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Education

The importance of good literacy and numeracy skills for everyday living is without question, as meeting even the most basic of needs will often require one or the other.  For example, a 2006 report from the Confederation of British Industry stated that one in three employers had to send staff for remedial training in maths and English.  It is therefore not surprising that offenders, with estimates of 60% and more of this group having poor literacy and/or numeracy skills, can be particularly vulnerable in this respect. 

There are a number of websites that provide information in relation to offenders and literacy/ numeracy skills, including Learning and Teaching Scotland and the National Literacy Trust, both of which have sections on offenders.  'Adult Literacies Online' also provides some details of adult literacy awareness training provided to Scottish Prison Service staff.  Interestingly, although the Home Office Crime Reduction Unit has a publication section entitled 'Crime and work/school' it contains no documents, which gives some indication of the lack of research in this area.

With regard to school itself, the Government of South Australia's Department of Education and Children's Services has a section on their website devoted to School Based Crime Prevention that contains a wide range of information, publications, tools etc. that may be of interest.  Closer to home the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, based in the Law School at the University of Edinburgh, hosts a website with a range of information from the study that could be useful, including a report on 'School Experience and Delinquency at ages 13-16'. Other articles of interest include:

  • Education and Crime over the Life Cycle (Gallipoli and Fella, 2006)
  • Education and Youth Crime: Effects of Introducing the Education Maintenance Allowance Programme (Feinstein & Sabates, 2005)
  • Violent Victimization, Aggression, and Parent-Adolescent Relations: Quality Parenting as a Bffer for Violently Victimised Youth (Aceves & Cookston, 2007)
  • A 30-Year Prospective Follow-up Study of Hyperactive Boys with Conduct Problems: Adult Criminality (Satterfield et al, 2007)
  • Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2006 (IES & U.S. Department of Education, 2007)
  • Literacy Behind Bars: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of the Adult Literacy Prison Survey (IES & U.S. Department of Education, 2007)
  • The role of education in enhancing life chances and preventing offending (Home Office Development and Practice Report 19, 2004)
  • An evaluation of the literacy demands of general offending behaviour programmes (Davies et al, 2003)

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