Community cohesion
The three main foci in this strand of research are crime, anti-social behaviour and community development. Our research addresses the protective or sustaining value of learning against the negative outcomes of social disintegration, alienation and crime. We are developing an ethnographic study of the role of education in community life in an area of multiple deprivation.
Education provides considerable personal and community protection against the risk of pathways into crime for both children and adults. We are continuing to develop the evidence-base for assessment of these pathways. Building on the Home Office work on the costs of crime, these analyses can lead to costed benefits of education. However, our focus is not just on hard crime but also on soft crime and anti-social behaviour that is harder to cost but nonetheless has important effects on communities and personal well-being.
