Newson, Martha ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7700-9562, Peitz, Linus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7256-6968, Cunliffe, Jack and Whitehouse, Harvey (2024) A soccer-based intervention improves incarcerated individuals’ behaviour and public acceptance through group bonding. Nature Human Behaviour. ISSN 2397-3374 (Online) (doi:10.1038/s41562-024-02006-3)

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Abstract

As incarceration rates rise globally, the need to reduce re-offending grows increasingly urgent. We investigate whether positive group bonds can improve behaviours among incarcerated people via a unique soccer-based prison intervention, the Twinning Project. We analyse effects of participation compared to a control group (study 1, n = 676, n = 1,874 control cases) and longitudinal patterns of social cohesion underlying these effects (study 2, n = 388) in the United Kingdom. We also explore desistance from crime after release (study 3, n = 249) in the United Kingdom and the United States. As law-abiding behaviour also requires a supportive receiving community, we assessed factors influencing willingness to employ formerly incarcerated people in online samples in the United Kingdom and the United States (studies 4–9, n = 1,797). Results indicate that social bonding relates to both improved behaviour within prison and increased willingness of receiving communities to support re-integration efforts. Harnessing the power of group identities both within prison and receiving communities can help to address the global incarceration crisis.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	identity fusion, prison, football
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Inequalities Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2024 09:28
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/48341

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