Publications and Outputs

The content of these worksheets is based on a data comic that was developed by the Director of the Understanding Inequalities (UI) project, Professor Susan McVie, based at the University of Edinburgh. The worksheets were adapted from the data comic by the UI project Communications and Engagement Officer, Isabella Melking, also based at the University of Edinburgh.

These worksheets have been developed in partnership with the Modern Studies Association and are intended for teachers to use with pupils in class or at home.

In 2018, Dr Meng Le Zhang and Professor Gwilym Pryce from the Understanding Inequalities project worked with the Improvement Service to develop a tool to analyse inequalities across all Local Authority areas in Scotland.

The Improvement Service

Meng Le and Gwilym developed a series of measures that calculates an inequality score at local authority level for a particular dimension, for example, air pollution, exposure to crime or housing quality, which can be then followed over time.

The Improvement Service used this index as a key component of their Community Planning Outcomes Profile (CPOP) toolkit which aims to help Community Planning Partnerships (CPP) understand the issues in their area, in order to identify where they might prioritise intervention measures to improve the outcomes for people living in those areas.

August 2019. 
Journal of Urban Studies.

Abstract:

A growing number of studies of European and North American cities have shown that poverty is moving away from urban centres in a process known as the decentralisation (or suburbanisation) of poverty. These findings raise important questions about the impact on the quality of life for poorer residents who face financial constraints with respect to their access to transport. This paper investigates the implications of decentralisation of poverty for inequality in access to amenities and employment.
We define “access” in terms of distance to these features. Using data on England and Wales, we find that the decentralisation of poverty has led to greater inequalities between poor and non-poor households in access to both employment and amenities in large urban areas.

What is the effect of maternal employment on child behaviour? Given increasing maternal labour-market participation in many European countries, there is an ongoing scientific and public debate on the potential consequences for children’s development.

The present study combines statistical techniques that can account for time-varying confounders with cumulative measurement of maternal employment to investigate its link with children’s behavioural problems around age eight. In addition, our study explores whether the effect of maternal employment history differs by mothers’ education.

The Understanding Inequalities project team were delighted to have the opportunity to work with graphic artist Miranda Smith, who used data and findings provided by Professor Susan McVie to create the data comic "How crime has changed in Scotland".

The comic looks at how crime has changed in Scotland, including the fall in police recorded crime and how young people have contributed to the crime drop. It also explores poverty as a risk factor for offending and what happens to young offenders who are caught by the police.

At the end of June, the Understanding Inequalities project submitted evidence to the Edinburgh Poverty Commission in response to their latest call for evidence which focuses on ‘Prospects – what can be done do to improve the life chances of people who are struggling to get by in Edinburgh'.

Our evidence submission focused on the following two areas of research by the Understanding Inequalities team: crime and justice, looking at the rates and patterns of offending and victimisation across the city of Edinburgh,  and the impact of poverty on access to employment opportunities in the city.

You can read the submission in full here.

A data report presented to the Scottish Policy Authority (SPA) today shows that almost a third of all Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued to people living in the top 10% most deprived communities of Scotland.  Moreover, FPNs were twelve times more likely to be issued to people living in the 10% most deprived parts of Scotland compared to those living in the 10% least deprived areas.

This paper highlights a number of important gaps in the UK evidence base on the employment impacts of immigration, namely: (1) the lack of research on the local impacts of immigration – existing studies only estimate the impact for the country as a whole; (2) the absence of long-term estimates – research has focused on relatively short time spans – there are no estimates of the impact over several decades, for example; (3) the tendency to ignore spatial dependence of employment which can bias the results and distort inference – there are no robust spatial econometric estimates we are aware of.

2019
Journal of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 

Abstract

2019 

Methodology (2019), 15, pp. 88-96

Abstract

We recently held a symposium at the Scottish Parliament, which brought together international academics and policy makers to discuss the impact of childhood inequalities on life outcomes across a broad range of topics, including education, crime and well-being.

We asked each of our speakers to contribute to this summary report, which draws together the findings that were presented toether with the policy discussions that followed. The presentations drew on a range of  international evidence from the US, Israel, Ireland,  New Zealand and Australia, together findings emerging from Scottish and UK data sets, exploring key stages in a young person's life, from early adversity in early childhood through adolescence and the impact of this on adult lives.

We would like to acknowledge all those who participated in the symposium and contributed to the production of the report. This work was supported by an ESRC International Networking Award.

In recent years we have seen an increasing interest in the study of longitudinal crime concentrations at small geographic scales such as street segments and neighbourhoods. That said, the prospect of being able to adequately identify the slowly changing character of these place-based crime profiles has been hindered by one key methodological drawback: the heightened sensitivity of existing longitudinal clustering methods to short-term fluctuations. Amongst the methods currently available, k-means clustering is the most malleable, allowing the opportunity for bespoke adjustments which might be prompted by theoretical or empirical insight.

In this briefing paper, Sara Skott and Susan McVie explore how a decline in knife crime and gang violence has made the biggest overall contribution to the reduction of homicides and other forms of  violence in Scotland.

Read the briefing here. 

This briefing paper was produced by Dr Sara Skott and Professor Susan McVie, as part of a wider body of work around homicide and violence which was carried out under the auspices of the ESRC Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN)  Research Centre (2013-2017).

Find out more about Sara's work and the wider AQMeN research into crime and victimsation at the AQMeN website.  

On 8th November we held an event as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science - 20 years of devolution: how have inequalities in Glasgow changed?.

2019
British Journal of Criminology.

Abstract:

Research on the international crime drop has predominantly focused on the nature and extent of overall crime or changes in specific crime types, but less attention has been paid to how equally the crime drop has been distributed across society. Applying a novel quasi-longitudinal approach to Scottish victimisation data, this article examines changes in the prevalence, frequency and type of victimisation experienced. We argue that the crime drop has resulted in an increase in inequality between those at most and least risk of being a victim of crime, especially violence. The article contributes to theoretical debates on the crime drop, crime inequality and distributive justice, and provides policy recommendations on the importance of crime reduction strategies that target repeat victimisation.

On Friday 29th March we held a symposium to discuss the Dynamics of Spatial Inequality: Processes, Outcomes & Solutions.

This event brought together policy makers, stakeholders and leading researchers from a variety of academic disciplines and policy perspectives to discuss the latest research on whether and how spatial inequalities matter and  the implications for policy innovation. The aim of the symposium was to examine how inequality in housing wealth reinforces intergenerational inequality, and how discrimination in the housing market makes it more difficult for ethnic minorities to access neighbourhoods with the best economic opportunities.

In October 2019, Understanding Inequalities held a joint event with the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) and Police Scotland to discuss data-informed approaches to policing, looking at the use of police data to assess demand, inform deployment and address priorities.

We have produced a short summary report which draws together themes from the presentations and facilitated discussion. These themes included the data priorities for policing in Scotland, the various different data sources that are currently being used to inform policing, the challenges associated with accessing and linking types of data, while the report also highlights the potential solutions and ways of working across organisations to mitigate some of these challenges. 

Read the report in full here.