Thornberry identifies five concepts as part of his theoretical framework: commitment to school; attachment to parents; belief in conventional values (these first three are taken from social control and bonding theory); adoption of delinquent values, and association with delinquent peers (these last two are drawn from social learning and differential association-reinforcement theory). Which of these concepts do you feel explains this juvenile's offending behavior? Explain your answer.

In my opinion, I believe the association with delinquent peers best explains or influences a juvenile's offending behavior. I also believe that all five of Thornberry's concepts factor into youth delinquency but the association with other delinquent peers carries more weight.

Adolescent peer pressure is a tremendous influence for today's youth especially coupled with social media presence. Social media allows youths to interact with others from across the world where in the past it was focused in their neighborhoods or schools. Given these risk factors today, I am confident that the association concept best explains the correlation.

Step-by-step explanation

I based my opinion entirely on my personal life experiences raising 5 children along with my experiences as a police officer. During my police career, I was a certified youth officer who dealt with juvenile crime and in most cases, the youths got involved in delinquency because they associated with other delinquent youth.