We have written previously about the rising rate of arrests among youths across the country. The uptick in juvenile crime rates has made many question what may be causing the behaviors leading to these arrests.

Temple University researchers recently published a study in the Journal of Adolescence, which indicates that proximity to other juvenile offenders may be a contributing factor to reoffending criminal behavior. The researchers focused on the ways in which location affects "peer contagion" as it relates to the probability that juvenile offenders will reoffend.

Peer contagion can best described as influence over juveniles by members of their peer group. In the Temple study, it was determined that juvenile offenders residing in close proximity to other peer offenders were more likely to reoffend and to specialize in certain patterns of criminal behavior.

Essentially, juvenile offenders are more likely to reoffend when their neighborhoods contain other juvenile offenders. In turn, neighborhoods are likely to produce juvenile offenders who specialize in certain kinds of criminal behavior.

For example, say that a teenage boy had previously engaged in some kind of criminal behavior. If he is surrounded by neighborhood peers who tend to engage in property crime, he is not only more likely to reoffend, he is more likely to reoffend by committing property crime. If the neighborhood peers tend to offend relating to drug crimes, the teenage boy is more likely to engage in this kind of reoffending behavior.

Young people with tremendous potential too often get caught up in criminal behaviors. Once these young people have served the terms of their sentence, however, it is important that they remain aware of the influences that can lead them back to the juvenile justice system in the first place. "Don't go hanging round that kid from down the block. He's a bad influence," may indeed be advice worth listening to.

Source: HealthCanal.com, "'Peer contagion' influences criminal recidivism among youth, study finds," Feb. 20, 2012