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NTU Researcher wins the Office for National Statistics Research Excellence Award 2019

Professor of Quantitative Criminology, Andromachi Tseloni, has been awarded the prize for her pioneering work on burglary security

ONS Research Excellence Awards/Graham Rice
ONS Research Excellence Awards/Graham Rice

Professor Andromachi Tseloni of our School of Social Sciences has won the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Research Excellence Award 2019. The award was established to celebrate outstanding innovative research which delivers public benefit to the UK, carried out through the use of ONS data. The ONS annually grant around 400 diverse projects access to the data they manage for statistical research, making competition for the award very high.

Professor Tseloni led a study into burglary security devices, testing which ones work for whom and in what context. Drawing on statistical analyses of multiple sweeps of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), her study identified what works; in terms of the most effective security which both deters burglars and is affordable, and those most at-risk population groups; the kinds of households and areas that are increasingly targeted, and therefore should be prioritised by initiatives for further reductions and preventing future increases in burglary rates.

Previous research by Professor Tseloni led to the security hypothesis for the crime drop; that declines in volume crimes (car theft, burglary, theft from person, and assault) during the 1990s across most industrialised countries was driven by the increased amount and quality of target security. Her latest research has therefore sought to explore the security hypothesis in relation to the domestic burglary drop in England and Wales since 1993, and has been deemed by the ONS as outstanding in its use, analysis and presentation of data.

Professor Tseloni presented her study ‘Which burglary security works for whom and in what context?’ at the ONS Data Capability event at Westminster on Thursday 17 October, where she was presented with the award. She told us: "Being amongst the finalists was tremendously rewarding in itself, so winning the overall award represents an extra special recognition of my research and the contribution of my co-researchers. This award is a unique opportunity to share the research findings with both the research community and policy makers, and how these can be used to inform crime reduction initiatives that bring real change to the lives of everyday people and communities. It is also a celebration of theoretically driven, methodologically rigorous research with tangible policy recommendations."

She added: "This award will undoubtedly open up opportunities to extend my research to examine the contribution of new security devices and other approaches in reducing the risk of burglary across communities, and to work with existing and new partners inside government, amongst practitioners and the wider academic community.  Overall, this is also a celebration of the importance of robust data and the contribution that quantitative analysis can make to addressing key challenges faced by society."

Frankie Kay, Interim Deputy National Statistician and Director General for Data Capability at ONS said: “We are delighted to see Professor Tseloni win the 2019 Research Excellence Award. The results of her project are already being used to make people and their property safer, highlighting the power of data in making better decisions and improving the lives of people in the UK.

“All of our finalists showed the benefit of sharing data and we hope that their research goes on to help inform those in government, business and the charity sector who need reliable figures to make important decisions.”

More information on Professor Tseloni’s study can be found here.

Published on 18 October 2019
  • Category: Research; School of Social Sciences