Delinquency of school classmates and individual delinquency: The role of gender and the existence of a ‘tipping point’

This study examines to what extent and how delinquency of school classmates and individual delinquency are associated, for different genders and for same- and cross-gender classmates. In particular, we investigated whether there is a certain threshold or ‘tipping point’ after which the association increases and becomes extra strong. Data are drawn from four nationally representative self-report studies conducted between 2003 and 2011 in Sweden and include 24,972 adolescents. Linear probability models were calculated to examine our research questions. We found delinquency among school classmates to be positively associated with delinquency. The association between delinquency among classmates and delinquency is stronger for boys than for girls and stronger for same-gender than for other-gender classmate delinquency. The association seems to be linear for violence and vandalism, but nonlinear for theft, indicating two thresholds or ‘tipping points’. This study contributes to the field of peers and delinquency by expanding it to the role of the school class composition, including an analysis of the role of gender and linearity in this relationship. Our findings have both theoretical and policy implications.