HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome
to SCoPiC's Highlights page. Here you'll
find a brief introduction to the Network's key activities with links to pages which provide further detail.
The SCoPiC Network has made a number of significant achievements during its five year tenure.
The SCoPiC Network’s most significant research highlights are:
The SCoPiC Network’s most significant communication highlights are:
Project specific highlights include:
>> Research Highlights >>
>> Sponsoring new multidisciplinary research into the causes of crime
The SCoPiC Network has supported the design and development of two major multidisciplinary studies in the UK (PADS and SPooCS) and supplemented the design of a third major UK study (the E-Risk Study), which together have gathered data on individuals and environments, including sociological, biological, genetic, psychology, psychiatric, behavioural, criminological, neuropsychological, ecometric and geographic variables. As a group these studies provide a uniquely comprehensive perspective of young people in the UK and their crime involvement from early childhood to adulthood.
The Network has also supported international multidisciplinary research, forging research collaborations with leading longitudinal studies in the US, Canada and Europe. These collaborations have not only advanced multidisciplinary research, they have also helped to increase interest in and awareness of such research and helped disseminate important new ideas in behavioural research.
The first book in the series Pathways in Crime has been published by Cambridge University Press. The Explanation of Crime provides an excellent understanding of the work of the SCoPiC project so far and builds on the Annual Conference in 2004, chaired by Professors Wikström and Sampson.
The book is based on collaborative work across the network, and includes papers from various SCoPiC members around the world.
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>> Linking neighbourhood characteristics to the development of early antisocial behaviour
The SCoPiC Network organized the addition of an in-depth neighbourhood survey to the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (E-Risk). This created a key opportunity to link detailed ecometric data on community factors with comprehensive individual-level data and data on early antisocial behaviour. Subsequently, the E-Risk Study has shown that neighbourhood factors play an influential role in the development of early antisocial behaviour. This has important implications for understanding the roots of criminal behaviour and designing effective early prevention programmes.
Another SCoPiC study, the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), continues to investigate the continuity of neighbourhood factors and their influence on patterns of behaviour as individuals advance through adolescence into adulthood, exploring how change and stability in individual and environmental factors influence change and stability in offending. This has already advanced out understanding of how patterns of offending develop and how patterns established during childhood may influence behaviour later in life.
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>>Developing a testable Situational Action Theory of crime, designing and implementing effective methodologies, and analyzing individual x environment interactions
The Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+) may be considered one of the Network’s most significant research highlights. This study is unique in its theory-driven approach to the exploration and explanation of young people’s offending. PADS+ has been designed to test an innovative Situational Action Theory which is grounded in multidisciplinary knowledge. PADS+ methodologies rely on innovative techniques to ensure the breadth and quality of PADS+ data, which can be used to study both individual and environmental influences on offending, as well as their interaction. PADS+ therefore has the potential to advance the study of crime involvement by drawing upon knowledge from two important but often separate areas of criminological research.
Visit the PADS+ website for more information!
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>> Successfully gathering data on early desistance from a notoriously difficult population
The Sheffield Pathways out of Crime Study (SPooCS) has undertaken unique research in a particularly difficult sample of persistent young offenders. SPooCS has been particularly successful in acquiring unique access to Police National Computer (PNC) data and in maintaining participation across four intense data sweeps. Their efforts have gathered data which provides a unique perspective on early features of the desistance process, including intentionality and agency. Their data may help inform re-entry support programmes which may reduce recidivism rates.
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>> Strengthening links between UK, European and North American research
The Network has forged successful communicative and collaborative links with contemporary longitudinal research being undertaken around the world. This has advanced international criminology throughout the past five years and created a basis for knowledge exchange which will continue to benefit the discipline well into the future. The Network has been remarkably successful in gaining and maintaining interest from American criminologists in particular, a group which often overlooks theory development and research taking place across the Atlantic. These ties will be maintained beyond the Network’s tenure and will continue to benefit ongoing SCoPiC, and other, research.
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>> Communication Highlights >>
>> Hosting four major international conferences around four different research themes
The SCoPiC Network’s main dissemination activity was to host four annual conferences, each based on one of four research themes: theory, methodology, research findings, and translating findings into policy and practice (in conjunction with the Home Office). Each conference was fully attended and welcomed leading researchers from a number of different disciplines and countries as speakers and delegates, and was well received by academics, policy makers and practitioners alike. These conferences not only facilitated the presentation of specific aspects of SCoPiC research, they also served as a forum for discussion of how that research could benefit all spheres of criminologic influence.
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>> Disseminating SCoPiC theory and research at conferences around the world
SCoPiC researchers have been exceedingly active in communicating their theory and research developments at international conferences. This has raised interest and awareness of SCoPiC research and encouraged visiting researchers and collaborative and comparative publications and even studies. This active dialogue with leading researchers outside the SCoPiC Network has highlighted the unique contribution of SCoPiC research and its benefit to criminological thinking within and beyond the Network.
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>> Project Specific Highlights >>
>> Bringing together leading researchers in ecometric and biometric criminology
The E-Risk Study represents a cutting edge criminological study which is linked to behavioural genetics research which is still very innovative to criminology. The SCoPiC Network has not only added a detailed environmental dimension to this important individual-level research, it has also fostered collaboration between leading UK behavioural genetics researchers at King’s College London, and leading US researchers responsible for the development of ecometrics. Bringing these two dynamic fields together in the analysis of E-Risk Study data represents a unique advancement in uniquely detailed and interactive criminological research.
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>> Hosting an all-day conference for practitioners
PADS+ recently hosted an all-day conference for policy makers and practitioners working in youth services and/or the city of Peterborough where the study takes place. This conference saw the dissemination of research findings and the presentation of potential methods for translating those finds into policy and practice which may benefit young people and Peterborough and around the UK. The conference was very well received and has strengthened communication between the study and local political and practical bodies.
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>> Forging links with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to translate findings on desistance into practice
SPooCS has also forged successful ties with policy makers and has presented their findings to the Natioanl Offender Management Service (NOMS), the Cabinet office, local probation services and the Sheffield Crime and Disorder Partnership. These links will be critical in translating SPooCS research findings into effective advice for policy makers and practitioners which may in the future improve services for young persistent offenders and influence their high rates of recidivism.
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