Networks among the Delinquent and Incarcerated

One of the most enduring findings regarding adolescent delinquency is that delinquent youth have delinquent friends – a pattern that calls for a network perspective. Some of my research aims to discern selection processes from peer influence in producing this pattern – oftentimes the answer is both. I am also interested in why kids place themselves at risk of negative peer influence by having delinquent friends in the first place. In a departure from my work on adolescents, I am actively involved in the Prison Inmate Network Study (PINS). Prisons are exciting (from a network perspective) because they represent a rather abrupt shock to one’s personal network, both upon incarceration and re-entry to the community. Our team is documenting the social structures within prisons and testing their short and long-term consequences for inmates. This work would be impossible without my collaborator Derek Kreager and support from NSF, NIH, and NIJ.

Prison Inmates

• Kreager, Derek A., Jacob T. N. Young, Dana L. Haynie, Martin Bouchard, David R. Schaefer, and Gary Zajac. 2017. “Where 'Old Heads' Prevail: Inmate Hierarchy in a Men’s Prison Unit.” American Sociological Review, 82: 685-718.

• Schaefer, David R., Martin Bouchard, Jacob T. N. Young and Derek A. Kreager. 2017. “Friends in Locked Places: An Investigation of Prison Inmate Network Structure.” Social Networks, 51:88-103.

  • Haynie, Dana L., Corey Whichard*, Derek A. Kreager, David R. Schaefer, and Sara Wakefield. 2018. “Social Networks and Health in a Prison Unit.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 59:318-334.

• Kreager, Derek A., David R. Schaefer, Martin Bouchard, Dana L. Haynie, Sara Wakefield, Jacob Young, and Gary Zajac. 2016. “Toward a Criminology of Inmate Networks.” Justice Quarterly, 33:1000-1028.

• Kreager, Derek A., Martin Bouchard, George De Leon, David R. Schaefer, Michaela Soyer, Jacob Young, and Gary Zajac. 2018. “A Life Course and Networks Approach to Understanding Prison Therapeutic Communities.” In D. Alwin, D. Felmlee, & D. Kreager (Eds.), Social networks and the life course (pp. 433-451). New York, NY: Springer.

Delinquent Youth and Co-Offenders

• Schaefer, David R. 2018. “A Network Analysis of Factors Leading Adolescents to Befriend Substance-Using Peers.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 34:275-312.

• Schaefer, David R., Nancy Rodriguez and Scott H. Decker. 2014. “The Role of Neighborhood Context in Youth Co-Offending.” Criminology, 52:117-139.

• Schaefer, David R. 2012. “Youth Co-Offending Networks: An Investigation of Social and Spatial Effects.” Social Networks, 34:141-149.

Peer Influence

• Haas, Steven A. and David R. Schaefer. 2014. “With a Little Help from My Friends? Asymmetrical Social Influence on Adolescent Smoking Initiation and Cessation.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 55:126-143.

• Schaefer, David R. Steven A. Haas, and Nicholas Bishop. 2012. “A Dynamic Model of US Adolescents’ Smoking and Friendship Networks.” American Journal of Public Health, 102:e12-e18.