Dr Percy is a criminologist engaged in the study of adolescent development, in particular, the emergence of risk taking behaviours (in particular, alcohol, drug use and crime, which all peak in the teenage years).

His research has three core themes: a) examining the origins and outcomes of adolescent risk taking, b) testing interventions to prevent and reduction the immediate and long term harms associated with risk taking behaviours, and c) applying innovative quantitative methods and statistics to the study of adolescent development.

The objective of the research activity is to promote positive healthy adolescent development.