The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime

The Long ViewUniversity of St Andrews

27 February 2004

Research team

Lesley McAraDavid J. Smith

Co-directors

Susan McVie Senior Research Fellow

Paul Bradshaw/Lucy Holmes

Research Fellow

Jackie Palmer Fieldwork and data manager

Aims

1. To understand why some young people become heavily involved in crime, and why most stop

2. To explain gender differences in offending

3. To understand the influence of social and neighbourhood context

Aims contd.

4. To describe relationships between delinquency and other risk behaviours (drugs, smoking, sex)

5. To monitor effects of Children’s Hearings, social work, police contact

6. To monitor effects of other interventions?

Study design

• Focus on adolescence and early adulthood

• Large scale• Single cohort longitudinal, prospective• Integrates data sources• Includes study of social geography• Analyses interactions between people

and neighbourhoods

The cohort

• Target group: children in Edinburgh aged 12 in autumn 1998

• Mainstream, special, and independent schools

• Cohort size, 4,380• Response rate in participating

schools up to sweep 4, 95%

Participating organizations

• City of Edinburgh Council• Department of Social Work• Children’s Hearings (SCRA)• Lothian and Borders Police• State and independent schools

Graduate students funded by ESRC CASE awards

• Ali Brown, in collaboration with the Scottish Executive: study of collective efficacy and crime in Edinburgh neighbourhoods

• Mark Penman, in collaboration with the Children’s Hearings: study of referral to Children’s Hearings, and effects of referral on subsequent criminal careers

Graduate students contd.

• Elizabeth Aston, in collaboration with Lothian and Borders Police: links between alcohol, drugs, and crime

Funding

• Core funding 1998-2002 was from ESRC• The Nuffield Foundation funded the

survey of parents (autumn 2001)• Core funding 2003-2005 is from the

Scottish Executive and the Nuffield Foundation

• The Scottish Executive funded the 2002 survey of Edinburgh residents

Informed consent

• Detailed letter of explanation to parents, with opportunity to withdraw at outset: 3.5% opted out

• Two newsletters to parents, with opportunity to withdraw from parents’ survey

• Absolute guarantee of confidentiality (qualification on child abuse)

Advisory Group

• Chair: Sir Michael Rutter FRS• Department of Education• Department of Social Work• Lothian and Borders Police• SCRA• Head Teachers’ Association• Edinburgh School Boards

Advisory Group contd.

• Independent Head Teachers• Director of Research and Statistics,

Home Office• Head of Children and Young

Person’s section, Scottish Executive• Voluntary sector (APEX Scotland)• Four academic specialists

Data sources (individual cohort members)

1. Young people’s questionnaires (annual to year 6)

2. Teacher’s assessments of behaviour (second year)

3. School records: attendance (annual), attainment, exams

4. Exclusion from school (annual)5. Personal interviews (years 2 & 6)

Data sources (individual cohort members) contd.

6. Social work files (annual)7. Children’s Hearing files (annual)8. Survey of parents (autumn 2001)9. Police juvenile liaison officers

(2002)10.SCRO (from age 18, 2004/5)

Social geography and neighbourhoods

• 1991 census data used to map Edinburgh’s social geography

• Edinburgh divided into 91 natural homogeneous neighbourhoods

• Police-recorded crime mapped onto these neighbourhoods

Social geography and neighbourhoods contd.

• Cohort members geo-coded• Neighbourhood dynamics

described (survey of residents, cohort members)

• Effect of neighbourhood composition and dynamics analysed

Examples of topics covered

1. Smoking, alcohol, drugs, early sex (retrospectively after age 16)

2. 18 kinds of delinquency e.g. shoplifting, theft from home, robbery, assault, carrying a weapon, fire-setting, harming animals

3. Spare time activities, hanging around4. Personality (impulsivity, risk-taking,

self-esteem, alienation)

More topics

5. Friends’ delinquency, who are your friends?

6. Parental monitoring, punishment, consistency

7. Family circumstances, income, structure

8. Depression, anxiety, self-harm

More topics

9. Bullying, being bullied, exclusion from school, truancy

10.Own and parents’ involvement with school

11.Referral to Children’s Hearings, for what reason, by whom

12.Experience as a victim of crime, bullying, adult harassment

Forward plan

• Annual data collection from all cohort members up to sweep 6 (2003/4)

• From sweep 6, response rates drop, costs rise

• Next fieldwork planned in 2005/6, then every three years

• Aim to cover a span of about 20 years (age 12 to 31)

Study website

• Address: www.law.ed.ac.uk/cls/esytc• Information at different levels, for cohort

members, parents, policy makers, academics

• Report of key findings on sweeps 1 and 2

• Information about methods and instruments

• Papers and presentations

Five reports to be published in April 2004

1. Parenting and delinquency at ages 12-15

2. Truancy, school exclusion and substance misuse

3. Gender and youth offending 4. The links between victimization and

offending 5. Relationship and inter-dependence

between use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs

Academic publications

1. Theory and method in the Edinburgh Study

2. Gender differences in adolescent development and violence

3. How different are girls? Testing the need for a gendered theory of youth offending*

4. The usual suspects? Street life, young people and the police*

Academic publications contd.

5. Parenting and crime in the neighbourhood context*

6. Victimization and offending: Two sides of the same coin?*

7. Youth, crime and social context [book]*

Newsletters

• Annually• Different newsletters for schools,

parents, social workers, and other groups if required

• Contain findings and news about progress of the study