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Positive association of relevant characteristics is a widespread pattern among adolescent friends. A positive association may be caused by the selection of similar others as friends and by the deselection of dissimilar ones, but also by influence processes where friends adjust their behavior to each other. Social control theory argues that adolescents select each other as friends based on delinquency. Differential association theory, on the other hand, argues that adolescent friends influence each other's delinquency levels. We employ new statistical methods for assessing the empirical evidence for either process while controlling for the other process. These methods are based on 'actor-oriented' stochastic simulation models. We analyze longitudinal data on friendship networks and delinquent behavior collected in four waves of 544 students in 21 first-grade classrooms of Dutch secondary schools. Results indicate that adolescents select others as friends who have a similar level of delinquency compared with their own level. Estimates of the social influence parameters are not significant. The results are consistent with social control theory but provide no support for differential association theory.

The existence of ethnic boundaries in 20 pupils' networks is tested by comparing the proportion of intra-ethnic to inter-ethnic relationships, while controlling for the distribution of intra-and inter-ethnic dyads in pupils' networks. Also, we tested if those boundaries are affected by the inclinations of network members in choosing intra-ethnic group relationships. We used the p 2 model for each school network and combined these results in a two-step procedure. Our results supported the hypotheses.

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Criminologists tend to assume that friends are fairly similar in their delinquent behaviours. However, the process leading to this similarity is not fully understood. It is not clear whether similarity in delinquent behaviour among friends is the result of a selection- or of an influence process. In this article, we investigate this issue using longitudinal data on students’ friendship networks and their delinquent behaviour in 16 Dutch high schools (n = 859). For the analysis, we made use of SIENA, a technique for the simultaneous analysis of the dynamics of both networks and behaviour. A meta-analysis showed influence to be a general process without variation over the schools, while selection played a role in only 4 of the 16 schools.