An Analysis of Environmental Factors and the Influence of Peer Groups on the Emergence of Juvenile Delinquent Behaviors in the Novel The Neighbors

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the role and influence of peer groups in the emergence of social corruption and deviant behaviors in the novel The Neighbors by Ahmad Mahmoud. The primary focus is an exploration of how densely populated urban environments and structural poverty transform peer groups into the principal agents of socialization and thereby create the conditions for moral deviance. The research was carried out using a descriptive-analytical method within the framework of the sociological criticism of literature. The findings demonstrate that, in Ahmad Mahmoud’s works, delinquency is represented as an acquired phenomenon learned gradually through direct interaction with peer networks. In environments where the family institution has lost its supportive function due to poverty and illness, peers guide adolescents toward forms of corruption such as theft, gambling, and sexual deviance by providing both techniques of delinquency and cognitive justifications for such acts. The analysis of contrasting characters such as “Hasani” and “Ebrahim” demonstrates that the quality of group affiliations, even under identical economic conditions, determines an individual’s moral trajectory. The results further indicate that Ahmad Mahmoud, from a naturalistic perspective, portrays peers both as agents of decline within the context of delinquency and as agents of awakening within the context of political activism. In this novel, Mahmoud’s literature functions as a form of cultural criminology, illustrating that the reform of deviant behaviors is impossible without transforming broader social structures and strengthening familial protective mechanisms.