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Purpose Epidemiological data on the mental health needs of prisoners are essential for the organisation, planning, and delivery of services for this population as well as for informing policy and practice. Recent reports by the National Audit Office and NICE call for new research to provide an updated picture of the mental health needs of men and women in prison in the UK. This study aimed to measure the prevalence and comorbidity of mental health needs across a representative sample of both men and women across 13 prisons in one UK region. Method Participants completed a standardised battery of psychometric assessments which screened for a range of mental health difficulties including: mental disorders, personality disorder, and substance misuse. Results 469 participants were included in the final sample (338 males, 131 females). A high number of participants reported having had previous contact with mental health services and/or a pre-existing diagnosis of a mental disorder. High rates of current mental disorder were detected across the range of disorders screened for. Levels of comorbidity were also high, with nearly half of participants screening positive for two or more types of mental disorder. Gender differences were noted in terms of previous contact with mental health services, having a pre-existing diagnosis, prevalence of current mental disorder, and levels of comorbidity; with women reporting higher rates than men. Conclusions Rates of pre-existing and current mental illness continue to be high amongst prisoners. Women report significantly higher levels of mental health need compared to men.

Relatively little effort has been made to develop and validate theories that explain firesetting.In this study the first offense chain model of firesetting in mentally disordered offenders was developed. Twenty-three mentally disordered firesetters were interviewed about the affective, cognitive, behavioral and contextual factors leading up to and surrounding one of their recorded firesetting offenses. Offense account interviews were analysed using groundedtheory. The resulting model consists of four main phases: (1) background, (2) early adulthood, (3) pre-offense period, and (4) offense, and post offense period. The model accounts for firesetting by both male and female mentally disordered offenders and highlights the importance of early childhood experiences of fire and the onset of mental illness as precursors to firesetting within this population. Further, the model is able to distinguish between different types of mentally disordered firesetters and their offense styles. The clinical implications and utility of the model are also discussed.

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...

This research examined whether a government-initiated pilot project of mandatory polygraph testing would increase the disclosures made by community-supervised sexual offenders in the United Kingdom. The Offender Managers of 332 pilot polygraph sexual offenders and 303 sexual offenders who were receiving usual community supervision were telephoned quarterly, over a 21-month period, to collect information about numbers of clinically relevant disclosures, the seriousness of disclosures made, and actions taken as a result of disclosures. Perceptions of polygraph usefulness were also collected. Offender Managers in the pilot polygraph group-compared to comparison Offender Managers-reported (a) a higher proportion of offenders making at least one disclosure (i.e., 76.5% vs. 51.2% respectively), and (b) that their offenders made more total disclosures overall (Ms = 2.60 vs. 1.25 respectively). The majority of disclosures made by sexual offenders in the polygraph group were associated with the polygraph session itself. Polygraph Offender Managers reported being more likely to take an action that involved increasing supervision, informing a third party, informing Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), changing supervision focus, or issuing a warning to the offender. However, the relative seriousness of disclosures did not appear to differ across groups. In terms of polygraph test results, one third of offenders (most notably those who were higher in risk) failed their first test with "Deception Indicated." This outcome-received on a first test-was most likely to elicit clinically relevant disclosures. Offender Managers described the polygraph as aiding supervision strategies. This research and its associated caveats are discussed.

The Four Factor Fire Scales provide professionals working in the area with a robust template for administering, scoring, and interpreting the fire-specific factors currently identified as playing a role in deliberate firesetting behavior. Strengths and limitations of the measure are discussed.

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Purpose This study aims to assess the prevalence of firesetting in a sample of young UK adults aged 18 to 23 years and to compare their characteristics with non-firesetting individuals. Design/methodology/approach Two-hundred and forty male (n = 119, 49.6%) and female (n = 121, 50.4%) participants were recruited through Prolific Academic. Comparisons were made between self-reported firesetting and non-firesetting participants on a range of demographic, fire-related and personality measures. Factors predictive of firesetting status were examined using hierarchical logistic regression. Findings Twenty-five percent of participants (n = 60) reported igniting a deliberate fire. Logistic regression was used to examine the ability of parental supervision and behavioural issues (e.g., witnessing domestic violence, experimenting with fire before age 10 and family history of firesetting), antisocial behaviours (e.g., having criminal friends, impulsivity, teenage access to fire paraphernalia, skipping class more than once per week, taken any illegal drugs and participation in criminal behaviour) and fire-related interests, attitudes and propensities in predicting firesetting status. Factors found to distinguish firesetting and non-firesetting participants included the following: experimented with fire before 10 years of age, family history of firesetting, impulsivity, teenage access to fire paraphernalia, participation in criminal behaviour and the Fire Setting Scale. Practical implications The results provide key information about potential risk factors relating to un-apprehended firesetting in the general population. Originality/value This research adds to the small body of literature examining firesetting in the general population. It refines previously used methodologies, presents the first research study to examine the prevalence of firesetting behaviour in emerging adults and enhances our understanding of un-apprehended firesetting.