The Centre for Analytic Criminology (CAC) has been awarded a grant by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to begin Phase 3 of the Peterborough Adolescent to Adult Development Study (PADS+).
The CAC promotes theory-guided empirical research into the causes of crime to build a strong foundation for effective crime policy and practice. It was founded by Emeritus Professor Per-Olof Wikström and co-directed by Phase 3 Project Leader Associate Professor Kyle Treiber. Its main research activities involve the development of Situational Action Theory (SAT), which explains crimes as acts of rule-breaking, and its implementation in PADS+.
SAT emphasises the importance of interactions between people and places in action and development. To study this interaction, PADS+ has pioneered new methods to collect relevant data on people and places and their convergence. These methods will be further developed and applied in Phase 3.
Of particular importance is the study’s original space-time budget method that maps participants’ movements, activities and social interactions across space and time. This method allows PADS+ to link data on participants with data on places, to analyse the actions or developmental outcomes of their interaction. Participant data is gathered through questionnaires, event calendars, cognitive tasks, and official records, while place data comes from community surveys, the UK Census, and official area-level data. This data and its analysis allow PADS+ to develop a rich understanding of participants and their lives, including criminal behaviour and its key causes.
These innovative methods have helped PADS+ study the development of over 700 participants growing up in Peterborough since 2002. Phase 1 followed participants through adolescence (ages 12-17) when crime involvement is typically at its highest, exploring their changing relationships with their schools, their peers, and their parents. Phase 2 followed them into young adulthood (ages 18-24), a period in which patterns of crime diverge, with many participants desisting and only a few persisting as they began to establish adult relationships, became parents, and entered the job market. Phase 3 will follow them into adulthood (age 35), a period in which less is known about patterns and drivers of crime. Phase 3 will explore how their family, work, community and peer relationships continue to shape their lives and activities.
PADS+ Phase 3 will study whether the nature and patterns of crime change in adulthood. The focus will be on topics such as domestic violence and crime in the workplace which have unique relevance to adulthood. It will examine if the causes of crime in adulthood are the same as those identified at earlier ages: people’s crime propensities, determined by their personal morality and ability to exercise self-control, and their exposure to criminogenic settings, determined by places’ moral norms and ability to enforce them.
PADS+ has demonstrated the importance of social relationshipsfor the development of people’s crime propensities and criminogenic exposure. Phase 3 will investigate howkey social relationships (to family, peers, work, and community) evolve from adolescence into adulthood and affect their crime involvement.
PADS+ Phase 3 will also continue to develop resources for researchers to apply PADS+ methods and test SAT. This will include guidance on the analytic approach and utilizing theory in empirical research, materials for designing and conducting research to study crime situationally and developmentally, and protocols and syntax for analysing situational and longitudinal data.
PADS+ Phase 3 will also contribute to crime policy and practice by developing constructive and accessible resources for practitioners to support crime prevention efforts within key social institutions (e.g., families, schools, workplaces) to promote the development of prosocial attitudes, prosocial relationships, and prosocial institutions.
The PADS+ Phase 3 research team assembles the four lead researchers responsible for PADS+ across Phases 1 and 2. This includes CAC and PADS+ Co-Directors Associate Professor Kyle Treiber and Emeritus Professor Per-Olof Wikström. Treiber is Project Leader for PADS+ Phase 3 and has 20 years of experience in complex, multilevel longitudinal research. Wikström, who developed SAT, designed PADS+ and was Principal Investigator across Phases 1 and 2, is Lead Project Advisor for Phase 3. He offers a wealth of experience in research and practice, for which he has received many awards and accolades, including a Fellowship with the British Academy, the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the Beccaria Medal and recently the ESC European Criminology Award.
Treiber and Wikström will be joined by Senior Researchers Dr Beth Hardie and Dr Gabriela Roman. Dr Hardie has more than 15 years of experience working with PADS+ as research and data manager during Phases 1 and 2 and has particular expertise in research methodology and analysing interactions. Dr Roman has more than 10 years of experience working with PADS+ data and has developed innovative analytical methods to capitalize on its complex, multilevel, interactive and longitudinal aspects.
During PADS+ Phases 1 and 2 the proposed research team produced new knowledge about the interactive role of people and places and how to study them. This knowledge created a new understanding of what drives crime hotspots and criminal careers. These findings are presented in two books, Breaking Rules: Situational Dynamics of Young People’s Crime (Wikström et al. 2012) and Character, Circumstances and Criminal Careers: Towards a Dynamic Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (Wikström et al. 2024) published in Oxford University Press’s series Clarendon Studies in Criminology. The research team is well situated to build upon this contribution in Phase 3 by expanding knowledge about how adult social lives contribute to crime hotspots and the culmination of criminal careers.
PADS+ Phase 3 is an exciting new chapter in this on-going body of research. It will continue to maintain the CAC as a hub for theory-guided empirical research in developmental and life-course criminology. PADS+ methods are already being replicated, and SAT is being tested, in research sites around the world. Phase 3 will further contribute to the scope and global impact of the CAC’s work to advance our understanding of and ability to prevent crime.