The impact of childhood adversity on violent crime in adolescence and early adulthood

童年逆境对青春期和成年早期暴力犯罪的影响

基本信息

批准号：
ES/T014393/1
负责人：
Rosaleen Peggy Cornish
金额：
$ 30.36万
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2021 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT014393%2F1
关键词：
impact childhood adversity violent crime

项目摘要

Even though rates of overall crime have gone down in the UK over the last two decades, levels of serious violence in the past four years indicate a reversal of this trend. As a result, tackling serious violence has become a UK Government priority. One of the main ways to prevent youth involvement in violence is to identify and limit its early causes.It is well-known that individuals who have had traumatic or stressful experiences during childhood (referred to as adverse childhood experiences or childhood adversity) - such as being a victim of child abuse or having a parent who suffers from a mental illness - are more likely to engage in violence during adolescence and early adulthood. However, it is not clear which adverse experiences contribute most to violence nor whether they have a greater or lesser impact if experienced at different ages. The aim of our project is to answer these questions.We will address several research questions about the relationship between childhood adversity and serious violence during adolescence and early adulthood. We will consider a wide range of adversities including (but not restricted to) abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual), bullying, bereavement, and parental substance abuse, mental illness, and criminality. The choice of adversities to include in our analyses will be informed in part by the Ambassadors for Vulnerable Children and Young People on our steering group (these are young people who have experience of adversity in childhood, and who are employed by local authorities as ambassadors). We will identify whether any of these adversities have a particularly large impact on the risk of being involved in violent crime as a teenager or a young adult. Another goal is to determine whether there are critical periods during childhood where exposure to adversity - either in general or to one or more specific adversities - puts a child at particularly high risk. We also plan to investigate what role school attainment and attendance, mental health, and risk-taking behaviours (such as taking drugs) play in the relationship between childhood adversity and violence.To fulfil the goals of our project, we will use data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a world-leading data resource that has recorded extremely detailed information on the health, development and family circumstances of approximately 14,500 families living in the Bristol area since the early 1990s. Data collection started during pregnancy and has continued year on year ever since. The richness of this data resource makes it possible to answer questions that previous studies have been unable to address. We will link ALSPAC to data provided by Avon and Somerset police to generate the richest data set on violence and childhood adversity ever created in the UK, further enhancing this unique resource and enabling other researchers to investigate the causes and consequences of offending in new ways.Our findings will shed light on how and when we can best intervene with children (or families) at risk of violence. Addressing these key questions has the potential to help reduce rates of violent crime and to provide a better understanding of how childhood experience contributes to violence that will benefit perpetrators and their families, victims, practitioners, policy makers and the general public.

尽管在过去的二十年中，英国的总体犯罪率降低了，但在过去四年中的严重暴力水平表明这种趋势逆转。结果，解决严重的暴力事件已成为英国政府的优先事项。防止青年参与暴力的主要方法之一是识别和限制其早期原因。众所周知，在童年期间经历过创伤或压力的人（被称为童年的不良经历或童年的逆境），例如成为儿童虐待的受害者或患有父母的受害者，患有精神疾病的父母可能会从事ap妇和早期疾病的暴力。但是，目前尚不清楚哪些不良经历对暴力造成了最大的贡献，或者如果在不同年龄的情况下，它们是否会产生或多或少的影响。我们项目的目的是回答这些问题。我们将解决有关童年逆境与青春期和成年初期严重暴力之间关系的几个研究问题。我们将考虑各种各样的逆境，包括（但不限于）虐待（情感，身体和性），欺凌，丧亲以及父母的药物滥用，精神疾病和犯罪。在我们的分析中选择要包括的逆境将由我们的指导小组中脆弱儿童和年轻人的大使（这些是在童年时期有逆境经验，并被地方当局雇用为大使的年轻人）。我们将确定这些逆境中的任何一个是否对少年或年轻人涉及暴力犯罪的风险有特别重大的影响。另一个目标是确定在儿童时期是否存在关键时期，无论是一般还是一个或多个特定的逆境，都会使儿童处于特别高的风险中。 We also plan to investigate what role school attainment and attendance, mental health, and risk-taking behaviours (such as taking drugs) play in the relationship between childhood adversity and violence.To fulfil the goals of our project, we will use data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a world-leading data resource that has recorded extremely detailed information on the health, development and family circumstances of approximately 14,500 families living in the Bristol area since the 1990年代初。数据收集在怀孕期间开始，从那以后一直持续。该数据资源的丰富性使得可以回答以前研究无法解决的问题。我们将将ALSPAC与Avon和Somerset警察提供的数据联系起来，以产生有关在英国创造的暴力和童年逆境的最丰富数据，进一步增强了这一独特的资源，并使其他研究人员能够以新的方式调查犯罪的原因和后果。我们的发现将揭示我们如何和何时以暴力风险与儿童进行干预（或何时与暴力风险进行干预）。解决这些关键问题有可能帮助降低暴力犯罪率，并更好地了解童年经历如何促进暴力行为，这将使肇事者及其家人，受害者，从业者，政策制定者和公众有益。