The Role Of Peer Influence On Adolescent Behavior

"Differential association is a social learning theory that centers on ‘explanations [for behavior] that focus on the mechanisms through which people learn the techniques and attitudes favorable to committing deviant acts'. The theory of differential association posits that people experience differing expectations for what is considered appropriate behavior. More specifically, through their friendship groups, people learn what is considered delinquent behavior in that people learn to participate in illegal, or deviant, activities from the people with whom they are closest. Researchers have highlighted four dimensions on which differential association varies including: the frequency, duration, priority, and intensity of association. In short, the influence of intimate personal groups varies depending on the how frequently they assemble, the amount of time they spend together, the level of priority the friendship is to group members, and the intensity of the friendship group. Researchers argued that most learning of delinquent behavior occurs in small, informal

One of the major sociological theories of delinquency is differential association (Doob 169). The idea is that some people have learned their ways from undesirable people who they were forced to associate with and that this association warps their thinking and social attitudes. Differential association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals (Doob 169). In addition, sending a deviant person, who has been associated with criminal influences, to prison would just make the problem worse (Fox 61). "Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might

Fitting into a social group in high school is detrimental for numerous students because high school can create a barrier between individuals depending on the social group they are actively in. Micro-level theories can include a smaller aspect of crimes like directing attention to the individual. Social learning theory states that “people learn aggressive and violent behaviors the same way they learn other social behaviors” (Bond and Bushman, 2017). Social leaning theory have also been integrated into the adult and juvenile justice system because of the changes in behavior that the theory can provide but can hurt the youths by places them in the same facility or category of adults

Juvenile Delinquent Theory and Process Midterm Shelby Horton 03/19/2015 Moral panics have always been around, and are usually correlated with crime. Moral panics are often something that is triggered by an event that makes its way through media and stories around the world. With technology growing now more than ever, these panics have found a faster way to expand throughout the world. One moral panic that seemed to cause an uproar in the United States was the effect of heavy metal music in the case of the three men that were convicted in the murders of three young boys, known as the West Memphis Three.

theories. A major theory used to explain female delinquency is the general strain theory (GST). According to Bartollas, “GST explains female delinquency by contending that many females experience harsh discipline, parental rejection, peer abuse, negative secondary school experience, homelessness, and a strong need for money;” these strains can cause females to cope through delinquent behavior (73). The social learning theory also explains female delinquency as “some females tend to associate with others who provide exposure to delinquent models, reinforce delinquent behaviors, and teach identities that are favorable to delinquency” (Bartollas 74). According to Causes and Correlates of Girls’ Delinquency, “socializing without specific activities and without guidance or supervision by positive adults—increases the likelihood that delinquent activities will occur” (Zahn 7). This is a significant finding because those female youths who hang with the wrong crowd, unsupervised, will often find themselves involved with delinquent behavior, and without activities or positive guidance from adults it is very easy to shift toward delinquent behavior. The last theory which explains female youth delinquency very well is the routine activities theory; this theory is similar to the social learning theory, but it is slightly different. The routine activities theory states that delinquent females “have less parental supervision, are less tied to their homes and families, are weakly bounded

When it comes to juvenile delinquency an adolescent personality is usually impacted from different factors such as early child hood experiences of witnessing a crime, seeing a violent act, being the victim of a crime, or being around others or family who engaged in criminal activity, these factors can either create an adolescent with a positive or negative attitude, or an anti-social behavior which could create a path for a delinquent behavior (Wilson, p. 34). A study has shown that family interactions accounts for about 40 percent of the cause of an adolescent with an anti-social behavior, the study also shown that aggressiveness which is a common trait of adolescent who engage in delinquent acts is usually created from peer influences (Wilson, p. 34).

Peer participation is a double problematic, and it encompasses the rebuff of normal, altruistic peers and at that point the addition of an adolescent to a peer cluster of abnormal, rebellious peers; nonetheless, numerous influences, comprising of juvenile violence, societal removal, and the absence of communication abilities can subsidize peer rebuff, even in kindergarten (Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani, 2001). The Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani, (2001) study proposes that Peer rebuff at age ten; consequently, a mixture of educational failing and unfortunate parent supervising could lead to friendship with a disruptive peer cluster at age twelve. Connection to an abnormal peer cluster is linked with a surge in drug abuse and additional abnormal performance; furthermore, the effect of abnormal peer groups may be more apparent in a later start of conduct disorder (Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani, 2001). Family influences are connected to the growth of conduct disorder, unpredictable management intermingled with punitive retribution, huge household proportions, and parent rebuff, unpredictable parents, and a boozing dad are all risk factors for conduct disorder (Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani,

Juvenile delinquency is a social issue in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, is when “a violation of the law is committed by a juvenile and is not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Juvenile Delinquency). The juvenile system is different from the adult system in many way and most juvenile delinquents are from the age of ten to the age of seventeen (Juvenile Delinquent). Once the delinquent or anyone is at the age of eighteen, they are considered to be an adult. Therefore, in the justice system they are tried as an adult. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, peer influence, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. Teens are greatly influenced by the interactions and surroundings they are around. Their behaviors can result from the parent and/or their peer influences. Parents play a great role in the child’s life and a teen’s peers also play a strong role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not insight. This research will examine links between the social environment of teens and how it influences the teens actions and behavior which leads them to commit an offense.

The first factor that often leads to juvenile delinquency involves the child’s social influences within their communities. The community of individuals that a child is normally around on a normal basis includes family, friends, and neighbors. Depending on the overall quality of the relationship that the child has with each member of their community, they maybe more or less inclined to commit crimes. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, juveniles who experience abuse or neglect from any member of their community may be more inclined to become deviant (n.d.). For example, if a father abuses his child, the odds of the child’s willing to resort to deviance becomes significantly higher than a father who treats his son like a normal parent. Another way a child can be socially exposed to deviance is through example. If a parent is always in a run with law enforcement on a constant basis, that child may grow up to be just like them simply because that is how they were raised. The third and final social influence comes outside of the family circle where the actions that a child’s friends partake in can also determine whether or not the child will pursue acts of deviance. The influence of a friend’s actions can either be positive or negative depending on the values of the friend. For instance, say a child named Johnny hangs around a group of troublemakers who always wreck havoc, smoke joints, and talk trash about everyone. This kind of relationship between Johnny and his friends can lead Johnny to becoming just like the troublemakers because of peer pressure.

More specifically, children’s decisions are more influenced by the effect they will have on their peer-group rather than the rationality of their actions (Gifford-Smith, Dodge, Dishion & McCord, 2005). This, in conjunction with their risk-seeking behaviours, heightened emotional processing and potential experience with undesirable environments may further distort their perception on anti and prosocial behaviour (Farrington et al., 2001; Simons et al., 2002). Furthermore, delinquent peer groups are a strong influence in children as young as five years old, which means that humans innate need to maintain a peaceful peer environment may overpower logic, especially in the case of children who are not fully developed yet (Esiri, 2016). Additionally, factors other than peer groups may also influence children. For example, children with access to guns at home are 30% more likely to commit any type of crime by the time they are in their adolescents (Mocan & Tekin, 2006).

Their first categories of measures are friendship nominations in which students report their friend group, which enabled the researchers to define groups; “group level network measures” were found using an algorithm and refer to the researcher’s ability to define relatively close groups. Additionally, “individual-level network measures” refer to an adolescent’s relevance or “centrality” to the group. Students self reported demographics like race, gender, home background, etc. The researchers also asked the students to report behavioral characteristics, such as “family relations,” “religious attendance,” “delinquency”, in terms of petty crime, and “alcohol and cigarette use”. Finally, the researchers measured means for peer groups on behavioral characteristics. Of course, with self-reporting, there is the chance that students do not accurately report their behavior, especially prudent to this would be reporting of delinquent activity. The researchers analyzed the data, categorizing the groups as “all boys,” “mostly boys,” “mixed-sex,” “mostly girls,” and “all girls.” ANOVAs were used to compare the groups. They then tested the regression between “membership in a mixed-sex group as a function of problem behaviors” as well as the other way

Delinquent peer exposure is another theory attempting to explain the link between trauma and juvenile delinquency. However, this theory is important for understanding male delinquency because most males commit delinquent acts in groups (Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radosevich, 1979; Snyder & Sickmund, 2006; Warr & Stafford, 1991). The theory of delinquent peer exposure may be successful in explaining why less severe stressful life events may lead to delinquency. Agnew and White (1992) studied the influence of delinquent peer exposure on less severe experiences of strain, such as life hassles, negative relations with adults, parental fighting, and neighborhood problems. Agnew and White found that experiencing strain seems to have the greatest

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 1994) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,

The paper is addressing the theory that suggests that affiliation with deviate peers is inheritable. Phenotypic research has mainly centred on environmental associates of peer deviance. Often, family life is seen to influence the outcome of peer deviance, which are positively linked with child-parent conflict, poor parental discipline and monitoring. Moreover, PD has been associated with community-level and socioeconomic aspects. Youths might also be predisposed to choosing or being chosen by such peer groups. For instance, a longitudinal study has revealed that individual traits are predictive of PD (Tarantino, et al., 2013).

The social environment of teens holds an enormous influence on how the teens act and behave. Teens are easily influenced by their surroundings and they look to others for guidance. Their behavior results from that of the parent and peer influences. Parents play a particularly influential role in their child’s life and it is up to them to make sure that they are leading their sons or daughters in the right directions. A teen’s peers also play a large role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not around. A teen’s social environment, consisting of family and peers, plays a vital role in their life, therefore becoming the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency.