Improving outcomes for stigmatised groups via social cohesion

通过社会凝聚力改善受污名群体的结果

• 批准号: MR/Y019741/1
• 负责人: Martha Newson
• 金额: $ 75.76万
• 依托单位: University of Greenwich
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY019741%2F1
• 关键词: Improving; outcomes; stigmatised; groups; via

Recidivism is one of the greatest socio-economic burdens the UK currently faces. At an estimated total cost of £18.1 billion a year, prison re-entry places a substantial burden on the national economy. This exacerbates reoffending's associated societal costs, including deviance, unstable communities and displacement. There is a 48% chance that an offender will go on to re-offend within a 12-month period, worsening the current prison overcrowding crisis, which is associated with severe mental health issues and a spread in infectious diseases. Re-offending rates are currently stable in the UK, providing an ideal time to conduct research into reducing them and the burden they place on the economy and wider civil society.Powerful group identities lead people to enact extraordinary behaviours for their groups - from hardcore football fans travelling the globe for a game only to vandalise the local area, to gang members committing atrocities against their rivals. Can this problem be turned on its head and provide a solution: can this group passion be harnessed for the social good? At the same time, how can we foster positive social identities that are powerful enough to transcend values and expectations, helping stigmatised populations, such as prison leavers, receiving communities, or people with mental health issues? The proposed research hinges around the social cure; the power of groups and identities to connect us to positive values and behaviours. The research is ground-breaking in its truly national scale, encompassing men and women in over 70 British prisons, and leveraging collaborations across four continents. I will develop and apply the theoretical framework of 'identity fusion' - an intense, lasting form of social bonding - to these hard-to-reach populations. Across objectives, this will lead to interventions that are participant-focused, tailored to individual needs, and have lasting impact on individuals' social connectivity and the groups they are bonded to. The research tackles a portfolio of linked projects, ultimately championing social connections for people in prison and prison-leavers in the UK by investigating at reoffending data in 2026 and 2027 from my prison cohorts recruited in years 1-4 (Objective 1). As well as committing to societally acceptable behaviour, prison leavers also need welcoming communities; the renewal will support me to navigate receiving communities' attitudes to formerly incarcerated people and other stigmatised groups via a suite of experiments and surveys, including the use of comparative psychology to understand group cohesion via synchrony and ultimate, phylogenetic explanations of group barriers (Objective 2). Capitalising on the success of applying the social identity model in justice, this project re-applies the approach to improve the success of psychedelic-assisted therapies by conducting research in naturalised settings that promote lasting feelings of belonging, an area currently lacking in medical models (Objective 3). The research project crosses disciplines and methodologies, and has secured support from major non-academic partners to address these questions, including the Ministry of Justice, Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service and the Twinning Project - a nationwide intervention that pairs major football clubs with prisons and gives football-industry training and sustainable social identities to prisoners. Primarily informed by anthropology, psychology and criminology, the project will create novel tools using cross-cultural practices, which can be applied nationwide to affect positive, viable societal change. This research is further supported by a postdoctoral researcher with two years' experience with the sensitive data we work with, and a core team of carefully selected collaborators and mentors.

累犯是英国目前面临的最大社会经济负担之一。据估计，每年的总成本为181亿英镑，监狱重返给国民经济带来了沉重的负担。这加剧了重新犯罪的相关社会成本，包括越轨行为、不稳定的社区和流离失所。罪犯在12个月内再次犯罪的可能性为48%，这加剧了目前监狱过度拥挤的危机，这与严重的心理健康问题和传染病的传播有关。英国的重新犯罪率目前保持稳定，这为研究如何降低重新犯罪率以及重新犯罪给经济和更广泛的公民社会带来的负担提供了理想的时机。强大的群体身份导致人们为自己的群体制定非凡的行为--从铁杆足球迷到地球仪的全球比赛只是为了破坏当地地区，到帮派成员对他们的对手犯下暴行。这个问题是否可以反过来并提供一个解决方案：这种群体激情是否可以被利用来为社会利益服务？与此同时，我们如何才能培养积极的社会认同，使其强大到足以超越价值观和期望，帮助被污名化的人群，如出狱者、接收社区或有心理健康问题的人？拟议的研究围绕着社会治愈;群体和身份的力量将我们与积极的价值观和行为联系起来。这项研究在其真正的全国范围内具有开创性，涵盖了70多所英国监狱的男性和女性，并利用了四大洲的合作。我将发展和应用“身份融合”的理论框架-一种强烈的，持久的社会联系形式-这些难以接触的人群。在各项目标中，这将导致以参与者为重点的干预措施，针对个人需求，并对个人的社会联系及其所联系的群体产生持久影响。该研究解决了一系列相关项目，最终通过调查2026年和2027年我在1-4年招募的监狱队列中的重新犯罪数据（目标1），支持英国监狱和监狱离开者的社会联系。除了致力于社会可接受的行为，监狱离开者还需要热情的社区;更新将支持我通过一系列实验和调查，包括使用比较心理学，通过同步和最终的群体障碍的系统发育解释来了解接收社区对以前被监禁的人和其他污名化群体的态度（目标2）。该项目利用社会认同模型在司法中应用的成功，通过在自然环境中进行研究，促进持久的归属感，重新应用该方法来提高迷幻辅助治疗的成功率，这是目前缺乏医学模型的领域（目标3）。该研究项目跨越学科和方法，并获得了主要非学术合作伙伴的支持，以解决这些问题，包括司法部，女王陛下的监狱和缓刑服务以及结对项目-一项全国性的干预措施，将主要足球俱乐部与监狱配对，并为囚犯提供足球行业培训和可持续的社会身份。该项目主要以人类学、心理学和犯罪学为基础，将利用跨文化做法创造新的工具，可在全国范围内应用，以影响积极、可行的社会变革。这项研究得到了一位博士后研究员的进一步支持，他在我们使用的敏感数据方面有两年的经验，以及一个由精心挑选的合作者和导师组成的核心团队。