Friends, Cognition, and Delinquency: Proactive and Reactive Criminal Thinking as Mediators of the Peer Influence and Peer Selection Effects among Male Delinquents

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether criminal thinking underpins peer influence and selection. It was predicted that proactive criminal thinking would mediate the peer influence effect (peers → offending) and reactive criminal thinking would mediate the peer selection effect (offending → peers). Participants were 1,170 male delinquent youth from the Pathways to Desistance study. The Moral Disengagement scale (proactive criminal thinking) and Peer Delinquent Behavior scale (peer delinquency) were cross-lagged to predict criminal offending, and the Weinberger Impulse Control scale (reactive criminal thinking) and criminal offending were cross-lagged to predict peer delinquency. Consistent with predictions, proactive but not reactive criminal thinking successfully mediated the peer → offending relationship and reactive but not proactive criminal thinking successfully mediated the offending → peer relationship. Whereas delinquent peer associations appear to promote proactive criminal thinking and peer influence, early criminal offending appears to promote reactive criminal thinking and peer selection.