ABSTRACT
The Cardiff School Study represents one of the most in-depth investigations of pupil offending behaviour undertaken to date in schools in the UK. Very few studies, since Fifteen Thousand Hours (Rutter et al. 1979), have given attention to this important issue in the UK (see Rutter et al. 1998). The survey included all Year 10 pupils (ages 14–15) in all the state secondary schools in Cardiff — a time in an individual's life when involvement in crime has been shown to peak (see Farrington and Wikström 1994). It is likely that, during this period, offending behaviour in schools will also peak (although, to the author's knowledge, no research has been conducted relating to this issue). The study represents an aetiological investigation of pupil offending focusing on pupils' individual and lifestyle characteristics as well as assessing their family and neighbourhood backgrounds and their perceptions of school context.
