Society and Environment
Dr Mark James
Recent Publications:
Gannon, T., Olver, M., Mallion, J., & James, M. (2019). Does specialized psychological treatment for offending reduce recidivism? A meta-analysis examining staff and program variables as predictors of treatment effectiveness. Clinical Psychology Review. 73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101752.
Pina, A., Holland, J., James, M. (2017). The malevolent side of revenge porn proclivity: Dark personality traits and sexist ideology. International Journal of Technoethics, 8(1), 30-43. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJT.2017010103.
Alleyne, E., Wood, J. L., Mozova, K., & James, M. (2016). Psychological and behavioural characteristics that distinguish gang members in custody. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 21(2), 266-285. https://doi.org/10.111/lcrp.12072.
Research Interests:
I am a forensic psychologist with a particular interest in the influence of social psychological and group processes on criminal and legal functioning. My main research field is studying factors influencing youth gang membership and activities, with an interest in assessment and intervention for at-risk youth. I am also interested in public responses to crime and justice issues, with a particular emphasis on vigilante action. I have also recently started to examine social psychological and group processes in military contexts.
Current Research Projects:
My current research includes:
- A project to evaluate the ‘Your Life You Choose’ (YLYC) knife crime intervention programme run in schools across London. This is in collaboration with Katarina Mozova (see here for staff profile: [Please insert link to this staff member’s profile]) and the Metropolitan Police.
- Development of age-appropriate web-based tools to facilitate data collection in schools. This is a sub-study to the YLYC evaluation, in collaboration with Katarina Mozova, Hannan Azhar (see here for staff profile: [Please insert link to this staff member’s profile]), and Jack Dane (CCCU Student Intern).
- Overseeing a series of studies to develop and evaluate methods of assessing proclivity in a range of under-researched criminal/legal phenomena, including:
- Vigilantism (James, Widanaralalage-Don, & Symons).
- Paedophile Hunting (James, Lakin, & Beck).
- Multiple-Perpetrator Child Molestation (AKA Paedophile Rings: James, Cywinska, & George).
Developing Research Areas:
Building on previous work, I am currently developing proposals for research examining offence proclivity, risk assessment, and intervention effectiveness in relation to youth gangs.