We had a very strong field of applicants and, having hovered between making one or two awards, only providing there were two exceptional applications, we awarded three.
The wide range of topics to be covered have in common the drive to develop information that will help prevent and reduce harms to or between people. They cover sexual offending against children, intimate partner violence and dementia care for prisoners.
- Dr Simon Duff, of Nottingham University, will systematically review literature on factors linked to the disclosure of sexual offending against children and associated outcomes. This is a notoriously difficult area because anyone who seeks help with concerns about this is likely to find themselves involved, very quickly, with safeguarding authorities and probably the police. Whilst this is clearly understandable, such responding raises many questions about harms of disclosure – not simply to the person offending or thinking about acts that would be offences, but also to the very process of prevention of harms. Accepting that research in this field is at an early stage, this review will be a vital step on a pathway to any proactive work.
- Drs Ava Green (City St George’s, University of London) and Claire Hart (University of Southampton) are exploring how personality processes shape dynamics within intimate relationships, focusing on narcissistic traits and sensitivity to self-image threat. Their research examines how these processes may contribute to conflict escalation, and whether patterns differ across gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. There is little allowance for the latter in existing intimate partner violence research. Using an inclusive online study, they aim to advance understanding of risk and resilience in close relationships.
- Dr Kate Walker, of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Berrywood Hospital, recognising the ever growing number of older prisoners, a group with many risk factors for dementia, will do an integrative review of dementia care interventions in prisons. She acknowledges some already good basic reviews of prevalence and needs and of some interventions available there, but makes a strong case of a systematic review that brings all these facets together.
All these researchers have a clear vision of ways in which their work will be a stepping stone towards improving interventions towards best outcomes.
Congratulations to all of them for these first steps. We look forward to useful outcomes directly from these studies, and also their growing vision of how these will take us much, much further forward still – to more effective prevention and intervention, with least attendant risks of unwanted and even harmful harm side effects.
Research can transform lives. We want to support discoveries about what helps people with mental disorder who have been victims of criminal behaviour, or perpetrators of criminal behaviour, and their families, and the clinicians and others who treat them and, indeed, the wider community when its members are in contact with these problems. More effective prevention is the ideal, when this is not possible, we need more effective, evidenced interventions for recovery and restoration of safety.
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