By Timothy McCuddy, Owen Gallupe, Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg, Frank Weerman

The field of criminology has spent nearly a century investigating the link between peers and delinquency, but only recently turned its attention to the online peer context. We examine three ways online and offline peer delinquency are related to self reported delinquency. In theory, online peer delinquency may influence delinquent behavior independently of the influence from the physical presence of delinquent peers. Adolescents may also select online peers who are similar to their offline peers, and experiences online may contribute to being more receptive to offline peer influence. We use survey data from a longitudinal sample of middle and high school students in a large, metropolitan area, which includes measures of online peer support for delinquency and perceived delinquency of ofine peers. Employing path models, we find that perceiving to have offline delinquent peers is partly related to previous behavior but also to previous experiences with online friends. We also find that the measures of both offline and online peer delinquency are independently related to later self-reported delinquency, and online peer support for violence can enhance the apparent influence of offline violent peers. Overall, this study illustrates that research examining delinquent peer influence should also include online peer processes.

Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (2024) 10:573–600

By Franklin Chase Hoyt.

“This is a book of stories telling of Youth's encounter with the law. It does not pretend to cover any particular phase of child psychology nor is it written with the slightest idea of serving as a manual on juvenile-court work in general. It merely seeks to present, in narrative form, a number of incidents from the records of our Children's Court, and to include only such comments as seem appropriate and necessary to bind these sketches together into one consecutive whole. If this little volume serves, in some slight measure, to stimulate popular interest in the problems of delinquency and neglect, if it leads to a clearer understanding of what can be done to-day to develop and elevate our citizens of to-morrow, and if it helps to suggest a possible improvement in the methods and spirit of modern justice, it will more than achieve the objects for which it has been written. All of these stories are true and all are based upon actual facts and occurrences.”

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921. 264p.