About this study
The Offending Crime & Justice study, published June 2009, examined offences, anti-social behaviour and drug use among young people. It was a longitudinal survey in four annual waves (2003 to 2006) with people aged 10 to 25 in England and Wales. The interviews also collected information on risk factors in the lives of sample members.
You can read the key findings here - the study found that young people commit a high proportion of criminal offences (although some, while against the law, are not serious and may not have been reported to the police).
Potential policy impact
The survey shows that the onset of offending and anti-social behaviour occurs several years before the age at which the rate of offending peaks.
Measures to reduce offending by young people need to engage with boys and girls when they are aged twelve or younger.
Method
In 2003, a large representative sample of people aged 10 to 65 was selected in households. Focused enumeration was used to boost the number of young people in the sample.
The people aged 10 to 25 were re-interviewed in 2004 and the sample was refreshed by screening additional addresses. The same process was repeated in 2005 and 2006.
Those re-interviewed had agreed to be re-contacted during the previous interview. Over 95% of those interviewed said they would be happy to be re-contacted a year later. Of the 5,000 interviewed in 2006, just over half had taken part in all four waves of the survey.
Following the four waves (2003-2006), the longitutidal analyses were published in 2009.
About the interviews
Each year’s interview lasted about an hour. The interviewer administered half of this. For the other half, respondents entered their answers directly on the computer.
For the details of offences, questions were read out to the respondent, who used head-phones to listen. These measures were intended to ensure the information was accurate.
Commissioning and conducting the research
NatCen conducted the work jointly with BMRB Social Research. The study was commissioned by the Home Office, as part of a series of criminality surveys that were designed to increase knowledge of crime from the perspective of offenders.
The purpose of the OCJS
The main objectives included:
- Accurate measure of the prevalence of offending and the number of offences committed by respondents aged 10 to 25 in the household population,
- Improving on previous estimates of drug misuse
- Exploring the links between offending and drug use,
- Exploring the links between offending and victimisation
- Information about those offenders who come into contact with the police and other agencies of the criminal justice system
- The explore young peoples’ knowledge and attitudes to the criminal justice system,
- To identify risk factors associated with offending and drug use
- To investigate motivations for offending, choice of targets, etc.
- To develop indicators of co-offending.