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The private and charitable sectors have become firmly embedded within the criminal justice system, where they are increasingly involved and accountable for delivering public services (Ismail, 2021). The distinctiveness of the charitable sector enables it to provide services and meet needs in ways that the statutory and private sectors cannot (Clinks, 2013; Corcoran & Hucklesby, 2013; Dayson et al., 2022). Consecutive governments have acknowledged the charitable sector's essential role in criminal justice and recognised its unique ability to meet the complex needs of individuals who have contact with the criminal justice system. However, legislation, government policy and actions have caused greater reliance on the charitable sector. Utilising Foucault's (1991) governmentality perspective, neoliberal ideologies have disadvantaged charitable sector organisations. Government actions based on privatisation, monetarism, and austerity have hindered the charitable sector's capacity to deliver public services (Heydar-Cardwell, 2012; Marmot et al., 2020). The Transforming Rehabilitation programme implemented in practice in 2013 questions the government's support for the charitable sector and its involvement in public service provision (Dacombe & Morrow, 2016). Legislation and government policy have had equally damaging effects on charitable sector service users. Criminality and mental health disorders are associated with highly derogatory labels. Stigma theories outline the grave consequences caused by stigmatisation. Individuals attached to these labels are stigmatised, socially excluded, and disproportionately impacted by multiple laws and policies (Goffman, 1963; Link et al., 1989; Pinel, 1999; Scheff, 1966; Tremlin & Beazley, 2022). Link and Phelan's (2001, 2004) and Corrigan et al.'s (2004) notion of structural power shows how stigmatising labels justify punitive policy and action. During the 1970s, there was a growing political movement of conservative ideologies where liberal approaches were deemed 'soft on crime' and replaced with ideas around control and punitive punishments (Hardisty, 2004; Loader & Sparks, 2016; Spicker, 2022). The government's political decision to enforce neoliberal policies and inflict austerity has caused extensive harm to the most vulnerable, stigmatised groups in society (Lavalette, 2017; Marazziti, 2021; Tremlin & Beazley, 2022). The social injustices and government failings to minority and vulnerable groups within society are a vital area for analysis and social change. This research aimed to critically explore the distinctiveness of the charitable sector and the impact and effectiveness of legislation, government policy and actions on the charitable sector. More specifically and uniquely, the study explored the distinctiveness, impact, and effectiveness of charitable sector practitioners' perspectives. This research sought to provide a platform for the voices of charitable sector practitioners. The research's timing adds to the study's originality and its contribution to knowledge. The research critically explored practitioners' perspectives post-implementation of the Transforming Rehabilitation programme. Data was collected in 2016, three years after implementation, to explore perspectives of policy in practice in detail. This study sought to provide a profound understanding of how the charitable sector continues to provide support services through a time of political turmoil and substantial probationary reform from the perspectives of those working in the sector. The researcher conducted 24 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with practitioners from 8 different charitable sector organisations. All practitioners, either in paid or voluntary roles, delivered mental health and well-being support services to offenders or individuals whom the criminal justice system deems at risk of offending. Thematic analysis was then conducted to interpret the data and identify emergent codes and themes. The findings revolved around two core themes: the distinctiveness of the charitable sector and the detrimental impact of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms on charitable sector organisations. Charitable sector practitioners expressed their invaluable and distinct role in meeting the needs of offenders and individuals whom the criminal justice system deem at risk of offending. Charitable sector distinctiveness lies in providing innovative, individualised, and holistic services that meet its service users' multiple, complex needs. Yet, legislation and public policy, along with the government's principal priority to cut public expenditure, have caused numerous complexities for charitable sector organisations. The perspectives shared about Transforming Rehabilitation are based on concerns and anxieties over the future of their services and how they will navigate through the continuing state of flux. Practitioners communicated how they feel exploited and believe the government has prioritised financial savings and perceived political support over meeting offender needs and protecting the charitable sector's role. The thesis uses a combination of distinctive theories and first-hand accounts of delivering services in the charitable sector to deepen understanding of the complexities of providing public services in the charitable sector. Specifically, and uniquely, perspectives gathered at a time of radical change in the probation service provide a foundation for how the charitable sector has adapted during the early stages of the Transforming Rehabilitation initiative.

Pain has evolved as a protective mechanism to signal danger, threat, injury and inflammation to an organism; however, this becomes problematic and detrimental to human physiological and psychological wellbeing when it persists without a noxious cause. Transposable elements (TEs) are functional components of genomes that contribute to species specific gene expression patterns; therefore, we explored the role of TEs in the context of pain gene expression. This work focuses on non-LTR retrotransposons as they remain the major active class of autonomous TEs in the human genome. We first present a study using CRISPR that demonstrates the effect of a human specific retrotransposon SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) insertion as a contributor to human specific gene regulation at the locus encoding pain genes TRPV1 and TRPV3. We also show that the SVA at TRPV1 and TRPV3 has regulatory properties and further demonstrate its polymorphic nature and highlight potential links to pain phenotypes. Recent work has also identified that expression of the retrotransposon LINE-1 (L1) is a pathogenic contributor to neurodegenerative disease in the central nervous system and an inducer of inflammation in non-pathological ageing. Chronic pain is an age associated disorder and is driven by the onset of neuroinflammation in the peripheral nervous system. To assess whether L1 expression contributes to this mechanism associated with chronic pain, we present another proof of principle experiment in which we demonstrate increased L1 expression in ageing DRG. Furthermore, we explored L1 expression in response to a novel anti-inflammatory drug and found unexpected increases in expression. The data from this study implies a strong case for further investigation and a potential role for L1 in neuroinflammation in the peripheral nervous system. To summarise, the work presented in this thesis describes the first studies to investigate the role of retrotransposons in several contexts that may contribute to the development of chronic pain and modulation of pain phenotype.

Cognitive models of social phobia (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997; Hofmann, 2007) propose that social phobia is maintained by a fear of negative self evaluation. The literature review focuses on the role implicit and explicit self evaluations play in social phobia, including visual self-images. It then examines the ways in which self-compassion may counter negative self-evaluations. The empirical paper examines whether a self-compassionate induction can influence implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem. Sixty-three socially anxious participants gave a two-minute speech and were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions (Self-compassionate induction; emotional processing control; pure control) in order to examine the impact of self-compassion on implicit and explicit self-esteem and visual self-images in social anxiety. Consistent with previous research, all participant's exhibited a positive implicit self-esteem, as measured by the Implicit Association's Test (IAT). The three groups did not differ significantly on levels of implicit and explicit self-esteem, or the valence of visual self-images. However a significant correlation between implicit and explicit self-esteem was observed in the self compassionate group only, providing pmiial support for the hypothesis that self compassion may reduce the discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-esteem. Implications of the results are discussed, as are the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.