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The Effect of High School Peers on Juvenile Delinquency

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  • Songman Kang

    (Hanyang University)

Abstract

In this study, I examine the extent to which the presence of delinquent peers influences students’ own delinquency risk by using large administrative data from North Carolina public high schools and state government records. Fixed effect regression estimates, which exploit year-to-year, within-school variation in the share of former delinquents in the ninthgrade cohort, show that having more delinquent high school peers, especially those with similar demographic characteristics, tends to increase a ninth grader’s own delinquency risk. A separate analysis of co-offenses committed with formerly delinquent ninth-grade peers shows that co-offending is a potentially important mechanism of delinquency spillovers. I conduct a series of robustness checks and find that the main findings remain robust across alternative specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Songman Kang, 2023. "The Effect of High School Peers on Juvenile Delinquency," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 39, pages 137-173.
    • Handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20230101-39-1-05
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andreas Ammermueller & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Peer Effects in European Primary Schools: Evidence from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(3), pages 315-348, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer Effects; Juvenile Delinquency; Homophily; North Carolina;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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