The ESRC Cambridge Network

For the study of the social contexts of pathways in crime

SCoPiC Conference a Success

The First Annual SCoPiC Conference 2004, Social Contexts of Pathways in Crime: Development, Context and Mechanisms was held in Cambridge from June 1-3. With conference speakers representing some of the world's leading criminologists and academics from interrelated disciplines, the conference attracted policy makers and practitioners as well as British and International academics, some from as far as Australia and the US. It is regrettable that, due to the volume of interest in the conference, we had to turn away so many delegates! Feedback from delegates suggests that there will be a similar volume of interest in next year's conference which will explore methodological issues in the social context of pathways in crime.

One aim of the conference was to begin to bridge the gap between individual and environmental approaches in the study of crime. The interdisciplinary nature of this conference, and of the SCoPiC research Network, was commented on by Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of ESRC in his opening speech. In both the conference and in the research conducted by the network this collaboration across and within disciplines, a collaboration that is also international in its nature,   allows for thoroughly informed, progressive research and theory development.

The opening paper informed, enriched and expanded the various debates provoked by each of the six full papers and the focused discussions of those papers. Professor Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at McGill University, delivered the opening paper. As a philosopher, Professor Bunge made a broad examination of social context in his paper The Systemic Approach to Social Facts. He sketched the systemic alternative to the traditional social philosophies, suggested a typology of crimes, and commented on some criminological hypotheses. This proved an excellent foundation for and challenge to the papers to come, encouraging perhaps a different perspective on and re-examination of the notion of social context.

Professor Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University, and Professor Per-Olof Wikström, University of Cambridge, delivered papers in the afternoon session. Professor Sampson focused on how social mechanisms, and Professor Wikström on how situational mechanisms, explain crime. Professor Sampson suggested that the two big questions about community are: What are, and how do we measure, the contextual effects on individual development? and How do we explain variation in crime across communities? Professor Wikström turned this around by picking up on the impact of development on individual propensity and examining how propensity and setting interact to produce specific action outcomes.

On the second day of the conference, Professors Le Blanc and Loeber gave papers which both sought to examine, albeit using very different approaches, risk/protective factors and their cumulative effect in developmental pathways. Professor Avshalom Caspi rounded out this discussion with his paper, Testing Causal Models in Developmental Criminology: Contributions from Genetically Sensitive Research Designs.

The format of the conference allowed for focused discussion of each paper by nominated discussants, and chaired discussions open to comments and questions from all delegates.

Professor John Laub delivered a thorough examination of the papers given on the second day and Professor Ken Pease, OBE chaired the closing discussion, which proved very lively.