The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime

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The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime

• The Long View
• University of St Andrews
• 27 February 2004

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Research team
Lesley McAra David J. Smith Co-directors
Susan McVie Senior Research Fellow
Paul Bradshaw/ Lucy Holmes Research Fellow
Jackie Palmer Fieldwork and data manager
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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

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Aims contd.

1. To describe relationships between delinquency and
   other risk behaviours (drugs, smoking, sex)
2. To monitor effects of Childrens Hearings, social
   work, police contact
3. To monitor effects of other interventions?

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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

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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

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Participating organizations

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

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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 Childrens
  Hearings study of referral to Childrens
  Hearings, and effects of referral on subsequent
  criminal careers

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Graduate students contd.

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

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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

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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)

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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

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Advisory Group contd.

• Independent Head Teachers
• Director of Research and Statistics, Home Office
• Head of Children and Young Persons section,
  Scottish Executive
• Voluntary sector (APEX Scotland)
• Four academic specialists

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Data sources (individual cohort members)

1. Young peoples questionnaires (annual to year 6)
2. Teachers assessments of behaviour (second year)
3. School records attendance (annual), attainment,
   exams
4. Exclusion from school (annual)
5. Personal interviews (years 2 6)

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Data sources (individual cohort members) contd.

1. Social work files (annual)
2. Childrens Hearing files (annual)
3. Survey of parents (autumn 2001)
4. Police juvenile liaison officers (2002)
5. SCRO (from age 18, 2004/5)

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Social geography and neighbourhoods

• 1991 census data used to map Edinburghs social
  geography
• Edinburgh divided into 91 natural homogeneous
  neighbourhoods
• Police-recorded crime mapped onto these
  neighbourhoods

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Social geography and neighbourhoods contd.

• Cohort members geo-coded
• Neighbourhood dynamics described (survey of
  residents, cohort members)
• Effect of neighbourhood composition and dynamics
  analysed

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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 around
4. Personality (impulsivity, risk-taking,
   self-esteem, alienation)

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More topics

1. Friends delinquency, who are your friends?
2. Parental monitoring, punishment, consistency
3. Family circumstances, income, structure
4. Depression, anxiety, self-harm

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More topics

• Bullying, being bullied, exclusion from school,
  truancy
• Own and parents involvement with school
• Referral to Childrens Hearings, for what reason,
  by whom
• Experience as a victim of crime, bullying, adult
  harassment

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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Academic publications contd.

1. Parenting and crime in the neighbourhood context
2. Victimization and offending Two sides of the
   same coin?
3. Youth, crime and social context book

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Newsletters

• Annually
• Different newsletters for schools, parents,
  social workers, and other groups if required
• Contain findings and news about progress of the
  study