Unstructured time as a pathway from disadvantage exposure to crime: The role of time away from school

Abstract

This study analyzes linked administrative data for 4,926,067 individuals born in England between the 1990/91 and 1997/98 school-year cohorts, followed up to age 30, to examine whether the effect of exposure to economic disadvantage during childhood on later crime involvement is mediated by time away from school. Drawing on opportunity and time-use perspectives, disadvantage exposure is theorized to shape crime involvement partly by structuring how young people spend their time during school years. Quasi-Poisson models and quasi-Bayesian simulations were used to estimate the direct and mediation effects at ages 15, 18, 21, 24, and 30. Both crime and missed school sessions (including absences and exclusions) follow similar age trajectories, each strongly influenced by disadvantage exposure. The direct effect of exposure to disadvantage on crime decreases markedly when accounting for missed school sessions. By age 18, when crime peaks developmentally, 80–83% of the total effect of disadvantage exposure on crime operates through missed school sessions, decreasing to 32–33% by age 30. These findings identify time away from school as a major mechanism linking childhood disadvantage exposure to criminal involvement. The findings support integrating time-use perspectives into theories of socioeconomic inequalities in crime and suggest that interventions aimed at improving school attendance and structured routines during adolescence may help reduce the long-term criminogenic consequences of childhood exposure to economic disadvantage. The study is limited by the use of administrative data, which provide only a partial measure of unstructured time through missed school sessions and capture crime through cautions and convictions.