Professor Theresa Gannon

Theresa's main research interests are in the areas of arson or firesetting and sexual offending.

Over the past few years Theresa has developed two empirically based standardised treatment programmes for offenders who have set fires: The Firesetting Intervention Programme for Prisoners (FIPP) and the Firesetting Intervention Programme for Mentally Disordered Offenders (FIP-MO). The FIPP has been run in South East prisons and the results of this programme are currently being evaluated. The FIP-MO is being run nationally across the UK within private hospitals and the NHS.

Theresa is interested in research examining the treatment needs and characteristics of female sexual offenders. Her research has focused on examining the offence supportive beliefs and offence styles of these women, and the specific factors that lead them to offend. 

More recently, she has begun to investigate the sexual fantasies and attachment styles of females who sexually offend.

Theresa's research on male sexual offenders is concerned with examining the offence supportive beliefs and cognitions of this population and developing methods of increasing honest disclosures in men who have sexually offended. In 2010, she and her CORE-FP colleagues won a Ministry of Justice tender to evaluate mandatory polygraph testing for sexual offenders released on license in the UK. As a result of their research new legislation was passed to allow polygraph testing for men who have sexually offended in the UK.

• The cognition of child molesters, rapists, and violent offenders
• Female sex offenders
• The rehabilitation and treatment of sexual offenders
• Applied cognitive-experimental psychology
• Arson and firesetting
  

Project supervision

Theresa is interested in supervising projects examining:

1. Child sexual offenders
2. Rapists
3. Attitudes towards sexual offenders
4. Female-perpetrated violence
5. Arson and firesetting

Current research students

• Alisha O'Connor: TBC
• Samuel T. Hales (1st supervisor)
• Victoria Lister (1st supervisor)

Past research students

• Dr Helen Butler: An investigation of fire expertise, fire scripts, and fire interest in male incarcerated firesetters (2018)
• Becky Wyatt, MPhil: The development of a risk assessment for mentally disordered firesetters (2018)
• Dr Katarina Mozova: Towards a social psychology framework of youth group membership: An exploratory study (2nd supervisor) (2017)
• Dr Emma Barrowcliffe: Identifying and assessing the characteristics of unapprehended fire setters living in the general population (2017)
• Dr Magali Barnoux: Qualitative investigation of firesetting in male prisoners (2015)
• Dr Nichola Tyler: An evaluation of mentally disordered firesetters (2015)
• Dr Emily Blake: The social cognitions of rapists and rape prone men (2013)
• Dr Kirsten Keown (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) obtained her PhD in 2009. Kirsten’s PhD investigated the offence-supportive beliefs (or cognitive distortions) of male child molesters using cognitive-experimental tasks such as the lexical decision task. Email her to find out more: keownkirs@student.vuw.ac.nz.

• Registered Forensic Practitioner Psychologist, Health Professions Council (Registration Number PYL06748).
  
• Chartered Forensic Psychologist (C.Psychol Forensic), British Psychological Society, UK.
  
• Consultant Forensic Psychologist, Kent Forensic Psychiatry Services, UK.
  

Grants and Awards

Editor roles

• 2008 – date              Associate Editor: Journal of Sexual Aggression
  
• 2012 – date              Editor: Psychology, Crime and Law
  

Editorial board duties

• 2013– date               Editorial Board Member: Journal of Psychiatry and Brain Functions
  
• 2010 – date              Editorial Board Member: Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment
  
• 2009 – date              Editorial Board Member: British Journal of Forensic Practice
  
• 2009 – date              Editorial Board Member: Aggression and Violent Behavior
  
• 2009 – date              Editorial Board Member: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
  
• 2007 – 2012             Editorial Board Member: The Open Criminology Journal
  
• 2007 – 2008             Editorial Board Member: Journal of Sexual Aggression
  

Conference organisation

• Lead Organiser for the Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology Conference Launch (2010-2011)
  
• Lead Conference Organiser for the British Psychological Society’s Annual Division of Forensic Psychology Conference 2010 (2009-2010)
  

External examining