Deviant Peer Influences in Intervention and Public Policy for Youth

Abstract

The problem is well known to every parent of a teenager, every high school teacher, every clinical practitioner, and every social policy maker: vulnerable adolescents risk becoming more deviant through association with deviant peers and peer groups. Deviant peer infl uences are among the most potent factors in the development of antisocial behavior. Deviant youth are prone to seek out other deviant youth, but the tendency to self-select into deviant peer groups does not fully account for the effect that the peer group has on exacerbating the problem. More exposure to deviant peers increases the opportunity for peer infl uences to operate. It is now becoming known that well-intentioned adults and government programs may also exacerbate deviant peer infl uences by placing deviant youth into programs and settings that are populated by other deviant youth. In fact, the most common policy is to segregate unruly youth from the mainstream peer group and to place them in groups composed entirely or mostly of deviant peers. New studies indicate that sometimes this practice results in harmful effects. That is, the children whom we are attempting to help may in fact be made worse by our efforts. Placing a deviant adolescent with deviant peers can reduce the intended benefi ts of interventions and lead to less positive, sometimes even negative, outcomes, especially under conditions of poor supervision and lack of structure. Nonetheless, deviant youth do require a response, and economic, political, and treatment considerations complicate the solution. This report reviews the evidence on group interventions for deviant adolescents and makes recommendations that address the public policy problem of placements for deviant youth.This report makes the following recommendations: 1) Programs, placements, and treatments that aggregate deviant youth that are ineffective as well as costly should be terminated whenever possible; 2) Effective alternatives to deviant peer-group placement are available and should be supported; 3) Policy decision-making should take into account the system-wide impact of interventions and placements on both deviant youth and their communities; and 4) Practitioners, programs, and policymakers should document the peer context of each placement and evaluate the impact of each placement on the youth and the community.

Risk models of dating aggression across different adolescent relationships: A developmental psychopathology approach.

“…Schoolbased interventions obviously target entire peer groups; however, researchers should incorporate more peer-focused interventions and attitudinal targets in an effort to reduce recurrent aggression among youths along general delinquent and aggressive pathways. Due to the dangers of treatments that group deviant youths together (Dishion et al, 1996;Fo & O'Donnell, 1975), current directions for interventions that target adolescents on problematic peer pathways include multimodal approaches, such as family involvement, skills training for youths, schoolwide behavior management, and exposure of youths to peers on nondeviant trajectories (Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006).…”

Scaling Effective Innovations

“…Yet, investing in strategies that do not work is the norm and not the exception as well-meaning legislators and leaders press for quick solutions in human service systems that are ill equipped to respond in ways that produce intended outcomes (Dodge, Dishion, and Landsford, 2006;Institute of Medicine, 2001;Lynam et al, 2004;Tyack and Cuban, 1995; U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, 2010; U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services, 1999, 2001). System administrators and managers simply do not have the levers for meaningful change available to them.…”

Exposure to Television Crime Shows and Crime Learning Behaviours of Adolescents: A Case of Pakistani Juvenile Delinquents

“…These factors include parenting, maltreatment, family violence, divorce, parental psychopathology, familial antisocial behaviours, teenage parenthood, family structure, and family size. (Bui, 2009;Cicchetti & Rogosch, 2002;Derzon, 2010;Maas, Herrenkohl, & Sousa, 2008;Wasserman et al, 2003) In conclusion the deviant peers contribute to serious offending by child delinquents during the period of their transition to adolescence (Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006;Maschi, Carolyn, & Morgen, 2008;Meldrum, Young, & Weerman, 2009;Schreck & Fisher, 2004;Taylor, Peterson, Esbensen, & Freng, 2007;Vitulano, Fite, & Rathert, 2010).…”