Exploring Relationships Between Delinquent Peer Groups, Participation in Delinquency, Substance Abuse, and Injecting Drug Use Among the Incarcerated: Findings From a National Sample of State and Federal Inmates in the United States

• Date: 01 July 2017
• Author: Phillip Marotta
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• DOI: 10.1177/0022042617690234
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042617690234

Journal of Drug Issues

2017, Vol. 47(3) 320 –339

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042617690234

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Article

Exploring Relationships Between

Delinquent Peer Groups,

Participation in Delinquency,

Substance Abuse, and Injecting

Drug Use Among the Incarcerated:

Findings From a National Sample

of State and Federal Inmates in the

United States

Phillip Marotta1

Abstract

The following study assesses the relationship between affiliating with delinquent peer groups,

participation in delinquency, and several substance misuse and injecting drug use outcomes

in a nationally representative sample of inmates in state and federal facilities in the United

States. After controlling for potential confounders, affiliating with peers who engaged in deviant

behaviors and participation in delinquency was associated with onset of alcohol and illicit drug

use, substance dependence, alcohol dependence, types of substances used, and injecting drug

use outcomes. Inmates who began engaging in delinquency at older ages reported initiating

drug and alcohol use at older ages, and were less likely to meet the criteria for drug abuse or

dependence, less likely to use substances daily or near daily, and less likely to report having ever

injected or shared syringes. The implications of these findings for substance abuse, HIV, and

crime prevention interventions are discussed.

Keywords

peer effects, substance use, adolescent

Introduction

The influences of peer groups are among the most widely supported predictors of increased risk

of substance abuse in social science and public health literature (Barnow, Schultz, Lucht, Ulrich,

Preuss, & Freyberger, 2004; Bauman & Ennett, 1996; Beman, 1995; Ennett, Bauman, Hussong,

Faris, & Foshee, 2006; Gardner & Steinberg, 2005; Hamil-Luker, Land, & Blau, 2004; Lundborg,

2006; Simons-Morton & Chen, 2006; Sussman, Skara, & Ames, 2008; Fazel, Bains, & Doll,

2006). In 2013, nearly 10% (24.6 million) of Americans above the age of 12 reported recent use

of an illicit drug (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2015) compared with approximately 56% of

1Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Phillip Marotta, Department of Social Work, Columbia University, 1277 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027,

USA.

Email: plm2113@columbia.edu

690234JODXXX10.1177/0022042617690234Journal of Drug IssuesMarotta

research-article2017

Marotta 321

state prisoners (Mumola & Karberg, 2006). In addition, research has reported that individuals

who affiliate with deviant peer groups are more likely to participate in crime themselves (Akers,

Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce & Radosevich, 1979, 2011; Carrington, 2009; Haynie & Osgood, 2005;

Thornberry, Lizotte, Krohn, Farnworth, & Jang, 1994) and are disproportionally represented in

incarcerated populations (Neff & Waite, 2007; Winfree, Mays, & Vigil-Bäckström, 1994).

Compared with the general community, incarcerated populations have higher rates of people who

inject drugs and rates of HIV infection (Cooper et al., 2016; Dolan et al., 2015). Despite mount-

ing studies, little is known surrounding how deviant peer groups affect the types of substances

used, onset of substance use, alcohol dependence, and injecting drug use. To address these gaps,

the following study assesses the relationship between affiliating with delinquent peer groups, co-

offending and several substance misuse, and injecting drug use outcomes in a nationally repre-

sentative sample of inmates in state and federal facilities in the United States. Findings from this

study will inform substance abuse prevention interventions for a social group that is dispropor-

tionately affected by the burden of substance abuse in the United States.

Background

Literature Review

Co-offending. Broad empirical evidence suggests that individual delinquent behaviors and sub-

stance use occur within the context of other peers (Barnes, Hoffman, Welte, Farrell, & Dintcheff,

2006; Reiss, 1988; Reiss & Farrington, 1991; Rice, Milburn, Rotheram-Borus, Mallett, & Rosen-

thal, 2005; Van Mastrigt & Farrington, 2009, 2011), and that participation in delinquency is a

significant predictor of substance abuse (Huizinga, Loeber, & Thornberry, 1994; McCord &

Conway, 2002; McGloin & Piquero, 2009a, 2009b; McGloin & Stickle, 2011; McGloin, Sulli-

van, Piquero, & Bacon, 2008). Moreover, research suggests that individuals tend to engage in

similar crimes as their peers and have similar levels of criminal experience (Agnew, 1991; Elliott,

Huizinga, & Ageton, 1985; Fagan, Piper, & Moore, 1986). McCord and Conway (2002) found

that nonviolent first-time offenders who engage in violence with peers are more likely to engage

in subsequent acts of violent crime following participation in violence with their peers. More-

over, studies have found that affiliating with deviant peers predicts earlier onset of individual

experimentation with drugs and alcohol use (Garnier & Stein, 2002) as well as progression to

chronic patterns of substance misuse (Brook et al., 2013).

Developmental and social learning theories. Empirical inquiry into the effects of peer groups during

adolescence on substance misuse in adulthood is supported by developmental and social learning

theoretical frameworks. Developmental theories of human behavior hypothesize that adoles-

cence is a window of vulnerability through which associating with deviant peer groups confers

the greatest risk of substance misuse and other behavioral problems (Carrington, 2009; Duan,

Chou, Andreeva, & Pentz, 2009; Elliott & Menard, 1996; Ferguson & Meehan, 2011; Kandel,

1985; Keenan, Loeber, Zhang, Stouthamer-Loeber, & van Kammen, 1995; Sampson & Laub,

2005b; Thornberry et al., 1994). Specifically, most studies find that the effects of deviant peer

groups are greatest in early- to mid-adolescence between the ages of 12 and 18 in which youth

are most likely to participate in delinquency with other peers (Fergusson, Swain-Campbell, &

Horwood, 2002; Sampson & Laub, 2003), and engage in risky and reckless behaviors (Doremus-

Fitzwater, Varlinskaya, & Spear, 2010; Gardner & Steinberg, 2005; Steinberg, 2008).

For instance, Fergusson et al. (2002) observed the strongest relationship between delinquent

peer group affiliation and marijuana and alcohol abuse for participants between the ages of 14

and 15 compared with participants who were 20 to 21 years of age. Moreover at earlier develop-

mental stages, Monahan, Steinberg, and Cauffman (2009) found no effect of affiliating with

delinquent peers on substance abuse during adulthood for participants who were younger than