Rate My Professor Nicholas Blagden

Professor Nicholas Blagden is Professor of Criminological Psychology at the University of Derby in the School of Law and Criminology. He holds a PhD in Forensic Psychology, MSc in Forensic Psychology, MSc in Research Methods (Psychology), PgDip in Psychological Therapies, Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, PCPD in Professional Development, and BA (Hons) in Criminology. A Chartered Psychologist and registered psychotherapist, he has worked and researched within the Criminal Justice System and HM Prison and Probation Service for over 20 years. Blagden co-founded and serves as trustee of the Safer Living Foundation since 2014, a multi-award-winning charity that has supported more than 200 individuals to lead offence-free lives and for which he has helped raise over £1 million. He is a core member of the HMPPS Correctional Services Advice and Accreditation Panel, which reviews programme design, quality assurance, and evaluations, and sits on the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers Policy and Practice committee.

His research focuses on the reintegration and rehabilitation of individuals with sexual convictions, including barriers to reintegration, licence conditions, social isolation, prison climate, identity change in long-term therapy for personality disorders, religiosity among those with sexual offences, desistance through peer support and meaningful experiences, circles of support and accountability, fathering in prison, intrafamilial offending, and therapeutic approaches like personal construct psychology, acceptance and commitment therapy, and compassion-focused therapy. As principal investigator, he has led projects including the EU Horizon 2PS programme on child abuse prevention (2.8 million Euros), NIHR RCT on managing problematic sexual arousal in men with sexual convictions (£2.6 million), MoJ Qualitative Evaluation of the Thinking Skills Programme, and the Intrafamilial Offending project funded by the Institute of Mental Health, Ontario, Canada. He collaborates internationally with partners such as Correctional Services Australia, University of Bergen, and CEPOL. Key publications include editorship of Sexual Crime and the Experience of Imprisonment (Springer, 2020); “The people who leave here are not the people who arrived”: A qualitative analysis of the therapeutic process and identity transition in the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway (Criminal Justice & Behavior, 2023); and “I don’t really see any kind of change” – multi-perspective analysis of a circle of support and accountability (Journal of Sexual Aggression, 2023). His contributions have advanced forensic psychology and offender rehabilitation practices.