Guilt by Association: The Relationship between Deviant Peers and Deviant Labels

Abstract

This study broadens labeling theory by examining the role deviant peers play in earlier stages of the labeling process. We propose that deviant peers serve as a source of information used in the decision to apply a deviant label by parents and school authorities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health with cross-sectional (n = 12,011) and longitudinal (n = 9,267) samples, results show that higher levels of peer deviance are related to receiving both informal and formal labels. We also find that associating with deviant peers amplifies the effect of individual deviance on receiving an informal label.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 ([email protected]). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory C. Rocheleau

GREGORY C. ROCHELEAU is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology at East Tennessee State University. His research interests include juvenile delinquency, work and deviance, and criminological theory, with a concentration on themes of social class and disadvantage. His most recent publication looked at variations in the relationship between work intensity and alcohol use by family structure in a sample of adolescents.

Jorge M. Chavez

JORGE M. CHAVEZ is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bowling Green State University. His research centers on integrating developmental, social, and environmental perspectives toward understanding problem behaviors, crime and violence, and mental health problems, with a focus on the intersection of race/ethnicity and social structural disadvantage. His recently published research has examined offending and locational attainment in young adulthood, immigration and violent crime, race/ethnicity and state level immigration policy, and the intergenerational transmission of crime and violence.