Human Nature Review 2002 Volume 2: 169-178 ( 4 May )
URL of this document http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/walsh.html
Essay Review
Companions in Crime: A Biosocial Perspective
By Anthony Walsh, Professor of Criminal Justice, Department of Criminal Justice
Administration, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Idaho
83725-1955, USA.
Review of Companions in Crime: The Social Aspects of Criminal Conduct
By Mark Warr
Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN: 0521009162
Mark Warr's Companions in Crime: The Social Aspects of Criminal Conduct, is a
well reasoned and well written account of the social influence of peers on
crime and delinquency. It is mercifully free of the deconstructionist mush that
infects a significant portion of today's criminology, and can thus be read with
profit by the non-criminologist. I venture to say that it is the most
comprehensive and sophisticated sociological treatment of peer influence on
antisocial behavior available today. Warr covers all the explanatory bases
relevant to why peers are so important to adolescent behavior, although I am
surprised that he does not address Judith Harris's (1998) much praised
contributions to this topic. Warr's explanations for peer influence range from
the most general (we are a gregarious social species) to the very specific
(fear of ridicule, diffusion of responsibility, the anonymity of the gang,
status striving, and so on). I have very little argument with Warr regarding
what he has written in this delightful little book. My argument with him is
about what he has not written, and about what he could have written in his
effort to understand antisocial conduct among adolescents.
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