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Within feminist scholarship advertising – representing women as wives, mothers and sexual objects – has long been regarded as patriarchal, blocking women's liberation (Talbot 2000) and thus an impossible practice for progressive activism. More recently, however, approaches acknowledge advertising as a ‘tool' deployed for a range of ‘political' ends, encouraging changes in values, understandings and behaviors. Such advertising is often referred to as ‘social marketing'. This thesis focuses on one such campaign in Ghana between 2007 and 2009 attempting to raise awareness about gender violence. This campaign is considered in the context of the position of women in post-colonial Ghana and tracked across the different processes of a ‘circuit of culture' (including production, representation, consumption) through which meanings are made (du Gay et al 1997). The thesis explores the campaign's inception, production, mobilization within educational and ‘consciousness-raising' endeavors, the form and textual construction of the ads (largely posters), women's (and some men's) understanding of the posters and gender violence. Methodologically, the project involved interviewing twelve individuals in key organizations working with the public, victims, and on the campaign. It also involved collecting a sample of ten ad posters and conducting eight ‘focus group' discussions with women and some men. Findings suggest that the campaign did lead to increased awareness of gender violence across gender, generations and literacy levels. Nevertheless, audiences/consumers interpreted the campaign posters in very distinctive ways, depending on the resonance with their own lives. Further, constraints on reporting abuse still held, not least on account of the embarrassment and shame of admission. Overall the thesis contributes to scholarship on social marketing but more particularly to debates about improving women's position in Ghana.

The familiar irony of ‘real existing socialism' is that it never was. Socialist ideals were used to legitimise regimes that fell far short of realising those ideals – indeed, that violently repressed anyone who tried to realise them. This thesis investigates how the derogatory and depoliticizing concept of the criminal has historically allowed, and continues to allow, liberal ideals to operate in a worryingly similar manner. Across the political spectrum, ‘criminal' is used as a slur. That which is criminal is assumed to be bad, and what is more, to be bad in a way that is not politically interesting. I show how this serves to prevent deep dissent from the status quo, and particularly from the existing, unjust order of property, from registering as dissent at all. Feminists have long argued that the exclusion of what is deemed ‘personal' from the sphere of the political is itself a (conservative) political move. I propose that the construction of ‘the criminal' as a category opposed to the political constitutes a similar barrier to emancipatory social transformation. I suggest, further, that under conditions of ‘real existing liberalism', some kinds of conflict with the law have the potential not only to manifest but also to forge ‘resistant subjectivities'. I conclude that political philosophy, insofar as its purpose is emancipatory, should be more interested in the perspectives of criminals than it hitherto has been.

This study aimed to create the first measure of risk for UK gang-affiliation. A pilot stage invited gang affiliated and non-gang affiliated participants between the ages of 16–25 to retrospectively self-report on 58 items of risk exposure at the age of 11. Based on performance of these items, a 26-item measure was developed and administered to a main study sample (n=185) of gang affiliated and non-gang affiliated participants. Categorical Principal Component Analysis was applied to data, yielding a single-factor solution (historic lack of safety and current perception of threat). A 15-item gang-affiliation risk measure (GARM) was subsequently created. The GARM demonstrated good internal consistency, construct validity and discriminative ability. Items from the GARM were then transformed to read prospectively, resulting in a test measure for predictive purposes (T-GARM). However, the T-GARM requires further validation regarding its predictive utility and generalisability.

Section A: This paper reviews the existing theoretical and empirical literature of relevance to offenders with severe mental illness (SMI) in the UK. Due to the lack of theory accounting for progress through forensic mental health services (FMHS) as currently constituted, the adjacent areas of mental health recovery and forensic rehabilitation are the major focus. Relevant empirical literature is synthesised and critically evaluated and this paper concludes by (a) summarising research challenges that remain pertinent to this area of enquiry and (b) outlining recommendations as to how research can usefully proceed. Section B: The UK’s increasing recognition of offenders with SMI and the lack of a theoretical account specific to this group provided the rationale for this study. The aim was to develop a preliminary model of the ways offenders with SMI progress through FMHS towards reintegration with the community. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven FMHS-users and three FMHS staff members. Grounded theory was used to build a preliminary model, which contained six main categories: learning about and managing mental health, establishing facilitative relationships with staff, moving on from prison and early experiences of FMHS, developing self-direction, doing work in therapy, and managing wider support networks. Findings extend existing literature by providing a preliminary theoretical account of the multiple domains that influence progression of offenders with SMI towards reintegration with the community. Results are discussed with regard to the existing literature and clinical implications are outlined. Recommendations for future research are made. Section C: In order to reflect upon the process of conducting this project, the author considers four questions: (1) what research skills have been developed and what skills continue to require development?, (2) what would be done differently were this project to be repeated?, (3) what changes in clinical practice will occur as a consequence of this research?, and (4) what areas would future research focus on and how would this be approached?