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The influence of evil on forensic clinical practice
Author(s) -
Mason Tom,
Richman Joel,
Mercer Dave
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-0979.2002.00231.x
Subject(s) - ideology , medicalization , relation (database) , thematic analysis , forensic psychiatry , mental health , perception , psychology , mental health care , structuring , criminology , psychiatry , sociology , politics , qualitative research , law , social science , political science , neuroscience , database , computer science
: As the medicalization of criminal behaviour expands through forensic psychiatric practice it is reliant upon a therapeutic ideology based on clinical assessment and effective application of treatment strategies. When such criminal offences are particularly heinous the perpetrators are often referred to as evil by non‐professional accounts. However, the extent to which the concept of evil affects the perceptions of mental health professionals working with such offenders is little understood. This paper reports on research conducted in a high‐security psychiatric hospital in the North‐west of England and examines the construction of care plans in relation to a number of mentally disordered offenders who are considered by a group of mental health professionals as evil. Thematic analysis of mental health professionals’ discourse pertaining to the care plans revealed a complex motivational and rational structuring of evil that dictated the switch from medical ideological discourse to lay notions of badness. From this, an Airaksinen model was constructed to display the types of evil manifestations .