Carter Rees

Social Networks and Delinquency in Adolescence: Implications for Life-Course Criminology

Over the last decade, social networks have become a focal concern for research seeking to understand the etiology of delinquent behavior. The study of the role of peers in the perpetuation of delinquency during adolescence has been reinvigorated by the theoretical and empirical rigor relational data and social network analysis brings to the study of human relationships. The development and availability of statistical models designed to account for the inherent dependencies in relational data, such as stochastic actor-oriented models (e.g., SIENA), exponential random graph models (ERGM), and actor–partner interdependence models (APIM), have led to a greater understanding of the role of selection, homophily, and socialization in the study of crime and delinquency. Furthermore, longitudinal data sets, such as the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), have yielded invaluable insights into the dynamic nature of the adolescent social landscape over time and the mapping of behavioral pathways to this context. However, the focus on the adolescent time frame provides insights into relationships for only a portion of the human life cycle. Therefore, in this chapter, we provide a broad overview of the changing nature of adolescent peer networks and their importance for delinquency and crime. We place particular emphasis on the implications for understanding trajectories of crime and turning points in the life course. Our goal is to provide the reader with a greater understanding of dyadic, egocentric, and global network structures in which people are embedded and how each of these relationship levels can be set in motion to capture the continuity and change common to the human social experience. We develop an ambitious research agenda that involves a unifying discussion of social networks and social capital in criminological theory. We put forth topics for an innovative research agenda grounded in the relevant literature with the goal of articulating a research plan that will help spark empirical and theoretical advancements in life-course criminology.

Behavioral Heterogeneity in Adolescent Friendship Networks

Criminologists’ understanding of peer influences has been greatly advanced by social network methods; however, relatively scant attention has been paid to improving measurement. In particular, research has continued to measure peer influence by averaging the level of delinquency within a peer network, thereby neglecting the role of behavioral heterogeneity. The present study seeks to advance theory and research into peer influences on delinquency by explicitly modeling behavioral heterogeneity in peer networks measured as the variance. Drawing on social learning and opportunity theories, we argue that behavioral heterogeneity should attenuate the effect of average peer delinquency on individual offending. Models using social network data from the Add Health were estimated predicting involvement in two delinquent substance-use acts (cigarette smoking and getting drunk) as a function of peer influences. The results are consistent with our hypothesis, indicating that behavioral heterogeneity matters. Findings suggest that future research employing network models could incorporate peer behavioral heterogeneity to get a more accurate portrait of the processes of peer influence.

Incorporating Unstructured Socializing Into the Study of Secondary Exposure to Community Violence: Etiological and Empirical Implications

Secondary exposure to community violence, defined as witnessing or hearing violence in the community, has the potential to profoundly impact long-term development, health, happiness, and security. While research has explored pathways to community violence exposure at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels, prior work has largely neglected situational factors conducive to secondary violence exposure. The present study evaluates “unstructured socializing with peers in the absence of authority figures” as a situational process that has implications for secondary exposure to violence. Results indicate that a measure of unstructured socializing was significantly associated with exposure to violence, net of an array of theoretically relevant covariates of violence exposure. Moreover, the relationships between exposure to violence and three of the most well-established correlates of violence exposure in the literature—age, male, and prior violence—were mediated to varying degrees by unstructured socializing. The results suggest a more nuanced approach to the study of secondary violence exposure that expands the focus of attention beyond individual and neighborhood background factors to include situational opportunities presented by patterns of everyday activities.

The First Delinquent Peers Are the Most Important: Examining Nonlinearity in the Peer Effect

Criminologists have long recognized the importance of peers in the etiology of delinquency. Yet, the bulk of empirical studies on this topic make the implicit assumption that the peer effect to be conditioned is linear. With few notable exceptions, prior criminological research has not thought deeply about possible nonlinearity in the peer effect. To address this issue, the present study examines whether the functional form of the relationship between peer and respondent smoking, getting drunk, and fighting is nonlinear, and whether this nonlinearity is moderated by lagged respondent delinquency. Logistic regression models on adolescents from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicate that the marginal effect of peer delinquency on respondent delinquency decreases as the count of delinquent friends increases, consistent with a satiation effect. Moreover, the models indicate that the nonlinear effect of peer delinquency on respondent delinquency is moderated by prior respondent delinquency.