大象传媒

When we think about people who commit violent crimes, it’s easy to fall into the trap of labelling them as irredeemably bad, as if their actions define their entire existence. That’s why we often call people ‘killers’, or ‘murderers’. As if because they killed once, this is the only act they should be known for. This language is oversimplifying at best, and dehumanising at worst.

On Bad People, I spoke with someone who works directly with people who have killed.

Dr. Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist who works part time in the NHS, dividing her time between a high security hospital and a women’s prison.

I noticed immediately that Dr Adshead makes sure to use person-centred language whenever she speaks about the people she treats. So she doesn't say that people are ‘killers’, or even ‘violent offenders’. Instead she use terms like ‘people who have perpetrated violence’. Amidst the storm of often sensationalised media coverage of people who kill, her approach instils humanising calmness.

As a criminal psychologist, my academic work focuses on memory, interviewing techniques, and crime patterns, while Dr Adshead works directly with individuals in a clinical setting. She meets people who have perpetrated violent acts in a therapeutic setting, helping them make sense of their violence and reducing their risk of future harm.

“The community is far more dangerous than any prison or any secure psychiatric hospital could ever be” she told me. “I would much rather be in a high security psychiatric hospital than walking down some places in London. For example, if you’re in an environment where you’ve got lots of young men who are drunk, that is an environment in which violence is very likely to happen”.

“The fundamental myth here is that people think that because you've done a violent thing, that must mean you’re violent through and through... as if you never think about anything else but being violent” she said. “But this is just nonsense. The vast majority of violence perpetrators use their violence for a very particular purpose and have no interest in being violent or threatening towards me. Whereas in the outside world, you have no idea about the state of mind of the people you meet in the street.” This undermines the stereotype, often fed to us by films, that secure psychiatric hospitals are frightening places.

Dr Adshead’s approach also calls into question the rigid separation of victims and perpetrators. “I’m concerned that when we talk about violence, we tend to talk about victims and perpetrators as if they occupy completely different worlds,” she told me. “I think this is fundamentally untrue.”

People who kill have complex psychological needs. Dr Adshead explained that she tries to help them understand the drivers of their crimes, why they resorted to violence in the first place? And for many people this involves working through previous trauma as well as dealing with denial, guilt over the crimes they committed.

Dr Adshead works with people who are already being punished to reduce their risk of being violent to others and themselves. This doesn’t mean excusing violence. It means trying to understand it and accepting the sometimes uncomfortably ordinary reasons that underlie it. We cannot prevent that which we do not understand.

For me, the takeaway from Dr Adshead’s perspective is as profound as it is simple: People should not be defined by their worst acts. By humanising people who commit violence, we can better understand their motivations and reduce their risk of future harm. In doing so, we not only help individuals but also make our communities safer.

This year Dr Gwen Adshead is giving the prestigious Reith Lectures, which are called Four Questions about Violence. She is also the author of the book The Devil You Know, which details her experiences working in mental health settings with people who have perpetrated crime.

To hear my full conversation with Dr Adshead and my co-host Amber Haque’s thoughts on this topic, listen to Bad People on 大象传媒 Sounds: Episode 121.