At the Youth Endowment Fund, all of our funding is done to build a better understanding of what works to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence.
As well as funding projects and evaluations, we also invest in other types of high-quality research about violence, its causes and its consequences.
Below you can find a list of our commissioned research projects, along with their expected publication dates*.
Causes and Contexts
Evidence review on poverty and youth violence
To understand how poverty impacts upon youth violence, we’ve commissioned a six-month programme of research consisting of two work packages. The first will systematically review the literature to synthesise evidence for how poverty relates to youth violence, and when and for whom poverty is relevant to engaging in violence. The second will apply the same systematic review methodology to scope interventions that aim to reduce poverty and impact upon youth violence, including a quality assessment of the evidence.
- Research organisation: UCL
- Planned publication date: 2024
Secondary data analysis projects
We are funding a series of original research projects, seeking to answer important questions about the drivers of violence and the effectiveness of policies and approaches, through analysing existing datasets.
These datasets may include administrative data, such as the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database or the Police National Computer, or data from longitudinal studies such as the Millenium Cohort Study.
Each research project aims to generate new insights from existing evidence, which can be used to effect meaningful change. Through our first round, we’re funding four projects.
An examination of the association between school absence and exclusion and violence crime
This project is using longitudinal data to explore whether being absent or excluded from school predicts violent behaviour, taking into account rich information about children’s background, family and childhood circumstances.
- Research organisations: University of Bristol and University of Hull
- Planned publication date: Autumn 2024
School exclusions, alternative provision and crime in England
This project is exploring how the structure of alternative provision for excluded children has changed over the last decade, and whether these structural changes have led to an increase in both school exclusions and violent offending.
- Research organisation: London School of Economics
- Planned publication date: 2025
Examining adverse and positive childhood experiences and neighbourhood violent crime, as determinants of youth violence
This project is using longitudinal data to investigate how negative and positive childhood experiences predict serious violence and offending outcomes, including the role of neighbourhood violence and crime in the areas children grow up.
- Research organisation: University College London
- Planned publication date: Summer 2024
Secondary data analysis of youth diversion in London
This project is seeking to understand more about which justice-involved children in London are being offered alternatives to criminal justice prosecution, and whether these alternative measures are effective in preventing future violence.
- Research organisations: Behavioural Insights Team and the Metropolitan Police
- Planned publication date: Autumn 2024
Systematic review of qualitative research on children and young people’s involvement in violence in the UK
We are undertaking this review to help us further understand the scope of qualitative research on children and young people’s involvement in violence, and what it tells us about how children and young people get involved in violence, what their experiences are, and what supports desistance. It will also highlight the gaps in research with children and young people on these topics.
- Research organisation: The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Planned publication date: 2025
Protocol: Systematic review of qualitative research on children and young people’s involvement in violence in the UK Download
*Please note, the planned publication dates may be subject to change.