A fork used as a weapon. Scissors used to cut off someone's hair without consent. A knife nobody actually sees. Criminologist Professor Iain Brennan puts this Pint of Science audience through a live quiz, revealing that there's no single legal definition of "knife crime". What counts depends entirely on how the government chooses to measure it.
Iain, Professor of Criminology at the University of Hull, joins hosts Shayda Kashef-Tomlins and Mark Green to share findings from his ADR UK-backed research. Children excluded from school are 22 times more likely to have a caution or conviction for serious violence by age 20. But using a target trial method borrowed from clinical drug trials, matching excluded children with similar peers who weren't excluded, Iain's team found the true effect is smaller, though still serious: exclusion roughly doubles the risk.
Elsewhere, Iain explains why England and Wales are living through some of the safest times in our history, despite public anxiety about knife crime, and why women remain badly underserved by administrative crime data, particularly for domestic abuse and sexual violence. The episode closes with audience questions on what this could mean for policing and one of criminology's enduring puzzles: why violent crime has fallen globally for 25 years.
Recorded live at a Pint of Science event, in partnership with Pint of Science and ADR UK.
In this episode:
- The knife crime quiz: forks, scissors and zombie knives, tested against the government's official definition
- The impact of exclusion from school on the risk of serious violence, and why the "22 to 1" headline figure is misleading
- Why women are badly underserved by administrative crime data, particularly for domestic abuse and sexual violence
- The difference between using linked data for research versus real-time policing decisions
- How violent crime has been declining globally for 25 years, and why nobody understands the full reason
About our guest
Iain Brennan is Professor of Criminology at the University of Hull, a chartered research psychologist and the University's Institutional Lead for Open Research. His research focuses on violence prevention, including weapon-carrying, serious violence and domestic abuse, with a particular interest in evaluating interventions through randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs and process evaluations.
He advises on violence prevention for organisations including the Home Office, Youth Endowment Fund, College of Policing, National Police Chiefs' Council and police forces across the UK. He has led over 20 funded research projects worth more than £8 million, and is currently principal investigator on the UK's largest-ever community violence trial, funded by the Youth Endowment Fund. He is the author of over 60 journal articles, reports, chapters and books, an editor of the British Journal of Criminology and an ADR UK Ambassador.
Missed part one?
Catch up with Alice on how educational data reveals the impact of school experiences on life opportunities: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2058571/episodes/19400604
Get involved
Our regular format returns next time. Got a burning data question? Send it in for our bonus Q&A episode later this year. See the episode description for how to get in touch.
Want to know more about administrative data? Visit: www.adruk.org
Views expressed by the guest do not necessarily reflect the views of ADR UK.
Timestamps
00:00 – ADR UK at Pint of Science: Part 2
01:41 – The 160-Year History of Knife Crime Data
06:23 – Is a Fork a Knife? The Knife Crime Quiz
11:22 – How Police & Hospitals Map Crime Hotspots
14:35 – Does School Exclusion Cause Violent Crime?
22:47 – The Psychology of Violence: Respect & Survival
25:49 – Why Domestic & Sexual Abuse Data Is Flawed
28:00 – Do Disruptive Students Harm Classmates?
31:25 – Can Data Prevent Crime in Real Time?
33:58 – Predictive Policing & The Global Crime Drop
37:33 – Wrapping Up ADR UK at Pint of Science
Connecting Society is presented by Shayda Kashef-Tomlins and Mark Green, our producers are Eleanor Collard, Holly Greenland, Laura Mulvey and Shayda Kashef.
This podcast is brought to you by ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK), a partnership transforming public sector data into research insights and policy evidence to improve lives. We are an investment by the Economic and Social Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.
