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Academically high-achieving teenagers from the most deprived backgrounds in England are five times more likely to be arrested and cautioned or sentenced than their peers from the wealthiest backgrounds, finds new research by a UCL academic.

Professor John Jerrim (UCL Social Research Institute) studied the social outcomes of state school pupils in the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups, who scored in the top 25% in Key Stage 2 tests, which are taken at the end of primary school.

Using pre-pandemic data following three school cohorts (children born in 1990/91, 1994/95 and 2000/01), he found that those in the lowest group were consistently more likely to be cautioned or sentenced by police, with the gap peaking at the age of 16, with a rate of 2.5% for the most disadvantaged group versus 0.5% for the highest socio-economic group.

The report, published by the UCL Social Research Institute and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the largest study of high-achieving children’s attendance, exclusion and criminal outcomes to date. It has significant policy implications for targeted interventions in early secondary school to further boost social mobility opportunities, ensure high achievers from all backgrounds can reach their full potential and address later social problems.

The most socioeconomically disadvantaged group also reported higher absence rates throughout secondary school and were more likely to be temporarily excluded. The absence rate for advantaged students during this pre-pandemic period was stable throughout secondary school, rising from 3.5% in Year 7 to 4% in Year 10. The rate for the disadvantaged group increased from 5.5% in Year 7 to around 7% by Year 10, the first year of GCSEs. In Year 10, disadvantaged students were over four times more likely to be temporarily excluded from school than their advantaged peers, at 5.4% versus 1.2%.

Lead author Professor John Jerrim said: “High-achieving children from disadvantaged backgrounds are a really important group for promoting social mobility. If they can’t go on to succeed in life, then who from a disadvantaged background can? Unfortunately, our research highlights how too many are struggling to fulfil their potential. Worse still, an important minority get into trouble with the law.”

Professor Jerrim used data from the National Pupil Database and the Police National Computer for an analysis of over a quarter of a million high-achieving children from three state school cohorts born in the early 1990s, mid-1990s and early 2000s. He measured socioeconomic background by looking at eligibility for free school meals and the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.

When the results were broken down for gender and ethnicity, the starkest findings were that – at age 16 – high-achieving disadvantaged boys were around three times more likely to be cautioned or sentenced than high-achieving disadvantaged girls (4.2% for boys versus 1.4% for girls).

Professor Jerrim broke this down into ethnicity, finding that Asian disadvantaged boys were the least likely to be cautioned or arrested, with 2.8% of those in the cohorts studied reporting this at the age of 18. Black and Mixed-race boys were nearly twice as likely to be cautioned or arrested, with 5.4% of the cohorts studied reporting this at the age of 18. Meanwhile, 3.9% of White boys were likely to be cautioned or arrested.

When looking at absence rates, high achieving disadvantaged White and Mixed-race teenagers have higher absence rates than high achieving disadvantaged Asian and Black teenagers. The academics say more research is needed to fully understand the ethnic breakdowns in the data.

Within the high-achieving disadvantaged group, Black and Mixed-race teens were the most likely to be temporarily excluded. Around 10% receive at least one exclusion in Year 10 compared to between 6% and 7% of White and Asian teens. Boys were also more likely to face exclusions than girls.

Professor Jerrim says that more research is needed to establish early policies in schools to maintain engagement for disadvantaged high achievers, with specific actions required to address the needs of different demographic groups.

Links

• Paper School absences, exclusions and criminal sentences amongst high-achieving children from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds 
• Professor John Jerrim's academic profile
• UCL Social Research Institute
• IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education & Society