Routine Activities and Individual Deviant Behavior

TLDR

Unstructured socializing with peers in the absence of authority creates opportunities for deviance by making deviant acts easier, more rewarding, and less subject to social control, while providing time for such behavior. The study aims to extend routine activity theory to individual offending and to test whether increased time in unstructured peer socializing predicts higher rates of deviant behavior. Using within‑individual changes across five waves of data from a national sample of 1,700+ 18‑ to 26‑year‑olds, the authors examined routine activities and deviance. Participation in unstructured socializing was strongly linked to criminal activity, heavy alcohol use, illicit drug use, and dangerous driving, and explained a substantial portion of the association between these behaviors and age, sex, and socioeconomic status.

Abstract

We extend the routine activity perspective's situational analysis of crime to individual offending and to a broad range of deviant behaviors. In this view, unstructured socializing with peers in the absence of authority figures presents opportunities for deviance: In the presence of peers, deviant acts will be easier and more rewarding; the absence of authority figures reduces the potential for social control responses to deviance; and the lack of structure leaves time available for deviant behavior. To determine whether individuals who spend more time in unstructured socializing activities engage in deviant behaviors more frequently, we analyzed within-individual changes in routine activities and deviance across five waves of data for a national sample of more than 1,700 18- to 26-year-olds. Participation in these routine activities was strongly associated with criminal behavior, heavy alcohol use, use of marijuana and other illicit drugs, and dangerous driving. Furthermore, routine activities accounted for a substantial portion of the association between these deviant behaviors and age, sex, and socioeconomic status.