Recovery After Homicide

• Author: Sarita Bose,Gwen Adshead,Martha Ferrito
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854814550030
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Subject Matter: Modes of Rehabilitation

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2015, Vol. 42, No. 1, January 2015, 70 –81.

DOI: 10.1177/0093854814550030

© 2014 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

70

RECOVERY AFTER HOMICIDE: NARRATIVE

SHIFTS IN THERAPY WITH HOMICIDE

PERPETRATORS

GWEN ADSHEAD

Ravenswood House

MARTHA FERRITO

Fitzwilliam House

SARITA BOSE

Broadmoor Hospital

A key theme in mental health is the principle of recovery. However, it is not clear how this might apply to forensic mental

health services, which offer mental health care to men and women who have offended when mentally unwell. In this article,

we explore how discussion of the index offense fits into recovery paradigms and how reflection on offender identity relates

to recovery. Using clinical material from therapy groups for homicide perpetrators, we discuss how narratives of agency and

responsibility change (or not) in therapy, and how narrative shifts link with the concept of “recovery” in mental health.

Keywords: offender recovery; values; homicide treatment; narrative shifts; forensic treatment; high secure service

There has been considerable research into the concept of recovery from mental illness,

and the language of recovery has become dominant in mental health services in recent

years (Andresen, Oades, & Caputi, 2003; Goldsack, Reet, Lapsley, & Gingell, 2005; Slade,

2009; Spaniol, Wewiorski, Gagne, & Anthony, 2002). Forensic mental health services argu-

ably have a duty to provide therapeutic interventions for forensic patients, but there is no

established evidence base that elucidates what “recovery” in forensic psychiatry means.

Prisons offer interventions designed to change cognitions that underpin offenses such as sex

offending, drunk driving, and intimate partner violence, in the hope that this will reduce

offending and these can be replicated in secure services. However, it has been recognized

that forensic patients need specific recovery programs that address both offending behavior

and mental health (Drennan & Alred, 2012; Ferrito, Vetere, Adshead, & Moore, 2012).

In this article, we discuss what “recovery” means for a particular group of forensic

patients: those who have committed homicide while mentally ill. We have chosen to focus

on this group for two reasons: First, because they represent the paradigm cases of what the

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors would like to thank Estelle Moore and colleagues at the Centralised

Groupwork Service (CGS) for supporting the introduction and maintenance of the homicide groups within a

groupwork service that provides a range of group treatments for offender patients in a High Secure Service.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gwen Adshead, Forensic Psychiatrist,

Ravenswood House, the Knowle, Fareham PO17 5NA, UK; e-mail: gwen.adshead@southernhealth.nhs.uk.

550030CJBXXX10.1177/0093854814550030Criminal Justice and BehaviorAdshead et al. / Narrative Shifts

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