The report focuses on why offending declines among a substantial proportion of young people after age fourteen while continuing among others, and highlights factors connected with social inclusion, bonds with school and family, neighbourhood characteristics, experience of police contact, and level of prior offending. Conclusions are drawn about the factors that are most significant in explaining desistance from offending.

The aims of the research programme were: to investigate the factors leading to offending and desistance from offending; to examine the striking contrast between males and females in offending; and to develop new theories to explain offending behaviour and to contribute to practical policies targeting young people.

Longitudinal data was collected from a single age cohort of 4,328 young people covering the whole city. It was collected via self report questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, school, social work and children’s hearings records, teacher questionnaires, police juvenile liaison officer and Scottish criminal records, a parent survey, and a geographic information system.

The peak age for offending among both girls and boys in the Edinburgh study cohort was fourteen. There was no evidence that deprivation at the level of the individual family was associated with continuing to offend, however there was an association between continuing to offend and deprived neighbourhoods, with continued offending being more common in disorderly neighbourhoods. Bonds with teachers and parents and parents’ involvement at school were associated with desistance from offending. Young offenders who had been caught by the police were more likely to continue offending than those not caught.

Centre for Law and Society, University of Edinburgh
Phone: +44 131 650 2006
edinburgh.study@ed.ac.uk

01/06/2006

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David Smith

research

Urban Policy > Security & crime prevention > Anti-crime policy

Youth crime