Life history plots - linking situations and events at the individual level

While the other work packages use quantitative data describing the samples at the group level, this work package aims to present individuals' life trajectories related to crime and mental illness. Based on a smaller number of participants, we will develop life history plots that place the individual life trajectories within a historical timeframe. In this way, it is possible to illustrate how changes in societal frameworks (such as legislative changes) have consequences at the individual level. By addressing the temporal coincidence between structural changes and events at the individual level, we can take into account a) the fact that events have different meanings over time, b) life events are historically situated, and c) cohort effects. Our use of the visual tool case-history plots in this study focuses on criminal etiology - examining the causes of crime. This allows us to study whether and to what extent criminal activity varies with illness development and whether (and why) the link between mental illness and crime varies over time and situations. This work package is exploratory and not based on prior hypotheses. However, our choice of elements to be visualized in a single plot will be informed by existing knowledge about the causes of crime, as well as new knowledge generated in this project (WP1 and WP2).