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Risky and illicit behaviour. Steve Pudney Institute for Social and Economic Research Email: spudney@essex.ac.uk. The range of issues. Possibilities include: Crime & anti-social behaviour - victimisation Crime & anti-social behaviour – behaviour Truancy, school exclusion, etc.
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Risky and illicit behaviour Steve Pudney Institute for Social and Economic Research Email: spudney@essex.ac.uk
The range of issues Possibilities include: • Crime & anti-social behaviour - victimisation • Crime & anti-social behaviour – behaviour • Truancy, school exclusion, etc. • Smoking, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use • Diet and health impairment • Problem gambling • Unsafe sexual behaviour • Foundations of behaviour: attitudes to risk and intertemporal discounting; role of peer influences & other social interactions; self-image and attitudes to society • Experience/perceptions of the law enforcement system
Existing data sources • Repeated cross-sections: • Victimisation surveys, e.g. BCS • Health surveys, e.g. HSE • School surveys • Longitudinal surveys: • Cohort surveys: e.g. NCDS, BCS70, LSYPE, EYTCS • Household panels: e.g. OCJS • Limited coverage in BHPS • Specialised surveys: • Focused ‘outcome-based’ surveys, e.g. Arrestee Survey, drug treatment records • Medical surveys
Top-level issues • What are the most important research questions to be addressed, now and potentially in the future? • Which issues should receive priority within each area covered? • What is the case for covering these issues in the UKHLS rather than existing cross-section or longitudinal studies or small-scale special-purpose surveys? • Can these issues be covered without undue threat to UKHLS response or questionnaire length? • How important is continuity of measurement relative to the existing BHPS, and comparability with other UK national surveys? • To what extent is cross-national comparability an important consideration?
Definitional issues • Optimal data collection frequency? • e.g. sub-annual, annual, less frequent, occasional • Reference period? • e.g. actions in last month/year/ever • How much detail? • occurrence / frequency / quantity / expenditure • range of consequences • Which individuals? • restrict questioning to specific ‘high-risk’ subpopulations? • each adult? each child?
Data collection issues • Which methods of data collection are workable? • how to guarantee confidentiality in household survey context? • e.g. postal self-completion versus computer-based self-completion (CASI or A-CASI); • other non-traditional tools of data collection? • automatic checks for unreliable responses? • questions about worries over other family members’ behaviour? • Relative pay-offs to different levels of detail • e.g. exact amounts? grouped responses? unfolding bracket? • e.g. degree of disaggregation over types of risky behaviour