On the 9th March, Dr Hannah Merdian gave a presentation and delivered a training session to Circles Southwest Volunteers.
Circles UK is a registered charity and the national body supporting the development, quality, coordination and effectiveness of providers of Circles of Support and Accountability. In response to the profile of individuals with an online sex offence history, Circles developed Circles ReBoot, which is shorter than a “traditional” Circle and offers a more structured format, focused on achieving goals and fostering skills development. Hannah presented on the feasibility of ReBoot and led a discussion on employment needs of Circles participants.
Dr Lauren Smith and Rachael Mason, along with Roger Bretherton and Karen Harrison have had an external report published online (11th March). The report is entitled Review of the Spark Inside Coaching Programme for Prison Staff. The news article and access to the report can be found here.
The team also took part in a knowledge exchange event about the evaluation findings with Spark Inside, HM Prison and Probation Service, and the Ministry of Justice. It is hoped the work will lead to further evaluation work of other Spark Inside programmes and to increased funding and opportunity for Spark Inside within prisons.
FCRG members, Dr Lauren Smith and Rachael Mason, along with Dr Niko Kargas, facilitated two knowledge exchange workshops – one for staff and one for prisoners – at HMP North Sea Camp on Friday 1st March 2024.
The workshops were based on their previous NHSE commissioned work entitled ‘Meeting the needs of autistic adults and adults with learning disabilities in Midlands prisons’, which aims to develop impact within the prison. They have been invited back to do another workshop, specifically for healthcare staff at North Sea Camp! Well done team!
Dr Lauren Smith, along with colleagues from the Lincoln Law School, Prof Karen Harrison and Dr Chloe Wilson, were invited to share their findings about the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Experiences of Prison Governors‘ with the Prison Governors Association National Executive Committee last Wednesday (14th February, 2024). The team, which also includes FCRG member, Rachael Mason, are now co-producing recommendations to improve diversity and inclusion experiences with a group of prison governors.
Dr Matthew King-Parker (along with Dr Ross Bartels, Dr Tochs Onwuegbusi, and Dr Patrick Dickinson) has published an multi-study article examining the burglary scripts in a sample of community-based participants. Study 1 (N = 113) reports the development of a a Burglary Script Assessment. Many participants, despite having never committed a burglary, were found to hold a burglary script containing expert-like knowledge. Also, greater script detail was associated with a proclivity to enact the script. Study 2 (N = 44) examined whether scripts based on four different motivations correlated with a relevant construct. It was found that burglary scripts motivated by desperation and thrill were correlated with burglary distortions and sensation-seeking, respectively. Finally, Study 3 (N = 146) found that engaging in mental imagery about a burglary increased script detail, relative to a no imagery group. These results offer new insights into burglary scripts, providing implications for understanding the risk of committing burglary.
King-Parker, M. T., Bartels, R. M., Onwuegbusi, T., & Dickinson, P. (2024). Examining Burglary Scripts in Community-Based Samples. Deviant Behavior, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2024.2315109
