Using secondary data analysis to learn about violence prevention

Introduction

This is our third call for secondary data analysis projects – projects that use existing datasets to address key research questions for policy and practice in relation to children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence. For details of the current data analysis projects click below.

This year we plan to focus our funding on studies that have a strong causal design; that is, projects that employ strategies that allow us to infer the causal impacts of policies, practices and interventions for, and drivers of, children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence.

For full details, please read our call for proposals.

Research questions

This year we’re looking to fund projects with two main focuses: 

1. The impact of policies, practices and interventions on children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence. 

2. The drivers and broader context of children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence. 

The specific research questions we’d like proposals to address, are: 

1. Impact of policies, practices and interventions 

• What impact do youth clubs have on children’s involvement in crime and violence?  Are there varying impacts by different types of settings and for different groups of children and young people? 
• What are the impacts of hot spots policing and stop and search on children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence, and, specifically for stop and search, its impact on mental health? 
• What are the impacts of media campaigns (including knife surrender schemes) on children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence?  
• What are the impacts of being identified as being at risk of child criminal exploitation (CCE) on children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence? 
• What is the impact of placing youth workers or ‘navigators’ in police custody so they can support children when they are arrested? 

2. Drivers and broader context 

• What is the age-crime curve for the current population in England and Wales? How does it vary by type, frequency and severity of offending, and background characteristics of those involved? What are the factors that explain when it peaks and for whom? 
• Where and when are children and young people most likely to be victims of violent crime, such as knife assault, and how does this relate to the timing of the school day and other locations young people congregate (e.g. youth clubs)? Where is violence perpetrated by children and young people most geographically concentrated, and what predicts where it happens? 
• To what extent are certain children more or less likely to be involved in specific types of offending? 
• What drives the disproportionality in offending outcomes, by granular ethnicity, with a particular focus on children and young people from Black Caribbean, Roma and Gypsy or Irish Traveller backgrounds? 
• What role do drug markets play in explaining children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence?  
• What role do real-world social networks play in explaining how and why children and young people become involved in crime and violence?  
• Which indicators (or combinations thereof) from locally held or other administrative data are the best predictors of children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence? 

In addition to the above list of questions, we’d consider funding any project proposals that have a credible strategy for assessing the causal impact of policies, practices or interventions on children and young people’s involvement in crime and violence, related to any of YEF’s seven sectors. 

For full details on the research questions and types of research we’d be interested in funding, please read the call for proposals. 

Race equity

At the YEF, we have a particular focus on race equity. This means we want to fund research that sheds light on the experiences of children and young people from Black, Asian and other minority backgrounds. We also want to ensure research is conducted in a way that accounts for potential sources of bias and that projects are able to fully account for the racialised context of their research and findings. Research teams should be aware of this as they put their proposals together and have plans in place to ensure race is fully accounted for in their work. 

Budgets 

We anticipate projects will last between 18 and 24 months to complete. We do not set an upper ceiling on the amount we fund per project. Previous projects have been awarded between £100,000-£180,000. Applicants will need to make the case for the budget and timelines they submit. All applications will need to include a completed budget template.

Submitting applications 

To apply, you’ll need to submit an online application. For details on the questions we ask and the scoring criteria we use, see our call for proposals. You’ll also need to submit a completed budget template. We will not accept applications or budget templates submitted via email. 

Questions

If you have any questions, please first read our FAQs. If you’re still unsure, please email Claryn Kung: claryn.kung@youthendowmentfund.org.uk, copying in data@youthendowmentfund.org.uk.