Building on the literature that stresses the social capital advantages of open and diffuse social networks, this article shows that African American boys who are a social bridge across two or more large but cohesive peer groups are less delinquent than are their counterparts who are members of a single peer group. Statistical interaction terms reveal that this decrease in delinquency can be attributed to the increased influence of parents among social bridges. The article concludes that the network form of the adolescent society, independent of its composition, conditions the parent-child relationship.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgrestiAlanFinlayBarbara. 1997. Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
2.
AkersRonald. 1998. Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
3.
AndersonElijah. 1999. Code of the Streets. New York: W. W. Norton.
4.
BearmanPeter. 1991. “The Social Structure of Suicide”. Sociological Forum6:501–24.
5.
BearmanPeterBruecknerHannah. 1999. Power in Numbers: Peer Effects on Adolescent Girls' Sexual Debut and Pregnancy. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
6.
BearmanPeterMoodyJames. 2004. “Suicide and Friendships Among American Adolescents”. American Journal of Public Health94:89–95.
7.
BerryWilliam. 1993. Understanding Regression Assumptions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
8.
BottElizabeth. 1971. Family and Social Network. New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1957)
9.
BourgoisPhilippe. 1995. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press.
10.
BrohBeckett. 2002. “Linking Extracurricular Programming to Academic Achievement: Who Benefits and Why?”. Sociology of Education75:69–95.
11.
BurtRonald. 1992. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
BurtRonald. 2004. “Structural Holes and Good Ideas”. American Journal of Sociology110:349–99.
13.
BurtRonald. 2005. Brokerage and Closure. New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
CarbonaroWilliam. 1998. “‘A Little Help from My Friends’ Parents: Intergenerational Closure and Educational Outcomes”. Sociology of Education71:295–313.
15.
CarbonaroWilliam. 1999. “Opening the Debate on Closure and Schooling Outcomes”. American Sociological Review64:682–86.
16.
CarterPrudence. 2006. “Straddling Boundaries: Identity, Culture, and School”. Sociology of Education79:304–28.
17.
CernkovichStephenGiordanoPeggy. 1987. “Family Relationships and Delinquency”. Criminology25:295–321.
18.
ChantalaKimTaborJoyce. 1999. Strategies to Perform a Design-Based Analysis Using the Add Health Data. Chapel Hill: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
19.
CohenAlbert. 1955. Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. New York: Free Press.
20.
ColemanJames. 1961. The Adolescent Society. New York: Free Press.
21.
ColemanJames. 1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital”. American Journal of Sociology.94(supplement):S95–S120.
22.
ColemanJames. 1990. Equality and Achievement in Education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
23.
ColemanJamesCampbellErnestHobsonCarolMcPartlandJamesMoodAlexanderWeinfeldFredericYorkRobert. 1966. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
24.
CrosnoeRobertCavanaghShannonGlen H. ElderJr.2003. “Adolescent Friendships as Academic Resources: The Intersection of Friendship, Race, and School Disadvantage”. Sociological Perspectives46:31–52.
25.
DurkheimEmile. 1979. Suicide. New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1897)
26.
EckertPenelope. 1989. Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in High School. New York: Teachers College Press.
27.
ElliottDelbertMenardScott. 1996. “Delinquent Friends and Delinquent Behavior: Temporal and Developmental Patterns”. Pp. 28–67 in Delinquency and Crime: Current Theories, edited by HawkinsJ. David. New York: Cambridge University Press.
28.
FarkasGeorge. 1996. Human Capital or Cultural Capital. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
29.
FischerClaudeHoutMichaelJankowskiMartin SanchezLucasSamuelSwidlerAnnVossKim. 1996. Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
FreemanLinton. 1972. “Segregation in Social Networks”. Sociological Methods and Research6:411–30.
31.
FurstenbergFrank, Jr.HughesMary. 1995. “Social Capital and Successful Development among At-Risk Youth”. Journal of Marriage and the Family57:580–92.
32.
GouldRogerFernandezRoberto. 1989. “Structures of Mediation: A Formal Approach to Brokerage in Transaction Networks”. Sociological Methodology19:89–126.
33.
GranovetterMark. 1973. “The Strength of Weak Ties”. American Journal of Sociology78:1360–80.
34.
GranovetterMark. 1974. Getting a Job. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
35.
GranovetterMark. 1983. “The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited”Sociological Theory1:201–33.
36.
GranovetterMark. 1985. “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness”. American Journal of Sociology91:481–510.
37.
HaganJohn. 1991. “Destiny and Drift: Subcultural Preferences, Status Attainments, and the Risks and Rewards of Youth”. American Sociological Review56:567–82.
38.
HallinanMaureenWilliamsRichard. 1990. “Students Characteristics and Peer Influence Process”. Sociology of Education63:122–32.
39.
HannemanRobertRiddleMark. 2005. Introduction to Social Network Methods. Riverside, CA: Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside. Available at http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman
40.
HaynieDana. 2001. “Delinquent Peers Revisited: Does Network Structure Matter?”. American Journal of Sociology106:1013–57.
41.
HaynieDana. 2002. “Friendship Networks and Delinquency: The Relative Nature of Peer Delinquency”. Journal of Quantitative Criminology18:99–134.
42.
HaynieDanaOsgoodD. Wayne. 2005. “Reconsidering Peers and Delinquency: How Do Peers Matter?”. Social Forces.84:1109–30.
43.
HaynieDanaPayneDanielle. 2006. “Race, Friendship Networks, and Violent Delinquency”. Criminology44:775–805.
44.
HirschiTravis. 1969. The Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
45.
IcelandJohnWilkesRima. 2006. “Does Socioeconomic Status Matter? Race, Class, and Residential Segregation”. Social Problems53:248–73.
46.
JohnsonRichard. 1986. “Family Structure and Delinquency: General Patterns and Gender Differences”. Criminology24:65–84.
47.
KimDoo HwanSchneiderBarbara. 2005. “Social Capital in Action: Alignment of Parental Support in Adolescents' Transition to Postsecondary Education”. Social Forces84:1181–1206.
48.
KingGary. 1988. “Statistical Models for Political Science Event Counts: Bias in Conventional Procedures and Evidence for the Exponential Poisson Regression Model”. American Journal of Political Science32:838–63.
49.
LongJ. ScottFreeseJeremy. 2003. Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata (rev. ed.). College Station, TX: Stata Press.
50.
MardsenPeter. 2005. “The Sociology of James S. Coleman”. Annual Review of Sociology31:1–24.
51.
MasseyDouglas S.DentonNancy. 1993. American Apartheid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
52.
MatsuedaRoss. 1982. “Testing Control Theory and Differential Association: A Causal Modeling Approach”. American Sociological Review47:489–504.
53.
MatsuedaRoss. 2006. “Differential Social Organization, Collective Action, and Crime”. Crime, Law and Social Change46:3–33.
54.
MatzaDavid. 1964. Delinquency and Drift. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
55.
McCarthyBillHaganJohn. 2001. “When Crime Pays: Capital, Competence, and Criminal Success”. Social Forces79:1035–60.
56.
McClendonMcKee. 1994. Multiple Regression and Causal Analysis. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock.
57.
McNealRalph. 1999. “Parental Involvement as Social Capital: Differential Effectiveness on Science Achievement, Truancy, and Dropping Out”. Social Forces78:117–44.
58.
MoodyJames. 1999. The Structure of Adolescent Social Relations: Modeling Friendship in Dynamic Social Settings. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, MI.
59.
MoodyJames. 2000. SPAN: SAS Programs for Analyzing Networks. Columbus: Department of Sociology, Ohio State University.
60.
MoodyJames. 2001. “Race, School Integration, and Friendship Segregation in America”. American Journal of Sociology107:679–716.
61.
MoodyJamesWhiteDouglas. 2003. “Structural Cohesion and Embeddedness: A Hierarchical Concept of Social Groups”. American Sociological Review68:103–27.
62.
MorganStephenSorensenAage. 1999. “Parental Networks, Social Closure, and Mathematics Learning: A Test of Coleman's Social Capital Explanation of School Effects. American Sociological Review64:661–81.
63.
MouwTed. 2006. “Estimating the Causal Effects of Social Capital”. Annual Review of Sociology32:79–102.
64.
MouwTedEntwisleBarbara. 2006. “Residential Segregation and Interracial Friendship in Schools”. American Journal of Sociology112:394–441.
65.
NewmanKatherine. 2004. Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. New York: Basic Books.
66.
OfferShiraSchneiderBarbara. 2007. “Children's Role in Generating Social Capital”. Social Forces85:1125–42.
67.
OgbuJohn. 1994. “Racial Stratification and Education in the United States: Why Inequality Persists”. Teachers College Record96:264–98.
68.
OmiMichaelWinantHoward. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
69.
PettitBeckyWesternBruce. 2004. “Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration”. American Sociological Review69:151–69.
70.
PortesAlejandro. 1998. “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology”. Annual Review of Sociology22:1–24.
71.
PortesAlejandroLandoltPatricia. 1996. “The Downside of Social Capital”. American Prospect26:18–21.
72.
RankinJoseph. 1983. “The Family Context of Delinquency”. Social Problems30:466–79.
73.
RankinJosephKernRoger. 1994. “Parental Attachments and Delinquency”. Criminology32:495–515.
74.
ReedMarkRoseDina. 1998. “Doing What Simple Simon Says? Estimating the Underlying Causal Structures of Delinquent Associations, Attitudes, and Serious Theft”. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency25:240–74.
75.
RosnerDavid. 1995. Hives of Sickness: Public Health and Epidemics in New York City. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
76.
RoysterDeirdre. 2003. Race and the Invisible Hand: How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs. Berkeley: University of California Press.
77.
RubioMauricio. 1997. “Perverse Social Capital—Some Evidence from Columbia”. Journal of Economic Issues31:805–16.
78.
RytinaSteveMorganDavid. 1982. “The Arithmetic of Social Relations: The Interplay of Category and Network”. American Journal of Sociology88:88–113.
79.
SampsonRobertLaubJohn. 1993. Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points through Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
80.
SampsonRobertRaudenbushStephen. 1999. “Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods”. American Journal of Sociology105:603–51.
81.
SchneiderBarbaraColemanJames. 1993. Parents, Children, and their Schools. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
82.
ScottJohn. 2000. Social Network Analysis (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
83.
SewellWilliamHauserRobertSpringerKristenHauserTaissa. 2003. “As We Age: A Review of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, 1957–2001”. Research in Stratification and Mobility20:3–111.
84.
ShawCliffordMcKayHenry. 1969. Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (rev. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
85.
SimmelGeorg. 1971. On Individuality and Social Forms. New York: Free Press.
86.
SkocpolTheda. 1996. “Unraveling from Above”. American Prospect25:20–25.
87.
SmithSandra. 2005. “‘Don't Put My Name on It’: Social Capital Activation and Job-Finding Assistance among the Black Urban Poor”. American Journal of Sociology111:1–57.
88.
StackCarol. 1974. All Our Kin. New York: Basic Books.
89.
Stanton-SalazarRicardo. 1997. “A Social Capital Framework for Understanding the Socialization of Racial Minority Children and Youth”. Harvard Educational Review67:1–40.
90.
SullivanMercer. 1991. “Crime and the Social Fabric”. Pp. 225–44 in Dual City: Restructuring New York, edited by MollenkopfJohn H.CastellsManuel. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
TeachmanJayPaaschKathleenCarverKaren. 1997. “Social Capital and the Generation of Human Capital”. Social Forces75:1343–59.
93.
ThornberryTerenceLizotteAlanKrohnMarvinFarnsworthMargaretJangSung Joon. 1994. “Delinquent Peers, Beliefs, and Delinquent Behavior: A Longitudinal Test of Interactional Theory”. Criminology32:47–83.
94.
WarrMark. 1993. “Parents, Peers, and Delinquency”. Social Forces72:247–64.
95.
WarrMark. 2002. Companions in Crime: The Social Aspects of Criminal Conduct. New York: Cambridge University Press.
96.
WarrMarkStaffordMark. 1991. “The Influence of Delinquent Peers: What They Think or What They Do?”. Criminology29:851–66.
97.
WassermanStanleyFaustKatherine. 1994. Social Network Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
98.
WilliamsRhonda. 1993. “Accumulation as Evisceration: Urban Rebellion and the New Growth Dynamics”. Pp. 82–96 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, edited by Gooding-WilliamsRobert. New York: Routledge.
99.
WilsonWilliam. 1980. The Declining Significance of Race (2nd ed.). Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.
100.
WilsonWilliam. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
101.
WilsonWilliam. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
