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The aim of this study was to examine whether street gang membership, psychological factors, and social factors such as preprison experiences could predict young offenders' involvement in prison gang activity. Data were collected via individual interviews with 188 young offenders held in a Young Offenders Institution in the United Kingdom. Results showed that psychological factors such as the value individuals attached to social status, a social dominance orientation, and antiauthority attitudes were important in predicting young offenders' involvement in prison gang activity. Further important predictors included preimprisonment events such as levels of threat, levels of individual delinquency, and levels of involvement in group crime. Longer current sentences also predicted involvement in prison gang activity. However, street gang membership was not an important predictor of involvement in prison gang activity. These findings have implications for identifying prisoners involved in prison gang activity and for considering the role of psychological factors and group processes in gang research.

Despite huge societal costs associated with firesetting, no standardized therapy has been developed to address this hugely damaging behavior. This study reports the evaluation of the first standardized CBT group designed specifically to target deliberate firesetting in male prisoners (the Firesetting Intervention Programme for Prisoners; FIPP). Fifty-four male prisoners who had set a deliberate fire were referred for FIPP treatment by their prison establishment and psychologically assessed at baseline, immediately post treatment, and three-months post treatment. Prisoners who were treatment eligible yet resided at prison establishments not identified for FIPP treatment were recruited as Treatment as Usual controls and tested at equivalent time-points. Results showed that FIPP participants improved on one of three primary outcomes (i.e., problematic fire interest and associations with fire), and made some improvement on secondary outcomes (i.e., attitudes towards violence and antisocial attitudes) post treatment relative to controls. Most notable gains were made on the primary outcome of fire interest and associations with fire and individuals who gained in this area tended to self-report more serious firesetting behavior. FIPP participants maintained all key improvements at three-month follow up. These outcomes suggest that CBT should be targeted at those holding the most serious firesetting history. deaths, and $1.3 billion USD costs in property damage (Campbell, 2014). These latter property costs represent only a small amount of those incurred since they do not include some of the wider costs associated with firesetting (firefighting, or health costs or costs associated with wildfire damage). In the UK, there were 53,000 deliberately set fires and 451 fire- Over the past two decades, a small number of cognitive behavioral treatment packages (CBT) have been developed for use with mentally disordered firesetters (Hall, 1995; Swaffer, Hagget, & Oxley, 2001;Taylor, Thorne, Robertson, & Avery, 2002;Taylor, Robertson, Thorne, Belshaw, & Watson, 2006). However, these represent uncontrolled 'in house' therapy conducted with very small numbers of participants. In the largest study available (N = 14), Taylor et al. (2002) reported that a 40-session package of group CBT aimed primarily at reducing problematic fire interest and attitudes in patients with a learning disability led to significant improvements on standardized measures of fire interest and attitudes, anger, goal attainment (e.g., understanding of risk), and self esteem. In the absence 6 of any control group, however, the beneficial effect of this group therapy remains largely unclear. To our knowledge, no further firesetting treatment evaluation studies have been published. Furthermore, no treatment evaluation studies in prison settings have ever been reported. The current study aimed to provide the first evaluation of a specialist group therapy trial for male firesetters in a UK prison. The therapy evaluated differs from previous 'in house' therapies...

Purpose Using social dominance theory, the primary aim of this study was to examine the attitudes and beliefs that reinforce status hierarchies and facilitate aggressive behaviour within and between gangs. The aim was also to determine whether these socio‐cognitive processes distinguished gang‐involved youth from non‐gang offenders in a custodial setting. Methods Gang‐involved youth and non‐gang offenders were recruited from a young offender institution located in the United Kingdom. Questionnaires assessing psychological (i.e., moral disengagement strategies, anti‐authority attitudes, hypermasculinity, and social dominance orientation) and behavioural (i.e., group crime) characteristics were administered individually. We hypothesized that gang‐involved youth would be affiliated with groups who engaged in more criminal activity than non‐gang offenders, and that they would report higher levels of endorsements than non‐gang youth across all of the psychological measures. Results We found that gang‐involved youth were affiliated with groups who engage in more crimes than non‐gang offenders. We also found that social dominance orientation was an important factor related to gang involvement along with measures assessing group‐based hierarchies such as hypermasculinity, anti‐authority attitudes, and the moral disengagement strategies displacement of responsibility, dehumanization, and euphemistic labeling. Conclusions These findings fit within a social dominance theoretical framework as they highlight key psychological factors that feed into perceived status‐driven hierarchies that distinguish gang members from other types of offenders. These factors could be key to developments in treatment provision within custodial settings.

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