Citation
Jang, Sung Joon & Rhodes, Jeremy R. (2010). GST explanations of deviant peer influence on crime and drug use: An empirical test. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology. San Francisco, CA.Abstract
Agnew posits general strain theory (GST) supplements control and social learning theories in explaining the positive correlation between deviant peer association and deviant behavior. First, he proposed that deviant peer associations condition the impact of strain on crime and delinquency, increasing the effect of strain on deviant coping. Second, although less explicit, is the proposition that associations with deviant peers increase strain by generating negative emotions, which lead to strain as well as deviant behavior. Consistent with the first proposition, previous studies find deviant peer association tends to increase the effect of strain on deviant behavior. However, we argue a proper test of the GST-proposed conditioning effects of deviant peer association should examine whether deviant peer association increases the effects of strain on negative emotions and the effects of negative emotions on deviant behavior rather than increasing the direct effects of strain on deviant behavior. On the other hand, the second proposition regarding the causal influence of deviant peer association on strain has rarely been tested. To address these issues, we focus on vicarious, anticipated, and direct victimization as strain in order to test a series of related hypotheses using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.Reference Type
Conference proceedingBook Title
Annual Meeting of the American Society of CriminologyAuthor(s)
Jang, Sung JoonRhodes, Jeremy R.