Editorial

Citation

Gredecki, C.A.I.a.N. (2014), "Editorial", The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 16 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-07-2013-0040

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Forensic Practice, Volume 16, Issue 2.

This issue begins with an invited paper by Alex Lord and Derek Perkins, focusing on the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders with mental disorders. This is an extremely well considered review of the literature, where they argue the many similarities between mentally disordered clients and general forensic clients residing in the community and prisons. They present the specific challenges from this population however in regard to personality disorder, paraphilias and the more scarce client whose offending can be functionally linked to their mental health. From this they present a number of practical implications, including the need for careful case formulation of the individual's complex needs, treatment that is responsive to personality presentations, consideration of any functional links between offending and mental health, as well as a need for recovery promotion from mental disorder.

Following this is Deniz Aslan et al.'s paper, focusing on offending behaviour patterns of internet and contact sex offences against children. Using thematic analysis they note similarities between the two groups, but also some developmental differences. They argue two main developmental themes of childhood attachment difficulties and experiences of childhood abuse appearing to influence the offence process. Escalating factors were also noted as well as a range of offence behaviours that fitted well with past research. They argue well the importance of a detailed understanding of the offence in order to inform clinical intervention and management.

The paper that follows is an interesting consideration by Annette McKeown of female offenders who commit domestic violence. She succinctly argues the importance of the study in terms of limited publications exploring the prevalence and characteristics of female domestic violence perpetrators residing in prison. The study therefore attempts to address this, with a well-developed argument that men and women can perpetrate similar levels of domestic violence. Results of the study indicate high levels of psychological aggression and physical assaults both experienced and perpetrated by female offenders, with physical assaults tending to be substantial with high levels of mutual violence in intimate relationships.

Claire Nagi et al.'s paper then explores group treatment in a male low secure mental health service. They describe the development, content and structure of a group based intervention aiming to address diverse needs of low secure forensic mental health setting clients. They note the intervention was positively received by staff and participants, although participation and understanding were lower than expected. They argue the importance of developing group based interventions from existing “what works” information, with the need to ensure appropriate levels of support for clients undertaking such engagement.

Gakhal and Oddie conclude this issue with a preliminary study examining bullying behaviours among mentally disordered offenders in a medium secure unit. Whilst a small pool of participants, the sample of study is under-reported in the literature. They consider well the nature and prevalence of bullying behaviours and victimisation experiences of participants. In line with previous studies in other adult populations they noted that indirect aggression was reported more frequently than direct aggression. Of interest were those noted as “pure bullies” who were predicted by ward. They argue caution in generalisation of their results, yet nonetheless demonstrate how their preliminary study adds value to the field.

Carol A. Ireland and Neil Gredecki