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. 2022 May;59(3):365-409.
doi: 10.1177/00224278211048942. Epub 2021 Nov 5.

Arrested Friendships? Justice Involvement and Interpersonal Exclusion among Rural Youth

Wade C Jacobsen  1 , Daniel T Ragan  2 , Mei Yang  3 , Emily L Nadel  4 , Mark E Feinberg  5
Affiliations

Arrested Friendships? Justice Involvement and Interpersonal Exclusion among Rural Youth

Wade C Jacobsen et al. J Res Crime Delinq. 2022 May.

Abstract

Objectives: We examine the impacts of adolescent arrest on friendship networks. In particular, we extend labeling theory by testing hypotheses for three potential mechanisms of interpersonal exclusion related to the stigma of arrest: rejection, withdrawal, and homophily.

Method: We use longitudinal data on 48 peer networks from PROSPER, a study of rural youth followed through middle and high school. We test our hypotheses using stochastic actor-based models.

Results: Our findings suggest that arrested youth are less likely to receive friendship ties from school peers, and are also less likely to extend them. Moreover, these negative associations are attenuated by higher levels of risky behaviors among peers, suggesting that results are driven by exclusion from normative rather than non-normative friendships. We find evidence of homophily on arrest but it appears to be driven by other selection mechanisms rather than a direct preference for similarity on arrest.

Conclusions: Overall, our findings speak to how arrest may foster social exclusion in rural schools, thereby limiting social capital for already disadvantaged youth.

Keywords: arrest; peer networks; rural schools; social exclusion.

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References

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    1. Baals Douglas. 2018. “Disadvantage and Social Relations: Short-and Long-term Effects of Stratification in Social Relations during Adolescence.” PhD dissertation, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University.
    1. Bernburg Jón G. and Krohn Marvin D.. 2003. “Labeling, Life Chances, and Adult Crime: The Direct and Indirect Effects of Official Intervention in Adolescence on Crime in Early Adulthood.” Criminology 41(4):1287–318.
    1. Bernburg Jón G., Krohn Marvin D., and Rivera Craig. 2006. “Official Labeling, Criminal Embeddedness, and Subsequent Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test of Labeling Theory.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 43(1):67–88.
    1. Braman Donald. 2004. Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

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