Are You Asking Me to Change My Friends?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12328
• Published date: 01 August 2017
• Date: 01 August 2017
• Author: Faye S. Taxman

POLICY ESSAY

SOCIAL TIES AND REENTRY

Are You Asking Me to Change My Friends?

Faye S. Tax man

Criminology, Law & Society

Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence!

John Boman and Thomas Mowen (2017, this issue) offer a commonsense, but now

empirically validated, premise that a person’s friends (i.e., social network) have an

important influence on that person. And negative social networks—those that are

criminally involved or engage in risky behaviors—have more power over an individual’s

behavior than do positive family members. The influence of peers is a typical finding in

research on delinquent and adolescent behavior, although not as much reported in the adult

literature until this study came along. The implication of the Boman and Mowen finding

could impact how supervision and correctional agencies address social networks. In this essay,

we posture concerns related to: (a) what we measure in risk and needs assessment tools, (a)

how we respond to or place court or parole board mandated conditions on an individual, and

(c) what we include in our “interventions” to address crime-producing behaviors. Tinkering

with one’s social network, particularly friends, is not something the justice system should

tread lightly into without considering the complexity of these social network issues, yet it

does seem to be unavoidable that there will be an interest in addressing social networks.

Assessing “AntisocialPeers”

The concept of antisocial peers seems self-fulfilling—these peers engaged in criminal or risky

behaviors have influence over an individual. The distinguishing feature of the construct of

antisocial peers is that the antisocial person has an influence on the other person. That

is, one can be part of a network or know someone that is involved in criminal activity

(or have had a criminal justice background), but we should only be concerned if the

person has influence over the behavior under correctional control. That is, more attention

should be given to the nature of the influence, not merely that the person is acquainted with

“antisocial”peers. The sway may be relative depending on the psychological and geographical

distance, the centrality to the individual, and the unity with the individual. Therefore, it

Direct correspondence to Faye S. Taxman, Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence!, Criminology, Law &

Society, George Mason University, 4087 University Drive, 4100, MSN 6D3, Fairfax, VA 22030 (e-mail:

ftaxman@gmu.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12328 C2017 American Society of Criminology 775

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 16 rIssue 3