Companions in Crime: The Social Aspects of Criminal Conduct

“It is well-established that crime is, to some extent, a group phenomenon, and the source of crime and delinquency is located in the intimate social networks of individuals (see e.g. Sutherland, 1947, Sarnecki, 2001 and Warr, 2002).”

“The inflation of this relationship occurs because youths generally offend in groups, yet they also tend to use a rotating cast of co-offenders (McGloin, Sullivan, Piquero, & Bacon, 2008; Warr, 2002).”

“This means that seeking and finding suitable co-offenders is an important aspect (see, e.g. Reiss 1988; Tremblay 1993; Warr 2002; Waring and Weisburd 2002).”

“…great strides in uncovering factors that contribute to the commission of crime, including association with deviant peers (McGloin & O'Neill Shermer, 2009; Warr, 2002), parenting (Wright & Cullen, 2001; Jones, Cauffman, & Piquero, 2007), and self-control (Pratt & Cullen, 2000), among many others.”

“…with sources of crime and delinquency that can be traced to the social networks of individuals (see e.g. Sutherland (1947), Sanercki (2001), Warr (2002), Calvó-Armengol and Zenou (2004), Patacchini and Zenou (2012)). of ideas, information, behaviors, and diseases, are all network-based…”

“Compared with antisocial acts committed by adults, for example, antisocial acts committed by teenagers are more likely to occur in groups (Warr, 2002; Zimring, 1998), and peer pressure has been hypothesized to be an important contributor to all sorts of deviant and risky behavior in”

“In terms of peer influence, arrestees are significantly and substantially more likely to associate with deviant peers, a finding that is consistent with a long line of criminological research (see Burgess and Akers 1966; Sutherland 1947; Warr 2002).”

“More recently, two theoretical perspectives have beenproposed to explain the possible negative impact of the juvenile justice system on youths’ delinquent behaviors: the labeling perspective and the deviant peer contagion perspective (Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006; Warr, 2002).”

“They had all been in gangs and spoke about this as though they had been part of a family, not just in terms of loyalty (Warr, 2002), but also in terms of the emotional connections established, opportunity to share concerns, get advice, be vulnerable and achieve a sense of belonging.”

“Influence processes might work via mechanisms of social learning and imitation (Bandura, 1977), expected rewards of conformity (Burgess & Akers, 1966), social facilitation (Zajonc, 1968), or peer pressure (Warr, 2002).”

“The peer group represents one of the primary social contexts in the lives of adolescents, aside from the family (Coleman, 1980; Corsaro & Eder, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1984; Thornberry, 1987; Warr, 1993, 2002).”

“The negative consequence of delinquent peer associates is one of the most enduring findings in empirical delinquency research (Warr, 2002).”

“…learn about committing particular delinquent behaviors, perceive pressure to engage in certain delinquent behavior, or take advantage of opportunities to commit delinquent behavior through exposure to friends’ participation in the same behaviors (see Warr 2002 for a discussion of this point).”

“Since about half of crime in the U.S. is committed by young offenders (people who often tend to offend in groups; see Warr, 2002), the reduction in the sheer volume of these common offenses has been the primary driving factor behind why crimes in the U.S. appear to be decreasing during…”

“…facilitates or enhances antisocial behaviors (Bjerregard & Lizotte, 1995; Dishion, 2000; Vitaro, Tremblay, Kerr, Pagani, & Bukowski, 1997; Warr, 2002) and criminal actsPatterson, & Griesler, 1994; Patterson, 1993; such as aggravated assaults and homicides (see Howell, 1999, for a…”

“This research adds to a growing list of research on the peers– delinquency relationship beyond deviant norm acquisition, imitation and reinforcement (Haynie, 2001; Osgood, Wilson, Bachman, O’Malley, & Johnston, 1996; Warr, 2002).”

“Exposure to deviant peers is a well-established risk factor for delinquency (see Matsueda and Anderson 1998; Warr 2002).1 Traditionally, this risk is viewed within a learning theory framework, whereby a deviant peer group provides access to norms, behavioral models, and reinforcement contingencies…”

“Researchers such as Reiss (1988), Sarnecki (2001), and Warr (2002) held that the changing group nature of offending by age is crucial to understanding desistance.”

“" Even so, individual differences cannot account fully for social learning effects (Akers, 1998; Warr, 2002).”

“It is a well established fact that most young people commit crime with their peers (e.g., Reiss 1986; Sarnecki 1986; Warr 2002; Wikström and Butterworth 2006).”

“examined the role of delinquent peers in explaining involvement in crime (e.g., Haynie, 2001, 2002; Matsueda & Anderson, 1998; Payne & Cornwell, 2007; Sutherland, 1947; Warr, 2002).”

“In addition to a learning process, peers may influence an individual’s criminal conduct through several other mechanisms, including the creation of criminal opportunities (Laub and Sampson 2003; Warr 2002).”

“Such observations gave rise to some of the most prominent and influential works in criminology that aim to understand how peer groups influence criminal behavior (Akers, 2009; Cohen, 1955; Short & Strodtbeck, 1965; Sutherland, 1947; Warr, 2002).”

“Similarly, Akers (1998), Warr (2002) and other differential association theorists see social networks and peer groups as playing significant roles in affecting how an individual spends time.”

“Previous research pointed to strong deviant-peer and illegal-opportunity effects (Warr 2002), but we find these to be unrelated to illegal earnings once individual fixed effects and other factors are statistically controlled.”

“Warr (2002) has even gone as far as to label the group nature of delinquency as a fact of crime.”

“Association with peers who display deviant behavior is consistently predictive of adolescent deviant behavior (Patterson et al. 2000; Warr 2002).”

“An impressive stack of empirical literature supports this premise under both cross-sectional and longitudinal specifications (see Warr, 2002).”

“Warr (2002) described a number of these factors, including fear of ridicule, status striving, and the diffusion of responsibility within a group.”

“One of the strongest and most robust correlates to crime and delinquency is associating with delinquent friends (Warr, 2002).”

“Thus, our models do provide support for previous theories, such as social learning/peer-based theories of crime (e.g. Warr, 2002).”

“With fewer friends to encourage and reward deviant behavior, motivation for committing crime may diminish (Maruna & Toch, 2005; Schroeder et al., 2008; Warr, 2002).”

“One consistent finding from research on gangs, as is the case for research on delinquency in general, is the importance of peers during adolescence (Battin-Pearson et al. 1998; Elliott and Menard 1996; Warr and Stafford 1991; Warr 2002).”

“As the results of prior research suggest (Akers, 2009; Warr, 2002), individuals who are embedded in tight, insular groups of like-minded peers are particularly susceptible to biasing dynamics and the results reveal that such individuals are likely to move toward violent behavior.”

“This finding is supported by research that suggests boys who associate with delinquent peer groups are more delinquent and physically aggressive (Dishion, Patterson, & Griesler, 1994; Thornberry, 1998; Vitaro, Tremblay, Kerr, Pagani, & Bukowski, 1997; Warr, 2002).”

“The study of crime and delinquency has produced few findings as enduring and robust as the relationship between delinquent peers and offending (e.g., Elliott, Huizinga, & Ageton, 1985; Krohn, Skinner, Massey, & Akers, 1985; Menard & Elliott, 1994; Sellers & Winfree, 1990; Warr, 2002; Winfree, Mays, & Vigil-Backstrom,…”

“12 In recent years, criminologists (Skinner & Fream, 1997; Warr, 2002) have acknowledged the importance of virtual peer groups or the impact of online peers in deviant behavior.”

“Similar conclusions have been reached in regard to the correlates to delinquent peer associations (Akers, 1998; Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Warr, 2002).”

“This finding will be better assessed in Table 4 when the sample is stratified by sex, because prior research indicates that opposite-sex friends may have different functions for male and female adolescents (Warr 2002).”

“Considering that those who spend longer periods of time without adult supervision and in the company of deviant peers are significantly more likely to engage in delinquent behavior [32] [33], it is likely that these behaviors co-occurred with the adolescents' pregnancies.”

“" (Warr 2002: 136, emphasis in original). The peer effect employed in most criminological literature is rooted firmly in Sutherland's (1947) differential association theory and Burgess and”

“One explanation of this may be that when males fail at school they may feel they have to compensate by acting in a delinquent way; through this compensation they may (re)gain their status (Warr 2002).”

“In addition, antisocial peers are one of the strongest influences of offending, and interventions designed to reduce this influence will lead to lower offending (Warr, 2002).”

“Affiliating with antisocial peers is a strong and robust predictor of delinquent behavior (Warr, 2002), and it has also recently been found to be associated with levels of self-control (Burt, Simons, & Simons, 2006).”

“The finding that time spent with peers is relatively strongly related to delinquency when two or more peers are around partially supports Warr’s theoretical notions about group processes (Warr, 2002), but the finding that other categories of time with peers seem to be more salient (socializing and being in public) was…”

“In several studies, peer deviance was the strongest correlate of adolescents’ own aggressive and delinquent behavior (Pratt & Cullen, 2000; Warr, 2003).”

“They will use their peers as role models, which might lead to more delinquent behaviour (Warr 2002).”

“This is also what is found by Warr (2002) and Thornberry et al. (2003).”

“Homeless youth often struggle to support themselves financially and those who spend longer periods of time without adult supervision and in the company of deviant peers are significantly more likely to engage in delinquent behavior then their counterparts (Heinze et al.; Warr, 2002; Yoder et al., 2003).”

“It is a log-linear segregation index that was based on the following equation derived from research by Weeden (1998) and Hoffmann (2003):”