Prosecuting the Persecuted: Forgive Them, They Know Not What They Do

Abstract

NHS staff are among the most likely to face violence and abuse at work (Department of Health, 2011). Acts of violence committed against mental health professionals by psychiatric inpatients is a serious perennial workplace problem. It is acknowledged that crimes of violence are more prone to subjective judgement about whether to record a crime (ONS Crime Survey, 2015). A report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found that violence against the person offences had the highest under-recording rates across police forces in England and Wales. Indeed, nationally, an estimated one in three (33%) violent offences that should have been recorded as crimes were not. The link between mental disorder and offending behaviour has often been postulated in literature and in the media. In 1933 at an annual meeting for the South African Association of Probation in Johannesburg, his royal highness Prince George made the following observation: The problem of crime is a sad one when looked upon from the point of view of the offender and a troublesome one when looked at from that of the State. (HRH Prince George, 1933) In this chapter, I explore one of the difficulties faced by mental health professionals working in high security hospitals; whether or not to prosecute inpatients who engage in violent / criminal behaviour within the hospital setting. The focus of this debate is one which has exercised professionals over a number of decades and one in which opinion is divided. This chapter is based on a service evaluation undertaken at Broadmoor Hospital, one of the three high security hospitals in England. It considers a framework for addressing this long-standing problem and explores the reluctance to prosecute this cohort of offenders.