Peer-support has existed in prisons both in the UK and abroad for decades, primarily in the form of discernible yet informal'programs' or'schemes'. Through these programs, prisoners are able to access support from fellow prisoners for issues ranging from emotional distress and addiction problems to practical and educational needs. Peer-support, as a general'help resource', is underscored by the principles of mutual reciprocity, empathy, and shared problem solving. Although this resource has existed in prisons for decades, research focussing explicitly on those who uphold peer-support roles is virtually non-existent. This is surprising when considering the apparent benefits of peer-led helping (ie prisoners upholding meaningful empathetic roles) and the ever-present global obsession with identifying'what works' in addressing the problem of crime. It is even more surprising when considering that peer-helping boasts the innate and transparent benefit of being virtually cost-free. Indeed, an intervention that has organically established itself in the prison context, remained there for decades, and has clocked up no calculable monetary cost warrants further investigation. To this end, the overarching aim of this thesis and its empirical chapters was to provide a deeper understanding of how adopting a peer-support role in prison may affect offenders’ attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and experiences of imprisonment. This was approached qualitatively and on two levels in terms of offence type (generalised and sexual), and three levels in terms of context (personal, institutional, and social). Three empirical chapters (studies) represent the core of this theses. Study 1 explored the broad construct of peer-support with those who uphold peer-helping roles in prison. It asked participants questions relating to how peer-support roles are delivered, experienced, and assimilated into a number offending contexts (ie at an experiential and institutional level and at a personal subjective narrative level). Given this holistic focus, this study utilised a sizable (N= 22) sample comprised of mixed offence type participants who resided across three UK prisons. It relied on semi-structured interviews and employed thematic analysis to draw out recurrent notions that portrayed an understanding of the dynamics of peer-support in prison and its utility amongst offenders. The analysis within this study revealed that the implications of peer-helping in prison transcend far and wide the simple notion of shared problem solving. For incarcerated people, upholding a peer-support role offers a wellspring of meaningful activity that can be used to cope with prison deprivation, enhance well-being, contribute to good lives and possible selves, and energise cognitive transformations. Ultimately, this study introduced the encouraging notion that through peer-support roles, prisoners can gather forward momentum and create trajectories that are not predetermined by being doomed to deviance. Study 2 continues the enquiry into the utility of peer-support in prisons and focuses on the experiences of the role-holders themselves. This time there is an explicit focus on a smaller sample (N= 15) and on sexual offenders. The justification for these decisions was based on both previous exemplary studies, and the fact that sexual offenders represent an under-researched, poorly understood, and deeply ostracised population. Sexual offenders are also required, more so than other offending populations, to go through intensive treatment programs and demonstrate reduced risk. Therefore, such offenders were considered an important population with which to explore peer-support, given that it appeared from study 1 to …