Breaking bad: Mechanisms of social influence and the path to criminality in juvenile jails
Open accessAbstract
I conduct a series of tests of peer influence in juvenile incarceration facilities motivated by three mechanisms: criminal skill transfer, the formation of new criminal networks, and the social contagion of crime-oriented noncognitive factors. Identifying peer influence off natural variation in small cohorts within the same facility, I find evidence consistent with social contagion: exposure to peers who come from unstable homes and have high levels of aggression leads to an increase in crime after release, as well as an increase in crime-oriented attitudes and behaviors. This effect persists despite controlling for the criminal experience and gang affiliation of the cohort, and is found in settings where youths are unlikely to interact after release.
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Others argue that prison spells might act as a school of crime.
“Others argue that prison spells might act as a school of crime in which networks of criminals share knowledge and influence one another (Bayer et al., 2009; Stevenson, 2017).”
From Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting (2021) · cites this paper as Stevenson, 2017
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References 40 · Cited by 84
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- Authors
- Stevenson, M.
- Affiliations
- George Mason University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stevenson, Megan
- ORCID
- Stevenson, Megan
- Venue
- Review of Economics and Statistics
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 2017-12-01
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 824-838
- ISSN
- 0034-6535 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9142
- OpenAlex
- W3124576641
- Cited by
- 84
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 21.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Review of Economics and Statistics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Penn Carey Law Legal Scholarship Repository (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- peer influence, juvenile detention, juvenile delinquency, social contagion, criminal networks, post-release recidivism, aggression
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