This project explores the relationship between education and civic values and behaviour among adults and teenagers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries. Education, social attitudes and social participation among adults in Britain A stable finding of research on civic participation is the correlation between overall educational attainment and various attributes that are relevant to democracy, such as propensity to
» Read moreThis AQMeN impact case study draws on research from the Education and Social Stratification programme and highlights the impact of evidence around social inequalities in higher education and the labour market. Findings from this research have influenced the recommendations by the Scottish Government Commission on Widening Access, specifically around the role of school subject choice for reproducing inequalities. Read the
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This project conducted research on the impact of widely accessed social media discussion threads about people’s sentiments and opinions on Scottish independence and devolution, political leaders and their parties. The project was particularly focused on uncovering who is affected, and when and how they are affected. It also explored changes over time as the debate was building ahead of the
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Researchers: Dr Kath Murray Professor Susan McVie During the course of our research on crime and victimisation, the eight Scottish police forces were merged into one single force in April 2013. During its early phase, Police Scotland faced significant criticism over its use of stop and search which was found to be significantly higher than other comparative jurisdictions. During a
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Key points: There is perhaps an assumption among the general public that offenders tend to escalate in seriousness as they develop in their criminal career. Few criminologists, however, have attempted to understand how seriousness of offending increases, remains stable or decreases over the criminal life-course. Using the Offenders Index data for England and Wales, Francis and Liu compared different methods
» Read morePart of the new AQMeN impact case study series, this document highlights the impact of the research undertaken by Dr Kath Murray and Professor Susan McVie around high rates of stop and search in Scotland. The research took place in 2014 with the findings having a transformative impact on policing in Scotland, including the introduction of a new Code of
» Read moreThis AQMeN impact case study draws on research from the Crime and Victimisation programme and highlights the impact of the research findings which have influenced crime reduction strategies through the Scottish Government ‘Building Safer Communities’ Board. Professor Susan McVie has been a member of the Board since inception in 2013 and has used evidence from the AQMeN research to inform
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Dramatic drops in crime have been observed across many countries worldwide, but research has until very recently focused mostly on the US (see, for example, Lafree 1999; Levitt 2004; Blumstein & Wallman 2006). There has been little international comparative research (exceptions include Tseloni et al. 2010, Farrell et al. 2010), no comparison of the UK jurisdictions, and no research at
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