Behind the Crime

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Factual: Crime & Justice

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

Two forensic psychologists talk to people who have received court sentences for their crimes to understand what drove them to offend, and crucially, what might help them change.

As a society, we send close to 100,000 people to prison each year. 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.

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Behind the Crime: Duewaine

Duewaine

BBC Radio 4 - Behind the Crime, Duewaine

Two forensic psychologists interview Duewaine about his life and the crimes he committed.

Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken, two forensic psychologists working in prisons, interview people who have committed offences to understand their lives and the causes of crime.

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 Duewaine who spent the best part of 20 years in and out of prison for a series of hundreds, possibly thousands of robberies. 
This is the story of a man for whom crime became a habit. On the face of it, his offending was blindly antisocial and repeatedly harmful. 
Digging into Duewaine’s formative years, we can see how these patterns of behaviour were formed, as Duewaine went from a child who was a promising footballer, loved dinosaurs and wanted to become a palaeontologist, to committing prolific crimes and wasting years and years of his life in prison.
And we discover the horrific incident that transformed Duewaine into the reliable, devoted father we meet today.
The job of the forensic psychologists is to dig deep into Duewaine’s story, to understand the sequence of external influences that led him to repeated imprisonment. 
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.

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