Welcome to the website of the SPAN project!

 

What is SPAN?

 

The Study of Peers, Activities, and Neighborhoods (SPAN) is one of the research projects at the NSCR. The SPAN project investigates the causes of adolescent delinquency and the relevance of peers, activities and neighborhoods for predicting such behavior. 

Research in developmental and life course criminology has taught us a lot about the ways in which characteristics of individuals, their families, and their neighbourhoods can stimulate or discourage delinquent behavior. Whether or not youth will become involved in delinquent behaviour is also likely to be affected by their spatial behaviour patterns.

In this study, the time use of 12-13 and 15-16 year old youth is assessed using a space-time-budget method. What do they do, when, where and with whom? And what is the effect on criminal offending and victimization?

The findings allow us to test criminological explanations, and to combine etiological explanations with ecological ones.

Research findings from this project have been published in various academic and popular academic outlets. For an overview of these publications, see here.