Law in Action

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

The Law Show

Documentaries

Factual: Crime & Justice

Factual: Politics

Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life.

The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.

Weekly conversation that will give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it's unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Law Show: Traumatic brain injury and crime

Traumatic brain injury and crime

BBC Radio 4 - The Law Show, Traumatic brain injury and crime

Brain injury is related to crime and is common among prisoners. But how to deal with it?

Traumatic brain injury can make people less able to control their reactions, and is linked to crime. But should people with brain injuries be in prison? With Joshua Rozenberg.

Traumatic brain injury can cause neurological changes that make people more impulsive, less able to control their reactions, and less able to understand others. Therefore it's associated with violent crime. An estimated 60% of those in prison have a history of brain injury. But is prison the best place for them, and their rehabilitation? The criminal justice system is taking an ever greater interest in how to deal with traumatic brain injury.  We hear about a Thames Valley Police pilot project to keep offenders out of prison, pre-sentence screening in the UK and elsewhere, and about an innovative court for those aged 18-25 in New Zealand. 

Brain injury is as common among women prisoners, often due to a history of suffering domestic violence. For these women their injuries, compounded by other factors, lead to mental health issues so serious that it's estimated that three quarters of them have tried to take their own lives. What are prisons doing to help them? And what about women prisoners' additional burdens, such as anxiety about separation from their children, which affects them more than men?  Can a new report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons point to ways forward for England and Wales? 

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Law Show

Traumatic brain injury and crime

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4