Read about the link between literacy and offending in our review of existing research.
In September 2008
we published a report, Literacy Changes Lives: An advocacy resource, which
brought together research about the relationship between literacy and five
areas of a person's life: economic well-being, aspirations, family life,
health and civic/cultural engagement. This presented overwhelming evidence
that literacy has a significant relationship with a person's happiness and
success. It gives a clear indication of the dangers of poor literacy and also
the benefits of improving literacy for the individual, the community, the
workforce and the nation.
One important area that we did not address in that report was the possible
relationship between criminal behaviour and literacy. It is frequently
claimed that low literacy is related to unemployment, a lack of aspirations,
poor physical and mental health, and/or great deprivation, which can lead to
crime. Therefore, it is said that literacy is a key part of any crime
prevention strategy.