Same feathers, different flocks: Breaking down the meaning of ‘behavioral Homophily’ in the etiology of crime

Abstract

PurposeThis study's purpose is to (1) examine how behavioral homophily relates to deviance among friendship pairs and (2) to assess how deviance and non-deviance homophily may be independently and jointly important for deviant behavior. MethodsUsing a sample of 2154 individuals nested within 1077 dyadic friendship pairs, a series of mixed-effects models explore how behavioral, deviance, and non-deviance homophily at the dyadic level relate to an actor's theft, vandalism, violence, drug, and alcohol use. ResultsFindings demonstrate that behavioral homophily is a more robust protective factor than risk factor for deviance. Specifically, non-deviance homophily is significantly more related to abstaining from offending than deviance homophily is in promoting offending for theft, vandalism, violence, and drug use. And while behavioral homophily was not significantly associated with alcohol use, deviance homophily related to higher levels of alcohol use and non-deviance homophily related to less alcohol use with relatively equal effect sizes. ConclusionsBehavioral homophily contains two empirically and theoretically distinct components – deviance and non-deviance homophily. While both criminological theory and research have long established that peers “matter,” behavioral homophily across friendships can operate in a bifurcated role by associating with offending while simultaneously relating to normative behavior.