People aged 17 to 24 x 1000
Total population
To find out how many young adults ages 17 - 24 there are per 1000 people in each ward. For example I used the above calculation, the Victoria ward where I live has 530 young adults out of a total population of 5770 using the calculation:-
530 x 1000
5770
I found out that it had 91 young adults per 1000 people. Using my information on disorders and young adults I ranked the 30 wards with the highest number of young adults first. This was Whitton with 150 young adults per 1000 people. Using this ranking i then used the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient technique to see if any correlation could be shown. I also produced a scattergraph to see if there was any correlation between these two variables. This will show in the form of a graph any correlation.
I also made a chloropleth on young adults per 1000 people. I coloured each ward in terms of its young adults. I will match this with the chloropleth i made for disorders in hypothesis 1 to show if any pattern can be seen. If any pattern can be seen if there is a positive pattern the wards with high disorder will match the wards with high numbers of young adults.
Data Interpretation
I looked to see if there is a relationship between young adults and disorders in Stockton-On-Tees. The result of my Spearman’s calculation shows a coefficient of -0.10 this shows that there is very little correlation between disorders and young adults and any that there is, is negative.
My scattergraph shows that there is no correlation. My points spread through the middle of the graph and the best fit line shows this. This shows that as the number of young adults goes up the number of disorders does not follow the best fit line and does not go from the bottom left axis to the top right of the graph. My chloropleth I created on young adults I matched with the other chloropleths and I observed no patterns to show that the areas with high young adults are similar to the areas I coloured in with higher disorders. To prove this Whitton has 150 young adults and 24 disorders Egglescliffe has 112 young adults and 35 disorders where as St Aidens has only 96 young adults but many disorders at 117. Parkfield has only a 100 young adults but has a large amount of disorders at 252 per 1000 people.
The reasons why areas with many young people do not match areas with many disorders are because:-
- If an area has lots of young people but these are in jobs or at college these will not be disorderly as they want to keep there job and will not be bothered to cause trouble.
- An area like Parkfield might not have many young people living in this place but because it includes Stockton high street with its pubs and night clubs there will be many young people visiting the area get drunk and causing trouble and many of them will only be visitors who then go back to there own area.
- Not all young people are immature and just because many may live in an area it does not mean that they will be disorderly.
Evaluation
I have used reliable government information and techniques such as Spearman’s and scatter graphs to show there is little correlation between the number of young adults in wards of Stockton-On-Tees and the disorder levels in these wards. However to improve my enquiry I must look at those problems.
Method Weakness
I have only used Safer Stockton Partnership and Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit information. To make show this is reliable I could check it has been recorded correctly by using Census and the Office for National Statistics Information. I got my Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit information from my geography department at school. It was 1991 census data therefore i think this data is old and I could use the updated census from 2001 for newer information.
Method Improvements
I could look at other sources of information on young people and crime i could interview the police and prisons to find out which age groups wether young or old are the most disorderly the police could tell me about the age people are arrested and the prisoners who are in prison.
Enquirey Weaknesses
I looked at the age group 17-24 but there are also other age groups age 5-16 or 25-44 that may cause more disorder. Very often children after school are prime culprits of disorder and disorder is caused by school children after school they are in the 5 – 16 age group, which I didn’t look at.
I think you cannot just look at the ages of people in an area to see if they will make it more disorderly. I think disorder may be a combination between factors such as number of pubs in an area, whether there are many gangs in an area or drug addicts or unemployed people. I should those also.
The biggest problem is that I looked at was young people living in an area when this is not the most important factor. Places such as Parkfield with its many pubs and places with shopping centres. May get a lot of visitors who are disorderly these will show up on the figures for that ward in terms of disorder but not the young people living there.
Enquiry Improvements
To see if the number of young people in a place influences disorder I must also see other information on things such as racist attacks and drugs problems because looking at a mixture of these will give me a clearer picture to see if the number of adults is an important cause of disorder.
