Deviant Peer Contagion | JTOP
Deviant Peer Contagion is loosely defined as behavior, generally negative/destructive, that is learned through a group or peer adolescent setting.
One of the unique elements of DPC, one of the moving parts per se, is the influence that body language/gestures can have on the decisions/learning of the group. An intrinsic part of many adolescent, deviant peer groups is that any potential 'leader' may be over-analyzed by other members, which sets up the breeding ground for a contagion such as an innocent, average gesture being observed as a learning objective.
Potentially, compounding such a learning gesture might occur when the gesture is timed while a 'leader', by accident or otherwise, creates the gesture (let's call it a weird cough) while displaying a negative behavior.
Tom, Larry, Fred, and a few other members are now associating this weird cough with doing 'bad behavior a'. Days go by, and these 3 members are now fully behind the weird cough contagion, and ready to spread it on to the 80+ members of their large gang.
Sound like it could be out of hand? It could be. It very well could be that a large gang is now worshiping the 'weird cough' and taking part in mass destruction, based on an innocent, non-purposeful gesture.
Now imagine, all of the gangs of the world, then how many of them, even a slight percentage, had destructive activity derive from such a DPC. Even more amazing, imagine how a task force/enforcement body might try to deconstruct the origins of such behavior...good luck!
The above is a small sample of the potential explosive nature of a deviant peer contagion.
Lenny Vineham

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