Mentally Disordered Offenders' Perspectives on Their Level of Risk to Others

Mentally disordered offenders subject to section 37/41 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (England and Wales) are subject to conditions and restrictions operated by the Ministry of Justice.  The legal basis for such an order is that it is ‘necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm’ and mental health services are tasked with identifying, monitoring and minimising mental health risks in order to maximise public safety.   Relatively little has been written about the way in which this group of offenders understands and makes sense of their own level of risk.  This paper draws on original research with mentally disordered offenders subject to this order and demonstrates the way in which they sought to dignify and explain behaviours that had been identified as risky by others.  It is argued that offenders gave accounts relying heavily on notions of identity in order to justify their actions.  I begin by examining those who explained their offending as having occurred as a consequence of being ill.  I then turn to those who rejected illness explanations and examine techniques which they used to present themselves.  Not all research participants fell neatly into groups of people accepting or rejecting notions of mental illness.  A large proportion gave complex and sometimes contradictory accounts.  Within these accounts, risk and safety were framed in a variety of ways in order to emphasise the moral aspects of service users’ identities.    Attention will be given to the wide range of strategies used to achieve this.  I will explore differing ways in which participants described mental disorder, notions of risk as fate, hierarchies of risk and the use of jokes.  Finally I draw a number of conclusions in relation to what this tells us about service users’ understanding of their identities.