On Friday, Nov. 8, the Doane University Sociology Department welcomed Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Dr. Wade Jacobsen for the Doane University Gregory Speaker Series. Jacobsen specializes in youth incarceration and how peer networks influence young people’s involvement in the criminal justice system.
Jacobsen’s lecture, titled “Stuck in the Same Old Crowd? Adolescent Arrest, School Friendship Stability and Adult Persistence in Crime,” focuses on adolescents who get arrested and the rejection and subsequent withdrawal they experience from their peers that are a result of their arrest.
Jacobsen points out that adolescent arrest primarily happens to poor, racial minorities and repeat offenders and that these adolescents often are labeled as criminals by their peers and authority figures; they are stigmatized and then subsequently withdraw from society and have a higher potential to become repeat offenders.
Throughout his lecture, Jacobsen stresses that the stronger the social bond between peers the less likely people are to break that bond by doing something like a crime or breaking the law. Rather than punitive measures to reduce crimes and adolescent arrests, Jacobsen believes that strong social connections among peers can help decrease youth arrest rates.
After the adolescent is arrested and subsequently released, Jacobsen stresses that one of the largest indicators of whether or not someone will become a repeat offender is whether or not they have close friends who remain with them following their arrest. Otherwise, if their social ties weaken, they risk potentially isolating themselves or falling in with other young criminals.
The Doane Speaker Series featured an entirely packed crowd and featured students and faculty at Doane as well as student and staff participants from the Nebraska Undergraduate Sociological Symposium.
