peer delinquency–neutralization relationship. Alternately, Wave 3 prosocial peer associations moderated the neutralization–violent offending relationship. Hence, neutralization beliefs were disproportionately weaker in participants with fewer delinquent peer associations and more prosocial peer associations, whereas the effect of neutralization on delinquency was attenuated, though not eliminated, by strong prosocial peer associations. These results suggest that prosocial peer associations may serve a protective function at different points in the peer influence sequence and that they may be more than simply the converse of peer delinquency.

Early Onset Delinquency and Violent Delinquency in Adolescence: The Role of Abusive Parents and Delinquent Peer Associations

Early onset delinquency is a risk factor for offending over the life-course. This study aims to identify factors that modify the link between early onset of delinquency and later violence. Results show that engaging delinquency earlier, associating with deviant friends, and experiencing parental abuse have independent impacts on increased risk of violence. Also, early onset has positive interactions with peer delinquency and parental abuse. These findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which early onset of delinquency is related to later violence and imply the importance of family- and school-based early interventions. Findings also highlight the importance of considering interactions between early onset delinquency and social risk factors in refining theories used to explain violence throughout the life course.

Cyberbullying and Delinquency in Adolescence: The Potential Mediating Effects of Social Attachment and Delinquent Peer Association

Adopting the integrated model of General Strain Theory (GST), the current study tested the relations between cyberbullying roles (i.e., cyberbully, cybervictim, and cyberbully-victim) and delinquent behaviors (i.e., physical fighting and substance use), as well as the potential mediating effects of delinquent peer association and perceived social attachment from parents, friends, and teachers. This was conducted in a cross-sectional sample of 12,642 American adolescents via the use of structural equation models. The results indicated that being involved in cyberbullying might be not only directly associated with an increase in delinquent behaviors, but also indirectly via delinquent peer associations and perceived social attachment from parents, friends, and teachers. Furthermore, both direct and indirect (mediating) relationships between cyberbullying and delinquency might depend upon specific cyberbullying roles and the types of delinquency. Potential implications for prevention and intervention strategies were discussed.

An Exploratory Study Examining Differences in Drug Court Graduation Rates for Black and White Women

This exploratory study examined factors potentially associated with graduation for White and Black female Drug Treatment Court participants. Multiple logistic regression models for predicting program graduation were employed using an administrative data set ( N = 1,093). Race was significant in a combined model. Age, prior felonies, employment, and negative peer associations predicted graduation for White women, whereas negative peer associations was the only predictor of graduation for Black women. Consideration of other factors that are not typically collected through administrative screenings is needed to better understand the strains typically experienced by Black women in Drug Treatment Court.

Perceived Formal and Informal Sanctions in Deterring Cybercrime in a College Sample

The threat of formal sanctions is the criminal justice system’s primary tool to discourage online and offline deviant behavior. Yet, scholars have expressed strong concerns about the effectiveness of formal sanctions to deter cybercrime. Even more surprising is the sparsity of deterrence research in the cybercrime literature. This study examined the effects of perceived formal and informal sanctions on digital piracy, computer hacking, and online harassment in a large American college sample. Perceived formal sanctions was negatively correlated with software piracy, media piracy, password cracking, accessing accounts, sending mean messages privately online, and posting mean messages. Higher levels of perceived formal sanctions did not significantly predict any form of cybercrime, however, when controlling for informal sanctions and deviant peer associations. The implications of the findings for our ability to deter deviant behavior in cyberspace are explored.

Peer learning and health-related interventions

This chapter examines the role of peer education in the transmission of health-related information in Kenya and Uganda. It focuses particularly on knowledge transmission around family planning and malnutrition, and concentrates on three ethnic groups, the Ganda, Kikuyu, and Luo. The chapter considers the uneven relationship between formal education and changes in health-related behaviours. By focusing on learning rather than teaching, the chapter places emphasis on the context, language, and practice. The chapter observes how behaviours have been adapted through the use of concepts and logics that connect to and resonate with individuals’ worldviews and felt needs, even if they do not immediately replicate these. It notes, however, that this process of vernacularization of biomedical concepts and practices is neither smooth nor organic. In the case studies analysed within the chapter, the translation of family planning and nutritional programmes varied in terms of both its success in aligning local and external goals and the level of engagement of medical organizations. Particular significance is placed on the role of peer associations as venues for the transmission of usable knowledge. The chapter notes that the effectiveness of peer learning through associations was shaped by the historical development of each society’s associational life from the late colonial into the postcolonial periods.

“It’s none of your business”: Adolescents’ reasons for keeping secrets about their engagement in problem behaviors

Although parental knowledge of youth behavior is associated with less adolescent engagement in problem behaviors, many adolescents keep their engagement in various activities secret from their parents. However, less research has examined why youth keep secrets about their engagement in problematic activities. The current study examined adolescents’ reasons for keeping secrets from their parents regarding their engagement in problematic and multifaceted behaviors (alcohol use, risky cyber behaviors, problematic peer associations, and romantic behaviors), as well as the role of parental rules and youth age and gender on adolescents’ secrecy reasons. Participants were 161 parent-adolescent dyads (Adolescent Mage = 14.42, SD = 1.73, range = 12–18, 82% white, 60% female). The current study utilized a sample of adolescents who reported both engaging in the specific behavior and reported keeping secrets from their parents regarding their engagement in the behavior. Results demonstrate that adolescents’ reasons for secrecy differed across various forms of problematic and multifaceted behaviors. Additionally, both individual characteristics (adolescent gender and age) and parental rules (parent and teen report) were associated with adolescents’ secrecy reasoning. However, the pattern of these associations varied depending on the type of behaviors adolescents were keeping secret from their parents.

New Applications of Self-Control Theory to Computer-Focused Cyber Deviance and Victimization: A Comparison of Cognitive and Behavioral Measures of Self-Control and Test of Peer Cyber Deviance and Gender as Moderators

This study tests the effects of behavioral and cognitive measures of self-control on computer-focused cyber deviance and cyber victimization with survey data from 1,036 adult employees. We examine moderating effects of cyber deviant peers and gender in the relationship between self-control, and cyber deviance and victimization. Cognitive and behavioral measures of self-control are negativity associated with cyber deviance, whereas only behavioral self-control predicted reduced cyber victimization. Moderation analyses show that cyber deviant peer associations condition the relationship between self-control, and both cyber deviance and victimization. Gender moderation models reveal no consistent significant effects. The results have implications for the understanding of cognitive predictors of computer-focused cybercrime and victimization, as well as institutional cybercrime prevention policies. Our findings can inform the future integration of self-control and social learning theories in cyberspace.