Crime & Justice
This theme uses linked justice, health and wider administrative data to better understand cross-cutting demands on public services.
We focus on improving safety, equality and well-being across communities by linking data from justice and health organisations. We examine the challenges to society caused by mental illness, drug use, alcohol consumption and violence and seek to understand how health and justice organisations might work collaboratively to alleviate them.
Lead: Professor Susan McVie, University of Edinburgh
ADR Scotland research aligns closely with Scottish Government priorities, including prevention, reducing re-offending and improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the justice system. Collaboration with Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services (JAS) ensures research is aligned with key analytical priorities, as outlined in the JAS Area of Research Interest (ARI).
A key priority of this theme is to link justice data with health data. This is intended to improve understanding of how vulnerability, mental health needs and complex life circumstances bring people to the attention of justice organisations.
Our future research hopes to use datasets such as the Scottish Offender Index to explore sentencing trends, judicial decision-making and the impact on re-offending of custodial and non-custodial approaches, including short prison sentences.
Research projects within this area include:
- Understanding the healthcare journeys of people who come into contact with the police while experiencing mental health distress
- Analysing repeat patterns of violent victimisation in Scotland
- Exploring health and mortality outcomes for problem drug users seeking treatment, comparing those with and without justice experience
- Examining the association between violence, deprivation and alcohol in Scottish communities
- Identifying the prevalence of health vulnerabilities amongst those who were fined by the police for non-compliance during the pandemic
- Studying the potential harm of illegal drug parcels entering Scottish communities through the international postal network
There is broad recognition that community safety, equality and wellbeing can only be achieved by partnership working and organisational collaboration across different domains within the public sector.
Our research focuses on learning insights from linked health and justice data to better inform a public health approach to reducing harm. We work closely with stakeholders in health, crime and justice to raise awareness, identify research priorities and reframe research agendas for administrative data in this area.
Our research advisory groups and engagement with people with lived experience help to shape the aims, objectives and questions for each project and ensure they best meet the needs of stakeholder groups.
Research team
Professor Susan McVie, Dr Ana Morales-Gomez, Dr Michael Frith, Dr John McGhee
