NCJ Number
234093
Journal
Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2011 Pages: 95-128
Date Published
February 2011
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study examined delinquency group structure.
Abstract
Gangs and group-level processes were once central phenomena for criminological theory and research. By the mid-1970s, however, gang research primarily was displaced by studies of individual behavior using randomized self-report surveys, a shift that also removed groups from the theoretical foreground. In this project, the authors return to the group level to test competing theoretical claims about delinquent group structure. They used network-based clustering methods to identify 897 friendship groups in 2 ninth-grade cohorts of 27 Pennsylvania and Iowa schools. They then related group-level measures of delinquency and drinking to network measures of group size, friendship reciprocity, transitivity, structural cohesion, stability, average popularity, and network centrality. The authors found significant negative correlations between group delinquency and all of their network measures, suggesting that delinquent groups are less solidary and less central to school networks than nondelinquent groups. Additional analyses, on the one hand, reveal that these correlations are explained primarily by other group characteristics, such as gender composition and socioeconomic status. Drinking behaviors, on the other hand, show net positive associations with most of the network measures, suggesting that drinking groups have a higher status and are more internally cohesive than nondrinking groups. The author's findings shed light on a long-standing criminological debate by suggesting that any structural differences between delinquent and nondelinquent groups are likely attributable to other characteristics coincidental with delinquency. In contrast, drinking groups seem to provide peer contexts of greater social capital and cohesion. (Published Abstract) Tables, figures, and references