Righting recidivism: unlocking the cognitive underpinnings of successful interventions to reduce reoffending

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一个理想的时机。我们已经知道，强大的群体身份导致人们为他们的群体制定非同寻常的行为--从地球仪的铁杆足球迷到对对手施暴的帮派成员。这个问题能反过来提供一个解决方案吗？群体的热情能被用来做社会公益吗？更具体地说，我们如何才能培养积极的社会身份，使其强大到足以改写罪犯的自我叙述？我将把“身份融合”的理论框架--一种强烈而持久的社会联结形式--应用于监狱人口。本研究首次将融合理论与体育认同理论进行整合（作为改革的催化剂）、分享经验、妇女和男子在犯罪社区中的作用以及实施干预的方法。拟议的七年研究项目跨越学科和方法，并获得了包括司法部在内的主要非学术合作伙伴的支持，以解决这些问题，HMPPS和结对项目-一项全国性的干预措施，将主要的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。这项研究是进一步支持由两名博士后研究人员，一个核心团队精心挑选的导师，和五个额外的英国和国际collaborators.Crucially，我专注于妇女在这个框架内-作为关键的演员在司法系统和社区，接收前罪犯-虽然他们在这两个文献中被忽视的身份融合和重新犯罪。尽管女性只占罪犯的5%，但女性对刑事司法系统的成本却不成比例地高：仅女性警务一项，估计每年就有10亿英镑。尽管如此，他们也是一个特别脆弱的群体：60%的人经历过家庭暴力，约25%的人有受抚养的孩子，其中许多人自残（是男性的五倍）。作为一名公认的足球迷社会关系和暴力问题专家，我将利用我的理论和应用知识分析现有的干预措施，为未来的干预措施设计一个工具包，并在特别脆弱和关键的人群（如女性和青少年罪犯）中实施所研究的做法。这个项目将使我成为我所在领域的世界领导者，并有助于培养一支跨学科的研究团队，并通过解决重新犯罪的热情团结起来。

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.We already know that powerful group identities lead people to enact extraordinary behaviours for their groups - from hardcore football fans travelling the globe for a game to gang members committing atrocities against their rivals. Can this problem be turned on its head to provide a solution? Can group passion be harnessed for the social good? More specifically, how can we foster positive social identities that are powerful enough to re-write offenders' self-narratives? I will apply the theoretical framework of 'identity fusion' - an intense, lasting form of social bonding - to prison populations. For the first time, this research integrates literatures on fusion to sports identities (as a catalyst for reform), shared experiences, women's roles in offending communities as well as men's, and approaches to intervention implementation.The proposed seven-year research project crosses disciplines and methodologies, and has secured support from major non-academic partners to address these questions, including the MoJ, HMPPS 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 two postdoctoral researchers, a core team of carefully selected mentors, and five additional UK and international collaborators.Crucially, I focus on women within this framework - as pivotal actors within both the justice system and the communities that receive ex-offenders - though they are much neglected in both the literatures on identity fusion and re-offending. Despite representing just 5% of offenders, women account for a disproportionately high cost to the criminal justice system: policing females alone is estimated at £1bn a year. Nonetheless, they are also a particularly vulnerable population: 60% will have experienced domestic violence, around 25% have dependent children, and many of them self-harm (five times as many as men).As a recognised expert on social bonding and violence among football fans, I will draw upon my theoretical and applied knowledge to analyse existing interventions, design a toolkit for future interventions, and implement the researched practices in particularly vulnerable and critical populations (e.g. female and young offenders). This project will afford me recognition as a world leader in my field and help to grow a team of inter-disciplinary researchers, united by a passion to tackle reoffending.