'After the Riots' report looking at the August 2011 disturbances

Hello. Sorry for the long silence due to moving house, and thank you to those of you who wished us well. That's awfully sweet of you.

I'm breaking blogging silence to share the new report which was published today looking into the causes of the riots from August 2011. I think this one is for any student who is studying anything with the word 'social' in there somewhere! It's published by the Riots Communities and Victims Panel, an independent group put together by the Government, and I think it's not unfair to say that it's fired a few debates already.

The report broadly cites parental shortcomings, disenfranchisement of young people in society, educational exclusion and a suspicion of authority as contributing factors to the UK's worst street disturbances since 1995.

The subsequent debates seem to be focusing around the broadness of some of the findings. The first 16 minutes of Newsnight from yesterday is quite illuminating on this and can be viewed here. I've been looking at how the right and left wing media have been picking what they want from the report to back up their own views. Logging into Newsbank UK and searching for the report is the easiest way to do this.

Anyway, all those things aside the main report on the riots can be found here. Any comments or questions you have will always be welcome.

I'm moving house this week.

I'm only telling you this because it means that I won't be in work or blogging until mid-March at the earliest.
It did cross my mind to try and link moving house with some research on stress and anxiety, but as I've discovered again today, moving house is more stressful than writing dissertations, having children and being an Arsenal fan by a mile and a half. My advice would be stay where you are forever.

If you need any urgent help in the immediate future you can see if one of my colleagues is free to offer advice. Their contact details are here. We all offer similar help so you'll be well looked after.

Clare's Law update.

There was a 5 minute discussion on the Today programme yesterday detailing the ongoing debate to bring into being 'Clare's Law', which proposes that women will be able to conduct background checks on potential partners to see whether they have previous convictions for domestic abuse.

The programme link here will work for 7 days so don't delay if you're interested in this issue.

If you'd like some extra background info on this whole debate the Guardian had a good piece on the whole issue yesterday. You can read it from here.