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.
We will support research people working within or in association with universities or other established structures, such as health services, through commissioned reviews and research planning meetings. From time to time we will be advertising funds for research streams. In the longer term, we expect to support research career development and substantive studies. We can only support initiatives for which at least one person is based in the UK and with affiliations to a UK organisation.
Our immediate task is to stimulate academic and public debate about research priorities and to promote current knowledge and need. The number of people in prison in the UK is rising; the proportion with mental disorder is increasing. We have some excellent mental health services, but they are expensive and insufficient, and under threat without good enough evidence of their effectiveness. We have some treatments which work for some people, but as the boys and girls and men and women who have mental disorder and who offend have multiple and complex problems, there is a lot of unmet need.