Explaining the drug-crime connection with peers, proactive criminal thinking, and victimization: Systemic, cognitive social learning, and person proximity mechanisms.

The principal objective of this study was to determine whether drugs and crime are systemically linked through the formation of delinquent peer associations. A panel of 1,760 adolescents (867 boys, 893 girls, ages 10-17) participated in a longitudinal study conducted over 4 waves, with a year between each wave. The results of a multiple serial causal mediation path analysis revealed that drug use at Wave 1 predicted a rise in delinquent peer associations at Wave 2, which, in turn, predicted an increase in proactive criminal thinking and personal victimization at Wave 3, both of which then proceeded to predict serious offending at Wave 4. Based on these results, it is concluded that drug use has the power to initiate and intensify involvement in a delinquent peer group, which then opens the door to learning deviant attitudes from and being victimized by members of this group, outcomes capable of motivating future offending behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).