It's Not the Time They Spend, It's What They Do: The Interaction Between Delinquent Friends and Unstructured Routine Activity on Delinquency-Findings From Two Countries

• NCJ Number: 232473
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2010 Pages: 1006-1014
• Author(s): Robert Svensson; Dietrich Oberwittler
• Date Published: September 2010
• Length: 9 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examines whether having delinquent friends interacts with other peer-related variables in the explanation of adolescent offending.

Abstract

The authors hypothesize that the relationship between delinquent friends and offending might be conditioned by the effect of (1) how much time they spend with their friends, (2) how much time they spend in unstructured routine activities, and (3) their emotional relationship with their friends. To test these three hypotheses this study used data from two independent samples of young adolescents in Halmstad, Sweden (N = 1,003) and in Cologne and Freiburg, Germany (N = 955). The results found strong support that the effect of delinquent friends on adolescent offending is conditional on the level of time they spend in unstructured routine activities. This indicates that delinquent friends have a stronger effect on offending for adolescents who often spend their free time in unstructured routine activities. Tables, figure, appendixes, notes, and references (Published Abstract)