Does it matter if those who matter don't mind? Effects of gang versus delinquent peer group membership on labeling processes

• Author: Molly Buchanan,Marvin D. Krohn
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12237
• Date: 01 May 2020

Received: 30 September 2018 Revised: 23 September 2019 Accepted: 4 October 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1745-9125.12237

ARTICLE

Does it matter if those who matter don’t mind?

Effects of gang versus delinquent peer group

membership on labeling processes∗

Molly Buchanan1Marvin D. Krohn2

1Department of Criminal Justice, Marist College

2Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida

Correspondence

MollyBuchanan, Department of Crimi-

nalJustice, Mar istCollege, Dyson Hall,

Poughkeepsie,NY 12601.

Email:molly.buchanan@marist.edu

Fundinginformation

NationalScience Foundation, Grant/Award

Number:SBR-9123299; National Insti-

tuteof Child Healt h and Human Develop-

ment,Grant/Award Number: R24HD044943;

NationalInstitute on Drug Abuse, Grant/Award

Number:R01DA005512; Office of Juve-

nileJustice and Delinquency Prevention,

Grant/AwardNumber: 86-JN- CX-0007

∗Additionalsupporting information

canbe found in the full text tab for this

article in the WileyOnline Librar y at

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/

crim.2020.58.issue-2/issuetoc.

Support forthe Rochester Youth Develop-

mentStudy has been provided by the National

Instituteon Dr ug Abuse(R01DA005512), the

Officeof Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention(86-JN- CX-0007), and the National

ScienceFoundation (SBR-9123299). Technical

assistancefor this project was also provided by

anNICHD g rant (R24HD044943) to The Cen-

terfor Social and Demographic Analysis at the

Universityat Albany. Pointsof view or opinions

int his document are those of the authors and do

notnecessar ilyrepresent the official position or

policiesof t he funding agencies.We appreciate

the comments of the anonymousreviewers and

Abstract

Despite renewed interests in the labeling perspective and

the impact of official intervention on individuals’ future

outcomes, scant attention has been given to potential

conditioning factors for theorized labeling processes. We

argue that, when viewed through a symbolic interactionist

lens, variations in the nature of primary social groups,

through which individuals filter official labels like arrest,

may generate patterns for subsequent self-concept and

delinquency that are contrary to what labeling theory indi-

cates. To test our rationale, we offer a moderated mediation

model in which gang membership is expected to differ-

entially impact the effect of arrest on future delinquency

through an intermediary mechanism: self-esteem. We test

a gang–nongang dichotomy and then probe further to test

whether hypothesized effects are gang specific or occur

similarly for nongang youths with highly delinquent peer

groups. Analyzed using Rochester Youth Development

Study (RYDS) data (N =961), comparisons between gang

members and nonaffiliated youths with similarly highly

delinquent peer groups revealed no significant differences

in conditional indirect effects of arrest on self-esteem and

future delinquency; the two groups were similarlyinsulated

from any negative impact of arrest on self-esteem. For

nongang youths with fewer delinquent peers, however,

280 © 2019 American Society of Criminology wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crim Criminology.2020;58:280–306.

BUCHANAN AND KROHN 281

the editor,whose suggestions strengthened the

article. arrest significantly reduced later self-esteem, which in turn

increased their future delinquency.

KEYWORDS

conditioning factors, effects of official intervention, labeling

Interest in the labeling perspective peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Subsequently, it was cri-

tiqued for several reasons and interest in the perspective waned. To a large degree this was a result

of early labeling research findings either failing to support or providing equivocal support for the link

between juvenile justice system involvement and self-concept and then self-concept’s impact on delin-

quency and drug use (Paternoster & Iovanni, 1989).

Renewed concern about the unintended consequences of police contact and arrest for the adoles-

cent life course has emerged alongside a revival of research on how juvenile justice system involve-

ment affects youths’ abilities to succeed educationally, in the workforce, and in social relationships.

Researchers have also begun to examine the heterogeneity of labeling processes or, more specifically,

why official intervention may not have problematic consequences for all youths (e.g., see Hirschfield,

2008; Morris & Piquero, 2013; Wiley, Carson, & Esbensen, 2016). In some of this research, scholars

have accounted for potential factors that may condition the relationship between official intervention

and such consequences, yetwhether t here are factorsthat condition (moderate) the relationship between

official intervention and self-concept has received scant attention. Does official intervention negatively

affect self-concept for some individuals but not for others?

Derived from a symbolic interactionist perspective, the labeling perspective is premised on

an understanding of social interaction and its effects. It is important to understand the social

audience to which an actor may be reacting and the probable impact of said audience on an

actor’s subsequent attitude and behavior. For the most part, researchers have assumed that juve-

niles react to representatives of conventional society such as parents, teachers, and law enforce-

ment agents. For adolescents engaged in delinquent activities, however, such conventional repre-

sentatives may not be the only, or even the most important, reference groups. Rather, the most

influential social audience could very well be members of an actor’s delinquent peer network. If

so, the questions arise as to how that social audience might be expected to react to instances of

official intervention and how those reactions might then impact the actor’s self-concept and future

delinquency.

Predicated on the recognition that youths involvedin gangs may view a gang-related social audience

as more important than conventional “others,” we provide a theoretical rationale for why members of

delinquent gangs may be less likely to follow theoretically posited labeling processes such as altered

self-concepts as a result of being arrested. An effect of gang membership that is over and abovesimply

having a large proportion of delinquent friends has been found in prior research (e.g., see Battin, Hill,

Abbott, Catalano, & Hawkins, 1998; Thornberry, Krohn, Lizotte, Smith, & Tobin, 2003); thus, we

examine whether the impact of gang involvement on labeling processes is distinct from the impact

of having a similar or smaller proportion of peers who engage in delinquent behaviors. We do so

by contrasting the influence of having a larger or smaller proportion of delinquent friends (but not

considering oneself in a gang) with the influence of being gang involved on the mediated effects of

arrest on self-esteem and subsequent future delinquency.The resulting predictions are then empirically

examined.