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.

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.

Impoverished Single Mother Households and Violent Delinquency: Bonding, Negative, and Bridging Social Capital

This paper develops an economic and social capital model linking single mothering in poverty to adolescent violence. Our model focuses on bonding social capital within parent-child relationships, negative social capital in delinquent peer groups, and bridging social capital residing in youths’ friendship networks. Our research is the first to consider that the family experiences of adolescents’ peers affect adolescent violence. We test hypotheses using the Add Health, finding that peer networks are a source of bridging social capital through which collective parenting helps explain youth violence as well as the links between family structural (dis)advantages and youth violence.

Developmental Trajectories of Delinquent Peer Association Among Korean Adolescents: A Latent Class Growth Analysis Approach to Assessing Peer Selection and Socialization Effects on Online and Offline Crimes

The relationship between peers and delinquency has been taken as evidence for selection and socialization effects in the etiology of adolescents. Accumulating evidence suggests that both effects are involved. This study examines whether adolescents’ aggressive propensities and behaviors predict their peers (selection) and whether peers’ propensities and behaviors predict adolescents’ behaviors (socialization). The latent class growth analysis approach revealed three distinct subgroups: an early-onset group (0.9%); a late-peak group (3.37%); and a normative group (95.73%). Both selection and socialization effects were supported using a longitudinal Korean adolescent self-report. The results showed that adolescents with less self-control who are online more frequently and exhibit higher levels of traditional bullying and delinquency were more likely to be members of both the early-onset and late-peak groups compared with the normative group. Also, the aggressive behaviors fully mediated the link between aggressive propensities and delinquent peer associations. Furthermore, adolescents in the late-peak group (but not those in the early-onset group) were associated with a greater likelihood of online and offline delinquency, but cyberbullying and traditional bullying in late adolescence levels were high in both groups’ members.

Antisocial cognition as a mediator of the peer influence effect and peer selection effect in antisocial adolescents

The peer influence and peer selection effects are two widely replicated findings in the criminological literature that refer to the predictive relationship between antisocial behaviour and delinquent peer association as well as between delinquent peer association and antisocial behaviour, respectively. Research suggests that antisocial cognition might constitute a causal mechanism underlying part of these effects. This study investigated the extent that the peer influence and peer selection effects are mediated by one key aspect of antisocial cognition—beliefs and attitudes supporting peer conflict. This study examined whether beliefs and attitudes supporting peer conflict mediated the relationship between delinquent peer association and volume of self-reported antisocial behaviour and vice-versa, across a 1-year follow-up period, in 683 (433 male, 250 female) British adolescents (mean age: 13.8 years) with a history of serious antisocial behaviour. Participants completed measures at baseline and 6, 12 and 18 months thereafter. Findings indicated that beliefs and attitudes supporting peer conflict partially mediated the peer influence and peer selection effects, explaining a substantial proportion of the total effect in the peer influence (i.e., 26%) and peer selection (i.e., 17%) models. These results suggest that beliefs and attitudes supporting peer conflict could explain part of the mechanism underlying the peer influence and peer selection effects in adolescents with a history of serious antisocial behaviour.

Social Network Analysis: People and Places

Network analysis is increasingly applied throughout the social sciences. Networks have been at the core of criminological thinking since its inception. As early as Sutherland and Shaw and McKay, networks have been regarded as important causes of delinquent behavior. Networks, by definition, reflect patterns of relationships between observations. Observations are typically human actors, but can represent any criminologically relevant entity, such as gangs, grocery stores, or street corners. Networks can even represent connections between actors that occupy distinct roles (e.g., connections between people and places). This flexibility in how networks can be defined and analyzed presents innumerable promising opportunities in the analysis of crime. Networks can influence criminal behavior by influencing selection into delinquent peer networks and by transmitting delinquent values and behaviors. While some of the earliest adopters of network methods turned to analyses of peer group context and delinquency, more recent applications examine the generative forces driving criminal organization dynamics, gang violence, and even social order among prison inmates. Some other visionary research examines how networks in physical space affect the distribution of crime, and some studies now suggest that networks act as an important mechanism linking formal sanctioning to recidivism. This body of recent evidence stands in contrast to general theories of crime, which argue that networks have little causal influence on criminal behavior. In contrast, selection into delinquent peer networks amplifies criminal behavior through both learning and opportunity.