The Influence of Delinquent Peers: What They Think or What They Do?*

Abstract

Although the association between delinquent friends and delinquent behavior is well established, the mechanism by which delinquency is socially transmitted remains unclear. Sutherland 3 theory of diflerential association holds that delinquency is a consequence of attitudes favorable to the violation of the law, attitudes that are acquired through intimate social interaction with peers. An analysis of data from the National Youth Survey indicates that peer attitudes do affect delinquency. But the effect of peers' attitudes is small in comparison to that of peers' behavior, and the effect of peers' behavior remains strong even when peers, attitudes and the adolescent's own attitude are controlled. Moreover, when the behavior and attitudes of peers are inconsistent, the behavior of peers appears to outweigh or override the attitudes of peers. These findings suggest that delinquency is not primarily a consequence of attitudes acquired from peers. Rather, it more likely stems from other social learning mechanisms, such as imitation or vicarious reinforcement, or from group pressures to conform.

Deterrent Effect of Curfew Enforcement: Operation Nightwatch in St. Louis, 2003-2005

“…Pressure from court agents and parents convinced juveniles assigned to Nightwatch to remain at home, even though the perception of their chances of getting caught offending were unchanged. Warr and Stafford (1991) found similar results when examining the effect of peer attitudes and peer behavior on offending behavior. The behavior of peers was considerably more significant than the attitudes of peers in this study.…”

“…A key component to unstructured free time and delinquency is peer relationships. A juvenile that has many delinquent peers will tend to be delinquent themselves (Warr and Stafford, 1991;Warr, 1993). This is a significant variable in juvenile studies, but no data for this measure was collected for the current study.…”

“…The behavior of peers was considerably more significant than the attitudes of peers in this study. It was shown that delinquency was affected mostly by the behavior of others, rather than merely attitudes (Warr and Stafford, 1991). Peers are a strong influence on juveniles, and pressure to behave according to group norms can sometimes cause juveniles to behave in ways contradictory to what they believe or perceive.…”

Peer group association, the acceptance of norms and violent behaviour: A longitudinal analysis of reciprocal effects

“…First, some researchers question the importance of individual and friends' normative orientations compared to the direct effects of friends' behaviour on individual delinquency (Warr and Stafford, 1991). Second, other researchers from a background of social control theory argue that the association with delinquent peers is the consequence of a selection process and hence its correlation with delinquency -no matter how large it appears -is spurious (Glueck and Glueck, 1950;Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Hirschi, 1969).…”

An experimental investigation of the influence of deviant peers on own deviancy: A replication study

“…Indeed, social learning theory (Akers 1998) and differential association theory (Sutherland 1947) suggest that people learn about criminal behavior by interacting with deviant others. Researchers have studied the role of deviant peers and the mechanisms by which they have influence for decades (e.g., Agnew 1991;Warr and Stafford 1991). But much of research in support of these prominent criminological theories is correlational, based on self-reported own deviancy and perceived peer deviancy, and is consequently confounded by the possibility of selection effects and projection bias.…”