Exploring offline and online exposure to peer delinquency: overlapping or independent risk factors?

• In Event: Contexts, social media and virtual reality: Novel approaches to studying peer offending

Abstract

The relation between delinquent behaviour of peers and own delinquency is a classic finding in criminology. Although this relation has been researched intensively, controversy remains about the causality of this relation and the way in which delinquent behavior among peers needs to be measured. The rise and development of social media adds a new dimension to these discussions. No longer is exposure to delinquent peers restricted to physical contact; the digital world provides new and extended possibilities for the exchange of delinquent social media content and communication among peers.

To disentangle offline and online exposure to peer delinquency, an innovative survey method has been developed to measure offline and online exposure to peer delinquency. Respondents are asked to report whether they actually observed acts of delinquency among their peers, and whether this was offline and/or online. Additionally, different types of peer relations are distinguished in the questionnaire.

In the presentation, data are used from a pilot study among several hundreds respondents between the ages of 16 and 22. These data make it possible to explore the extent to which offline and online exposure to peer delinquency overlaps or differs from each other. It is also analysed whether (different types of) offline and online exposure to peer delinquency are independently related to individual involvement in delinquent behavior.

In the long run, the results may help to understand how classic insights about peers and delinquency can be translated to the hybrid reality of young people with offline as well as online peer interactions.

Author

• Frank Weerman, NSCR & Erasmus University Rotterdam