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Why do children turn to crime? This is the question that University of Portsmouth student, Lucy Wainwright, will be trying to answer after winning a prestigious award to support her PhD research. The award, a CASE (Collaborative Awards in Science & Engineering) Studentship, is a joint research project between industry and academia. Lucy wrote the proposal together with her supervisor Dr Claire Nee and this is the first time anyone in the Department of Psychology has won this type of funding. It will be sponsored by the Economic Social and Research Council and the London based charity, Kids Company, which provides support for children and young adults with emotional, social and behavioural problems. The study, Understanding offending behaviour in children: the contribution of cognitive deficits and self identity in the development of criminality will allow Lucy to re-visit research conducted over 30 years ago to see whether the conclusions drawn still have relevance today. "There is very little research into offending behaviour in children. Although much of the work done in the 1970s has been adapted, it has never been challenged. We could be basing current rehabilitation programmes on assertions that are no longer valid - so a new study is crucial," said Lucy. Lucy will be focusing her research on 12 year old children as they have already developed skills such as awareness, perception and reasoning. Dr Nee, Director of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology, said: "Virtually no research is undertaken on the development of pre-teenage criminality. All the focus is on adolescents and older offenders despite the desperate need to understand the problem and intervene at a much earlier age. "It is exciting to link the university with the highly regarded Kids Company and I am absolutely delighted that all our preparation has achieved this success." |
