REDUCING REOFFENDING RATES
Righting recidivism
Desistance, or reoffending, is a major social and economic problem around the world, with costs in the UK alone reaching a staggering £18bn a year. The Twinning Project, pairing clubs with prisons to offer football-industry training and, perhaps most importantly, positive group identities offers one solution. In this longitudinal research, we investigate the role group bonding plays in improving prison behaviour and reducing reoffending. Through surveys, interviews and the analysis of big data on behaviour we unpick how that bonding occurs. This research is being conducted in partnership with Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice, and with international collaborators in the USA.
COLLABORATORS
Prof Harvey Whitehouse (Univ. Oxford, UK).
Dr Linus Peitz (Univ. Kent, UK)
Dr Jack Cunliffe (Univ. Kent, UK)
Prof Heath Grant (John Jay, USA)
OUTPUTS:
2024 Research Evaluation Report
Academic articles
Newson, M., Peitz, L., Cunliffe, J., & Whitehouse, H. (2024) A soccer-based intervention improves incarcerated individuals' behaviour and public acceptance through social bonding. Nature Human Behavior.
Newson, M. & Whitehouse, H. (2024) Social bonds and community support are vital to prison reform. Nature Human Behavior.
Peitz, L., & Newson, M. 2024) Sport-based Interventions and Health in Prisons: The Impact of Twinning Project on Prisoner Wellbeing and Attitudes. Journal of Health Psychology.
Newson, M., Peitz, L., Gitsham, H., Imada, H., & Abrams, D. (2023) ‘We need community’: Bridging the path to desistance from crime with community football. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology.
Newson, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). The Twinning Project: how football, the beautiful game, can be used to reduce reoffending. Prison Service Journal, 248.
