Influence or Convenience? Disentangling Peer Influence and Co-offending for Chronic offenders

Abstract

Both developmental and propensity theories root the etiology of chronic offending in factors other than peer influence. This does not mean that peers have no role in the expression of chronic offending, however. For instance, scholars have noted that offending with accomplices (i.e., co-offending) can reflect processes other than normative influence, such as selection and cooperation. Drawing from these notions, this investigation hypothesizes that chronic offenders will be less likely to cite peer influence as a reason for their deviance when compared to other offenders, whereas they will be equally likely to engage in group offending. The analysis uses information from the Racine cohort data and the results support the hypothesis. The discussion considers the implications of these findings for theory and research, as well as provides directions for future work.