Serious and organised crime (SOC) is described as a major threat to the national security of the United Kingdom and responding to and reducing the impact of SOC is a priority for governments on a global scale, including disrupting and preventing the activities of organised crime groups (OCG’s). This thesis aims to contribute to the areas of serious and organised crime and criminal social identity research by presenting the outcomes of mixed-methods research conducted with a UK male prison population using the Integrated Model of Criminal Social Identity (IPM-CSI) as a theoretical framework for understanding how and why individuals may become involved with serious and organised crime. It adds to previous research by further validating a revised measure of Criminal Social Identity (CSI) with a UK adult male prison sample on a large scale, using confirmatory factor analysis techniques including for the first time with a sample of serious and organised crime offenders. The outcomes of this study confirm that the three-factorial model of criminal social identity consisting of cognitive centrality, in-group affect and in-group ties is a very good fit across the different samples. In addition, regression analyses show differential predictive validity with external variables. The second quantitative study is novel research exploring further the reasons and ways in which people became involved in serious and organised crime using general questions and specific measures of adverse childhood experiences, psychopathy and self-esteem alongside the measure of criminal social identity. This is achieved by exploring differences between groups and variables using independent t-tests and one-way ANOVAs and exploring different measures and subscales of the IPM-CSI model using path analyses. This shows that alongside confirming high levels of criminal social identity in a combined UK offender sample, the IPM-CSI provides a strong theoretical framework for further understanding involvement in serious and organised crime. The final study uses a qualitative methodology including semi-structured interviews to understand in more detail the experiences and perspectives of individuals who have been involved in serious and organised crime and organised crime groups (OCG’s) by drawing out themes using thematic analysis. The outcomes of this study add weight to the importance of the areas of criminality, networks (friends and family) and identity as pathways into SOC and OCG’s and explores the area of desistance from SOC in order to contribute to the area of policy and practice including potential ‘prevent’ strategies with this ‘hard to reach’ and under-researched group of offenders, particularly those located in custodial settings.
| Date of Award | 13 May 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Sponsors | HM Prison and Probations Service |
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| Supervisor | Dara Mojtahedi (Main Supervisor) & Derrol Kola-Palmer (Co-Supervisor) |
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