What Worked? Policy Mobility and the Public Health Approach to Youth Violence

这项研究旨在通过建立一个新的证据基础，以公共卫生的方法减少暴力，以及这些政策在司法管辖区之间转移的方式，来推动ESRC的战略目标，即“更安全、更公平的社会”，以制定政策，指导最佳做法，并为学术和公共辩论提供信息。这项研究回应了日益增长的青少年暴力这一紧迫的社会问题。英格兰和威尔士的凶杀案、持刀犯罪和因刺伤入院治疗的人数显著增加，尤其集中在伦敦市。大都会警察局局长克雷西达·迪克表示，解决青少年暴力问题是她的首要任务。2019年3月，英国首相特蕾莎·梅公布了一项针对青少年暴力的新公共卫生战略的咨询。这一办法力求用预防和教育原则而不是警务和司法原则来解决暴力问题，这标志着政策的重大转变。开发这种方法的兴趣主要来自苏格兰，在过去十年里，苏格兰暴力犯罪的急剧减少归功于公共卫生模式的采用。然而，在苏格兰的背景下，对于什么是有效的，缺乏明确的理解。虽然青年暴力确实有了明显的下降，但推动这一下降的机制却鲜为人知。对于公共卫生方法是什么，它们是如何运作的，以及这些想法可以在什么条件下传播，人们感到困惑。因此，尽管潜力巨大，但公共卫生方法的影响仍然含糊不清。这项研究将在三年内分三个工作流程进行：1.工作内容通过对精英演员--高级警察、政客和公务员--的30次半结构化采访，我们将对苏格兰减少暴力的原因进行专家评估。此外，还将进行详细的文件分析，调查减少暴力发生的社会、政治和文化条件，并对受暴力影响的社区的从业者和居民进行一系列20次半结构化访谈，以建立自下而上的变化描述。最后，将利用现有的关于暴力和健康的统计数据来进行三角解释。这些数据来源将结合在一起，制作一份政策简报、两篇期刊文章和一部主题为“什么管用”的短片。政策旅行使用灵活和响应性的人种学方法，我们将实时跟踪伦敦公共卫生方法的演变，通过出席关键会议和活动进入政策的“假设世界”。此外，还将对在伦敦从事减少暴力活动的精英行为者进行30次半结构化访谈，并对当地居民和青年从业者进行20次半结构化访谈，探讨促进或阻碍变革的因素。与苏格兰的数据收集类似，相关的统计数据将用于评估政策变化对减少暴力的影响程度。这些数据将被用来制作第二次政策简报、两篇期刊文章和一系列关于思想如何传播的播客。3.来自这些工作流的连接社区数据将通过开放获取的数据集连接起来，以加强对减少暴力最佳做法的了解。将对数据进行分析，并以学术专著的形式出版，对象是犯罪学、公共卫生和社会政策领域的学者。通过我们的咨询小组和与政策用户组的接触，我们将直接与最高级别的政策行为者接触，并使用合作方法将创建一个实践者工具包。政策、实践和公众社区将通过一个网站、一系列活动和路演联系起来。

The study seeks to further the ESRC's strategic objective of a 'safer, fairer society' through establishing a new evidence-base on public health approaches to violence reduction, and the ways such policies transfer between jurisdictions, to shape policy, guide best practice, and inform academic and public debate.The study responds to the urgent social problem of rising youth violence. England and Wales have seen marked increases in homicide, knife crime, and hospital admissions for stab-wounds, with particular concentrations in the city of London. Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has stated that tackling youth violence is her 'number one priority.' In March 2019, UK Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled a consultation on a new public health strategy for youth violence. This approach, which seeks to address violence using principles of prevention and education rather than policing and justice, marks a major step-change in policy. The interest in developing this approach stems primarily from Scotland, where radical reductions in violent crime over the last decade have been attributed to the adoption of a public health model. There is however a lack of clear understanding of 'what worked' in the Scottish context. While there have indeed been marked declines in youth violence, the mechanisms that have driven this decrease are poorly understood. There is confusion over what public health approaches are, how they work, and the conditions under which such ideas can travel. As a result, despite significant potential, the implications of the public health approach remain vague. The study will be delivered in three work-streams over a three year period:1. What WorkedThrough thirty semi-structured interviews with elite actors - senior police, politicians, and civil servants - we will establish an expert appraisal of the causes of violence reduction in Scotland. This will be complemented by a detailed documentary analysis, investigating the social, political, and cultural conditions in which violence reduction occurred, and a series of twenty semi-structured interviews with practitioners and residents of communities affected by violence to establish a bottom-up account of change. Finally, available statistical data on violence and health will be leveraged to triangulate explanations. These data-sources will be combined to produce a policy briefing, two journal articles, and a short film on the theme of 'what worked'.2. Policy Travels Using flexible and responsive ethnographic methods, we will track the evolution of the public health approach in London as it evolves in real time, entering the 'assumptive worlds' of policy through attendance at key meetings and events. Observations will be complemented by a series of thirty semi-structured interviews with elite actors engaged in violence reduction in London, and twenty semi-structured interviews with local residents and youth practitioners, exploring the factors that promote or impede change. Mirroring data-collection in Scotland, relevant statistical data will be used to evaluate the extent to which policy changes are impacting on violence reduction. These data will be used to produce a second policy briefing, two journal articles, and a series of podcasts on 'how ideas travel'. 3. Connecting Communities Data from these work-streams will be connected via an open access data-set to enhance understanding of best practice in violence reduction. Data will be analysed and published as an academic monograph aimed at scholars working in the areas of criminology, public health and social policy. Through our advisory group and engagement with policy user-groups, we will engage directly with policy actors at the highest level, and using cooperative methods will create a practitioner toolkit. Communities of policy, practice and public will be connected through a website, a series of events and a roadshow.