Offender surveys. These surveys are designed to take information from offenders, often those in prison, in order to develop an understanding of the behaviour and attitudes of offenders.By interviewing a range of young offenders looking back over the previous years, they identified specific trends in anti-social behaviour, namely a peak between the ages of 14 and 16, and the relationship between offending behaviour and the use of drugs or alcohol.This kind of data helps researchers to identify potential risk factors and develop ways to prevent a person from becoming an offender, for example through treatment programmes targeted at certain age groups.