1 Risky and illicit behaviour Steve Pudney Institute for Social and Economic Research

2 The range of issues Possibilities include: Crime & anti-social behaviour - victimisation Crime & anti-social behaviour – behaviour Truancy, school exclusion, etc. Smoking, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use Diet and health impairment Problem gambling Unsafe sexual behaviour Foundations of behaviour: attitudes to risk and intertemporal discounting; role of peer influences & other social interactions; self-image and attitudes to society Experience/perceptions of the law enforcement system

3 Existing data sources Repeated cross-sections: – Victimisation surveys, e.g. BCS – Health surveys, e.g. HSE – School surveys Longitudinal surveys: – Cohort surveys: e.g. NCDS, BCS70, LSYPE, EYTCS – Household panels: e.g. OCJS – Limited coverage in BHPS Specialised surveys: – Focused ‘outcome-based’ surveys, e.g. Arrestee Survey, drug treatment records – Medical surveys

4 Top-level issues What are the most important research questions to be addressed, now and potentially in the future? Which issues should receive priority within each area covered? What is the case for covering these issues in the UKHLS rather than existing cross-section or longitudinal studies or small-scale special-purpose surveys? Can these issues be covered without undue threat to UKHLS response or questionnaire length? How important is continuity of measurement relative to the existing BHPS, and comparability with other UK national surveys? To what extent is cross-national comparability an important consideration?

5 Definitional issues Optimal data collection frequency? – e.g. sub-annual, annual, less frequent, occasional Reference period? – e.g. actions in last month/year/ever How much detail? – occurrence / frequency / quantity / expenditure – range of consequences Which individuals? – restrict questioning to specific ‘high-risk’ subpopulations? – each adult? each child?

6 Data collection issues Which methods of data collection are workable? – how to guarantee confidentiality in household survey context? – e.g. postal self-completion versus computer-based self- completion (CASI or A-CASI); – other non-traditional tools of data collection? – automatic checks for unreliable responses? – questions about worries over other family members’ behaviour? Relative pay-offs to different levels of detail – e.g. exact amounts? grouped responses? unfolding bracket? – e.g. degree of disaggregation over types of risky behaviour