Socio-Emotional Characteristics in Early Childhood and Offending Behaviour in Adolescence

幼儿期的社会情感特征和青春期的犯罪行为

• 批准号: ES/Z502601/1
• 负责人: Paul Garcia Hinojosa
• 金额: $ 15.18万
• 依托单位: University of Essex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FZ502601%2F1
• 关键词: Socio; Emotional; Characteristics; Early; Childhood

Approximately 80 percent of persistent offenders have their first interaction with the criminal justice system before reaching adulthood and the annual cost of late intervention is approximately £17 billion (MoJ, May 2022). Understanding the underlying mechanisms that place children at risk of becoming future offenders is a policy priority due to the high social and economic costs associated with crime. Existing literature shows that young offenders often exhibit poor socio-emotional development in early childhood (Murray et al. 2010, Moffitt 2018), are more likely to face school-related difficulties (e.g. absenteeism, exclusions) and attend schools located in economically disadvantaged areas (DfE, July 2023). Beyond studies using community samples and birth cohorts, little is known about how poor socio-emotional development affects adolescent offending behaviour and the pathways through which this can be mediated or moderated. It also remains unclear how early socio-emotional difficulties interact with specific characteristics of schools and local areas, and how this interaction may result in children's future involvement in crime.This study will use the MoJ-DfE linked data which provides unique information on socio-emotional scales of children at the end of the school reception year from the Early Year Stage Foundation Profile (ESYFP) and administrative criminal records from the Police National Computer (PNC). Using this data, I will provide a detailed breakdown of childhood socio-emotional development and explore the pathways through which this affects adolescent offending behaviour. The study will then extend to a multi-level model to examine how specific characteristics of schools and Local Authorities (LAs) interact with children's socio-emotional development to shape criminal justice outcomes. The aims and objectives of the proposed project are aligned with the research priorities stated in MoJ-DfE (2023) and are summarized as follows:Research Aim 1: To assess the relationship between childhood socio-emotional development and the probability of being cautioned or sentenced for an offence in adolescence.To construct a socio-emotional profile for each child at the year of school reception.To identify characteristics of early socio-emotional development in adolescents who have received cautions or sentences for serious violent crimes early on in their lives.Research Aim 2: To determine potential mediators through which early socio-emotional difficulties shape offending behaviour in adolescence.To quantify the impact of poor socio-emotional development on adverse educational outcomes (school-related difficulties and poor attainment).To measure the mediating effect of adverse educational outcomes on the association between early socio-emotional difficulties and adolescent offending behaviour.Research Aim 3: To evaluate how heterogeneity in schools and LAs interact with early socio-emotional development to shape offending behaviour in adolescence.To document differences across schools (e.g. average Key Stage score, governance structure, etc.) and LAs (e.g. youth crime rates, per capita expenditure on children services, etc.) and their influence on adolescent offending behaviour.To identify specific characteristics of schools and LAs that may lead children with poor socio-emotional development to engage in offending behaviour in adolescence.It is crucial to identify early socio-emotional characteristics of children and other contextual factors, that could place them at increased risk of engaging in criminal activities as they transition into adolescence. Assessing these characteristics and the pathways through which these affect later-life outcomes can facilitate the development of early interventions and strategies to prevent children from becoming offenders later in life.

大约80%的惯犯在成年前首次接触刑事司法系统，后期干预的年度成本约为170亿英镑（司法部，2022年5月）。由于与犯罪相关的高社会和经济成本，了解使儿童有可能成为未来罪犯的潜在机制是一项政策重点。现有文献表明，青少年罪犯在儿童早期往往表现出较差的社会情感发展（Murray et al. 2010, Moffitt 2018），更有可能面临与学校相关的困难（例如旷工、被排斥），并且就读于位于经济不利地区的学校（DfE， 2023年7月）。除了使用社区样本和出生队列的研究之外，人们对不良的社会情感发展如何影响青少年的犯罪行为以及如何调节或缓和这种行为的途径知之甚少。目前还不清楚早期的社会情感障碍是如何与学校和当地的特定特征相互作用的，以及这种相互作用如何导致儿童未来参与犯罪。本研究将使用MoJ-DfE相关数据，该数据提供了来自早期阶段基础概况（ESYFP）和来自警察国家计算机（PNC）的行政犯罪记录的儿童在学校接收年度结束时的社会情感量表的独特信息。利用这些数据，我将提供儿童社会情感发展的详细分析，并探索其影响青少年犯罪行为的途径。然后，该研究将扩展到一个多层次模型，以检查学校和地方当局（LAs）的具体特征如何与儿童的社会情感发展相互作用，从而形成刑事司法结果。拟议项目的目的和目标与MoJ-DfE（2023）中规定的研究重点一致，并总结如下：研究目标1：评估儿童社会情感发展与青少年因犯罪而受到警告或判刑的可能性之间的关系。在学校招待会上为每个孩子建立一个社会情感档案。为了确定青少年早期社会情感发展的特征，这些青少年在他们生命的早期因严重的暴力犯罪而受到警告或判刑。研究目标2：确定早期社会情感困难影响青少年犯罪行为的潜在中介。量化不良的社会情感发展对不良教育结果（与学校有关的困难和成绩差）的影响。衡量不良教育结果在早期社会情绪困难与青少年犯罪行为之间的中介作用。研究目标3：评估学校和LAs的异质性如何与早期社会情感发展相互作用，形成青少年的犯罪行为。记录不同学校（例如关键阶段的平均得分、管治结构等）和学区（例如青少年犯罪率、儿童服务的人均支出等）之间的差异及其对青少年犯罪行为的影响。找出可能导致社会情感发展不佳的儿童在青春期从事冒犯行为的学校和学校的具体特征。确定儿童的早期社会情感特征和其他环境因素至关重要，这些因素可能会使他们在进入青春期后参与犯罪活动的风险增加。评估这些特征以及这些特征影响以后生活结果的途径，有助于制定早期干预措施和战略，防止儿童在以后的生活中成为罪犯。