Citation

McGloin JM. J. Res. Crime Delinq. 2012; 49(1): 109-121.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0022427810397947

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

McGloin (2009) recently demonstrated that an imbalance in delinquency between a subject and his or her best friend predicted within-individual changes in offending behavior. Still, the precise mechanism(s) whereby subjects moved toward delinquency balance remained unclear. It is possible that this process has little to do with the transmission of deviant values, but instead is a reflection of unstructured and unsupervised time spent with peers. The results suggest that an imbalance in time use between peers predicts an imbalance in deviance between peers, but not within-individual change in delinquency. The discussion considers the implication of these findings for theory and research on peer processes.

KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; Juvenile delinquency