Offence-Related Cognition

Evidence-based approaches to understanding and treating offence-related cognition across populations

Offence-Related Cognition: Theory, Assessment and Intervention delivers a comprehensive examination of criminal cognition. Experts Theresa A. Gannon and Tony Ward integrate perspectives from cognitive science, clinical psychology, and forensic psychology to address how offence-related thinking develops and can be effectively treated across populations including individuals who sexually offend, violently offend, or start deliberate fires.

The book covers contemporary assessment methods from traditional questionnaires to innovative indirect measures like the Implicit Association Test. Readers gain practical guidance on clinical formulation and evidence-based treatments spanning behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, and third-wave therapies. Unique chapters examine cognition in special populations including individuals with intellectual disabilities while exploring how cognitive biases systematically affect criminal justice from investigations to jury decisions.

Readers will also find:

• Comprehensive theoretical frameworks including enactivist perspectives, emotion-cognition integration, and moral reasoning development applied to criminal behaviour
• Evidence-based assessment techniques covering questionnaires, interviews, indirect measures, and best-practice clinical formulation approaches for diverse offending populations
• Detailed examination of offence-specific cognition in sexual offending, intimate partner violence, firesetting, and general violence with established theoretical models
• Treatment approaches from behavioural and cognitive-behavioural to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
• Specialized coverage of intellectual disability populations, forensic mental health settings, criminal justice system biases, and witness memory factors

Essential for forensic psychologists, criminologists, psychiatrists, and students pursuing advanced degrees, this text provides the evidence-based resource needed to effectively assess and treat offence-related cognition. With contributions from international experts, it delivers practical tools to advance both research and clinical practice.

Theresa A. Gannon, DPhil, is a Professor of Forensic Psychology and Director of the Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychology at the University of Kent, UK. She is a Practitioner Consultant Forensic Psychologist specialising in deliberate firesetting and sexual offending.

Tony Ward, PhD, DipClinPsyc, is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. He has published extensively in these areas with over 490 academic publications. His work has been recognised with the 2021 Mason Durie Medal for Social Science research, awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.