5 - Criminal behavior during adolescence: The role of peers (L5, Freelin, Engel)

Question 1

What are some biological changes in adolescence? (HC)

Answer 1

Changes in:
- Physical strength
- Sexual maturity
- Limbic system (emotion regulation)
- Prefrontal cortex (judgement and decision making)

Question 2

What are some social changes in adolescence? (HC)

Answer 2

• Movement from family to peers
• Educational transitions
• Work life
• Romantic relationships

Question 3

What are four social learning mechanisms that can explain CB? (HC)

Answer 3

1. Differential reinforcement: voluntary behaviors leads to subsequent consequences, which reinforces behavior
2. Imitation: observation and reproduction
3. Definitions: evaluation of approval/disapproval behavior
4. Differential association: frequency, durationg and priority of association and interaction with individuals who hold both pro crime and anti crime beliefs

Question 4

How can you distinguish socialization and opportunity? (HC)

Answer 4

• Social influence relates to peer relations/interactions that transmit delinquent norms. Includes learned norms and behavior, and pressures to conform.
• Opportunity: peer relations/interactions structure everyday activities and determine opportunities, e.g. time spent outside the home

Question 5

What are two ways of peer effects? (HC)

Answer 5

• Peer influence -> deviance (causal effect)
• Deviance -> peer selection (selection effect)

Question 6

How do peer group effects see crime? (HC)

Answer 6

As collective behavior. They do this because of ridicule, loyalty and status.
- Diffuse the moral responsibility
- Group leaders get blame
- Groups create ‘moral world’ of their own

Question 7

What are protective effects of bonds and peer influences? (HC)

Answer 7

Protective effect is bonds to prosocial others.
- Most typical assumption for social bonds
- Mechanisms: e.g. attachment, indirect control
o i.e. stronger/more social bondsless delinquency

Question 8

What are negative effects of bonds and peer influences? (HC)

Answer 8

hanging out with people who do bad things can influence you to do the same. This happens through different social and learning processes, making you more likely to engage in delinquency when surrounded by delinquent peers. such as being encouraged to do bad things (reinforcement), copying what others do (imitation), or feeling pressure to fit in by doing the same things as others (conformity).

Question 9

What does the routine activity theory posits? (HC)

Answer 9

We must consider characteristics of activities: types of activity, whether socializing is structured or unstructured.

Question 10

What are three elements of unstructured socializing? (HC)

Answer 10

1. Presence of peers
2. Absence of authority figures
3. Lack of structure

Question 11

Where does the effect of unstructured socializing depends on? (HC)

Answer 11

Who is in the group and how they perceive opportunties.

Question 12

What is important for peer networks? (HC)

Answer 12

• Structure and composition matter: the strength of weak ties and the balance of anti/prosocial behaviors.
• Where and what is done: this involves parental monitoring/control, guardianship and structured vs unstructured.
• Environmental factors: opportunities.

Question 13

What are examples of shock interventions? (HC)

Answer 13

• Scared straight: visits to prison. Prisoners share life stories, graphic stories about life in prison to scare youth
• Bootcamps: alt to prison, or camp within prison. Discipline and create respect for authority. They hope rational choice and self control will improve.

Question 14

What is the intervention DARE? (HC)

Answer 14

Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Expected to work through peer processes and rational choice. Only small positive short term effect.

Question 15

What are examples of gang interventions? (HC)

Answer 15

• Deviancy training: bring peers together, can reinforce antisocial attitudes (e.g. recreational interventions)
• Gang cohesion: streetworkers inadvertently strengthen identity, glorify gang life, reduce cooperation w/police
• Reactance: threatening severe consequences ‘backfire’, lead to defiance/opposition

Question 16

What are implications about though or shock interventions? (HC)

Answer 16

They can backfire. Can lead to psychological harm.

Question 17

What is the article of Freelin about?

Answer 17

Whether changing schools during transition from 8th to 9th grade influences adolescent delinquency.

Question 18

What does school transitions influence? (Freelin)

Answer 18

Academic outcomes, social lives

Question 19

What does life course criminology suggests? (Freelin)

Answer 19

Important life transitions (marry, parental incarceration, joining a gang) shape individuals participation in crime. School transition is also crucial life event.

Question 20

What does school transition affect in an individuals’ delinquency? (Freelin)

Answer 20

1. School transition -> deminishes school bonds, introduces youth to delinquent peers -> more opportunities for CB. Those are prominent criminological theories.
2. School transition -> leads to stronger connections to school, severed ties with delinquent peers -> reduced opportunities for antisocial behavior.

Question 21

How do normative, age-graded transitions influence varying offending patterns across different stages of life according to life course perspectives? (Freelin)

Answer 21

as people go through different life stages and experiences, their choices and identity shifts can lead to changes in criminal behavior. Life course perspectives study predictable life transitions, impacting CB. Offending patterns change due to these transitions, influenced by personal choices and triggering shifts in thinking and identity, shaping future behavior.

Question 22

Which children have a greater likelihood of arrest during adulthood? (Freelin)

Answer 22

Children with higher levels of non-normative school mobility between kindergarten and 12th grade (VS. children with fewer unanticipated school moves).

Question 23

On which three theories does the article of Freelin focusses on?

Answer 23

1. Social control (Hirschi)
2. Differential association (Sutherland)
3. Routine activities (Cohen & Felson)

Question 24

What is the social control theory of Hirschi? (Freelin)

Answer 24

People avoid bad behavior because they have reasons to be good, like family or job commitments, which make crime not worth it. Crime happens when it seems like the easiest way to satisfy selfish desires, but having positive relationships, being part of regular activities, and believing in shared values stop people from committing crimes.

Question 25

In what way do Sampson & Laub incorporate the social control theory into a life-course perspective? (Freelin)

Answer 25

as people grow older, the things that influence their behavior change. Thru age-graded theory of informal social control. The individuals and social institutions vary with age, shifting from parents in childhood, to school and peers in adolescence, and to marriage and work in adulthood.

Question 26

What is the differential association theory of Sutherland? (Freelin)

Answer 26

People are born as blank slates and can learn to commit crime the same way that they learn any other behavior: through intimate social interactions with peers. They choose to follow/break the law.

Question 27

What is the routine activities theory of Cohen & Felson (Freelin)

Answer 27

Focuses on the role of situational factors in shaping crime. CB occurs when: motivated offender, suiable target and absence of a capable guardian.

Question 28

Definition Normative moves (Freelin)

Answer 28

Anticipated school transitions associated with graduating to a higher grade level.

Question 29

Definition Multifeeder transitions (Freelin)

Answer 29

Students merge from multiple middle schools into one high school.

Question 30

Definition Single feeder transitions (Freelin)

Answer 30

Students move from a single middels school together to one high school.

Question 31

What are three factors that change in school transitions whereas its possible that behavior changes in problem behavior? (Freelin)

Answer 31

1. Social bonds
2. Delinquent peers
3. Unstructured socializing

Question 32

Are the three factors (social bonds, delinquent peers and unstructured socializing) all significant mediators? (Freelin)

Answer 32

Average peer delinquency and unstructured socializing are significant mediators in relationship between transition and delinquency and school bonding is not.

Question 33

What does the article of Engel is about?

Answer 33

It documents the peer effect on the decision to commit a crime.

Question 34

In what way do peers have influence on crime? (Engel)

Answer 34

Property crime, violent offending, substance abuse and druk driving. Peers have effect on the decision to commit a crime on multiple levels.

Question 35

What is the core idea of differential association theory? (Engel)

Answer 35

if someone is surrounded by friends who think breaking the law is okay (favorable definitions), they’re more likely to become delinquent because these views outweigh the ones discouraging criminal actions. Peers may create an ‘alternative morel culture’. It argues that a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over defintions unfavorable to violention of law.

Question 36

What is the social learning theory (Engel)

Answer 36

Individuals may e.g. learn from their peers to tolerate greater risk of punishment.

Question 37

Why does social information increase the incidence of crime and deviance? (Engel)

Answer 37

• Individuals tend to particularly dislike if others are better off, with no compelling justification.
• Not want to be the sucker in the situation -> motivates violency
• Peers may serve as role models -> peers violate rules -> individual follows