Data key to school exclusion and crime link research study
A project led by Dr Vickie Barrett is taking a data-driven approach to examine the links between school exclusion and criminal offending.
Dr Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the university’s Crime and Policing Research Centre, is working on a report in light of figures from 2023/24 that revealed that school exclusions are at their highest-ever level.
“There is a need for analysis of these figures, as there is concern over what the economic and social impact of long and short-term exclusions from school are,” says Dr Barrett.
It is already known that boys, pupils with special educational needs and children from specific ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in the numbers of pupils excluded from school. Previous research also linked school exclusions to being taken into care, living in poverty and affecting mental health.
Study Criminology at the University of Huddersfield
Exclusion rates vary from region to region, and there has been little assessment of how this may affect the numbers of those who go on to offend later. Dr Barrett was keen to draw on a large dataset to examine school related, offending, and regional factors in a study that has been funded by £166,000 by Administrative Data Research UK.
Dr Barrett is using data from the education and criminal justice systems to compare outcomes for the different paths excluded pupils have taken over time.
“Previous studies have related a range of negative future outcomes to excluded school children, such as mental health issues, unemployment and offending,” Dr Barrett adds. “However, such studies have used significantly smaller datasets and excluded school pupils are disproportionately represented in the adult prison population.”
Dr Barrett is assessing a dataset to trace the offending patterns of excluded school children who were born between 1 September 2000 and 1 September 2003 with at least one criminal record or caution until the end of 2021.
Dr Vickie Barrett
Senior Lecturer in Criminology
I’m exploring how temporary or permanent school exclusions, and how often they happen, might influence the paths young people take into offending.
Research aims to influence future policy and strategy
“I also want to understand if where a child lives impacts these trajectories, as well as whether there are differences in the severity and frequency of offending between those who stay in mainstream education after being permanently excluded, and those who move to Pupil Referral Units.
“I am consulting with children and young people to co-produce a piece of work to disseminate the findings in a meaningful way to them. I also plan to produce a short animation to easily share the findings with the public and practitioners.
“I hope the research will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between educational and offending outcomes, better informing strategies to prevent and mitigate negative outcomes for excluded children.”
Photo by Katja Anokhina on Unsplash