Forensic psychotherapy

Forensic psychotherapy is the application of psychological knowledge to the treatment of patients who have mental illnesses who commit violent acts against others or themselves involving both the conscious and unconscious motivations. Commonly applied diagnoses would include personality disorder and psychosis. The link between personality disorder and offending is not firmly established although many of those who commit offences have one or more personality disorders. The term forensic psychotherapy is usually associated with Psychodynamic psychotherapy, including group psychotherapy and the therapeutic community approach. Cognitive behavioral therapy is more commonly associated with the field of psychology, particularly Forensic Psychology. Forensic psychotherapists may collaborate with other professionals, such as physicians, social workers, and other psychologists to best serve the client's needs and may work in various settings including prisons, inpatient settings, and outpatient settings. Forensic psychologists encompasses four types of work: clinical work, supervisory work, clinical meetings, and consultation. Guidelines have been set to ensure proficiency in the field of Forensic Psychology.

It has been difficult to illustrate a clear link between psychological interventions that successfully reduce the incidence of offending and those that do not and clearly nothing has led to the elimination of crime. At times this difficulty has contributed to a profound pessimism about the effectiveness of any form of treatment. This was particularly so in the United States of America but this pessimism regarding the effectiveness of treatment spread to the United Kingdom and arguably adversely affected the provision of rehabilitative treatments. The development of cognitive behavioural therapy which made it possible to demonstrate an effect upon some attitudes and offending behaviours and for this to be measured in controlled research studies led to the introduction of structured treatment programmes in prisons across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and more recently, mainland Europe. For a period there have been positive benefits in the provision of resources particularly in prison settings. However, there has been serious conflict as professionals compete for limited resources and one model claimed superiority over another.

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