Criminal behaviour costs the country around £60 billion every year, according to Home Office research.

Is it possible to prevent crime by understanding the root causes of offending behaviour?

Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons.

Their role is to help people in prison to look at the harm they’ve caused to other people, understand why it happened and work out how to make changes to prevent further harm after they’ve been released.

In Behind the Crime, they take the time to understand the life of someone whose crimes have led to harm and, in some cases, imprisonment.

In this episode they talk to Sinem who was imprisoned for trafficking drugs into a prison while she was working as a prison officer.
This is the story of a young woman who made a catastrophic decision under the pressures of a terrifying domestic situation, and paid a heavy price. But when we dig back into her earliest experiences, we can start to see some of the reasons why she made that decision.

The job of the forensic psychologists is to dig deep into Sinem’s story, to understand the sequence of external influences that got Sinem to the point where she committed a crime.
Today, Sinem is a lecturer in criminology at the University of Westminster, and uses her own experiences to help young people understand the world of crime and justice.
For details of organisations that can provide help and support, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline

Producer: Andrew Wilkie
Editor: Clare Fordham
Behind the Crime is a co-production between BBC Long Form Audio and the Prison Radio Association Show less