Co- Offending, Essay Example

Introduction

Co- offending refers to the commissioning of crime by more than one person. Negative peer influence plays a crucial role in early adolescence. Therefore, a relationship between delinquent peer influence juvenile offending is established through field criminology because deviant peer groups can influence non-delinquent peers to become delinquent. The following theories explain more:

Control Theory

According to the founder, Walter, weaker inner and outer control systems in society lead to deviant behaviors and crime. This theory states that if the desire exists over control effort, then self-control will inevitably fail. The delinquent peers will create a driving force, which is the desire to do something and directs another towards it (Burke, 2017). The other peers will be tempted to do it, and behavioral action will be facilitated. This means that peers with low self-control might follow their peers’ steps, thus committing crimes or remaining in them. Therefore, individuals can form bonds in society to prevent them from acting as per delinquent impulses. The more bonds an adolescent has in terms of good friendship ties, the less delinquent they will be. The main proponents guiding this theory are attachments, commitment, and involvement.

Social Learning Theory

This theory by Albert Bandura and Juliana Rotter researched that people learn certain behaviors and traits from others. Peers easily learn and pick up certain traits from others. Thus, if they belong to a group of deviant peers, they are most likely to learn and adopt such behaviors. According to this theory, delinquency results from a process in which peers learn to value their involvement in risky behaviors and crime. Actions of delinquent peers have been found to foresee anti-social behaviors. They interact with others to influence the offending net of self-control and drug abuse. Also, the environments they live in provide them with platforms conducive to learn and commit crimes. Therefore, they use anti-social behaviors to influence co-offending (Nodeland et al., 2020). This theory is associated with the behavioral theory, which also links behaviors to misconduct. This theory’s proponent is the behaviorist concept, constructivism, multiple intelligence, experiential learning, and cognitive psychology.

Strain Theory

This theory by Robert Agnew’s focuses on the factors that cause juvenile delinquency. Peers who have grown up in a tough environment where they have limited resources may be driven to crime by the desire to achieve something better. This theory also comes into play when the juniors face factors that may hinder them from attaining their goals and exposure to negative factors. Such factors may affect adolescents’ emotional, physical, and social health, exposing them to deviant behaviors. This theory determined that delinquent peers increase the effects of labor market strain on crime and not on substance abuse and forceful crimes. They make youths vulnerable to strain but in the form of relative deficiency (Agnew et al., 2019). In such scenarios, delinquent peers may influence others to turn to illegitimate channels to achieve their goals and strike out anger and frustrations. This theory’s proponents are societal pressure and societal goals, stress, victimization, psychological distress, among other factors that may force peers to turn to crime to achieve the set goals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the causes of crime and crime delinquency have not been fully understood, and several theories have tried to explain it. Recently several studies have been undertaken to propose solutions necessary.

References

Agnew, R., & Brezina, T. (2019). General strain theory. In Handbook on crime and deviance (pp. 145-160). Springer, Cham.

Burke, R. H. (2017). An introduction to criminological theory. Routledge.

Nodeland, B., & Morris, R. (2020). A test of social learning theory and self-control on cyber offending. Deviant Behavior, 41(1), 41-56.