From Exposure to Action: The Role of Network Exposure in Youths’ Organized Crime Involvement

• In Event: Youths’ Involvement in Organized Crime - Panel 2

Abstract

Youths becoming involved in organized crimes is a growing societal concern. Joining organized crime groups at a young age creates obstacles to the development of youths, promoting enduring criminal careers. Theory suggests youths may become involved in organized crime through opportunities offered within their social network. Accordingly, this study examines how exposure to crime correlates with organized crime involvement among youths. Using administrative data from all 12 to 26-year-olds in the Netherlands registered on January 1st, 2018 (N = 2.990.078), the current study analyzes the extent to which youths are exposed to crimes from 2014 to 2018 within five different network layers: family, households, classmates, colleagues, and neighbors. Subsequently, we analyze to what extent exposure within the network is predictive of becoming involved in organized crime in 2019-2023, and investigate how the impact of exposure differs compared to property- and violent crimes. Given that social psychological research suggests there are thresholds in social influence, we will explore if there are similar thresholds at which crime exposure translates to criminal involvement. Initial results show that being exposed to organized crime significantly predicts organized crime involvement for all five networks. The results, however, indicate that the impact of exposure beyond control variables is very small. Further, the relationship seems rather stable across all network layers and also astride the type of crime. Investigating possible threshold effects is still in progress. The results of this study serve as building blocks to design interventions preventing youths from joining organized crime groups, and more specifically, disentangle at whom such interventions should best be targeted. Moreover, if we find support for thresholds predicting criminal involvement, this would be an important call for criminologists to refine their predictions concerning peer influence.

Authors

• Julie Erber, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement

• Marjolijn Das, Statistics Netherlands, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Brenda Bos, Statistics Netherlands

• Jan van der Laan, Statistics Netherlands

• Paul Nieuwbeerta, Leiden University

• Arjan Blokland, NSCR