Wade Jacobsen, UMD Criminology

About the Presentation

Friends provide critical social and emotional support during adolescence, but prior research suggests that justice involvement may constrain adolescent friendship networks, resulting in fewer ties to non-deviant peers. We refer to such changes in a youth’s peer network as interpersonal exclusion. In particular, our study examines the association between juvenile arrest and the likelihood of friendship ties among school peers. We focus on three mechanisms of friendship selection implied in social stigma theories: rejection, withdrawal, and homophily. Analyses of 48 predominantly rural peer networks over six waves are consistent with hypotheses about rejection and withdrawal. Arrested youth are less likely to receive friendship ties from school peers, and also less likely to extend them. Furthermore, these negative associations are attenuated by higher levels of deviant behavior among peers, suggesting our results are more heavily driven by exclusion from non-deviant peers. We do not find evidence that arrested youth are more likely to prefer other arrested youth as friends. Overall, our findings speak to how juvenile arrest may contribute to social inequality among youth in rural schools by excluding already disadvantaged youth from conforming social networks.

About the Speaker

Wade Jacobsen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. His research investigates the roles of schools and the criminal justice system in shaping child wellbeing and inequality. He earned a PhD in Sociology at Penn State University. He also spent two years as a Research Specialist in the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.