8 PREFACE In 2012, the year of the Dutch national political elections, and also the year that I was about to finish my master’s degree in clinical forensic psychology, I remember being triggered by a slogan on a campaign poster of a large political party displayed alongside the highway that read: “Empathy for victims, not offenders”. Moreover, to quote the campaign agenda: “Police and the justice system focus on suspects and offenders and stand firm for the victims of crime. The [name party] does not accept that the good suffer from the bad.”. I perceived this as a polarizing message – victims are important and should be taken care of, whereas offenders, on the other hand, are evil who deserve harsh punishments and imprisonment? I wondered whether this slogan spoke to an underlying stigma in society towards people who committed criminal offenses, which I also encountered in my own educated and privileged social network. Why are you helping people who commit crimes? Is it safe for you to be alone with them? You must have heard all of these crazy stories? Although nobody could disagree with the first part of the slogan: “Empathy for victims”, I (obviously) highly disagree with the second part, as a practitioner in forensic psychiatric care. The distinction between people who are victims and people who commit offenses is often difficult to make. Naturally, not all criminal offenders are also victimized in the past and require care due to psychiatric problems related to their criminal behavior. Yet, research shows that a significant proportion of people who committed offenses have experiences of victimization and are vulnerable due to psychiatric problems (Appelman, Dirkzwager, & van der Laan, 2021; Dirkzwager, Verheij, Nieuwbeerta, & Groenewegen, 2021; Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen, 2022b; Fazel, Hayes, Bartellas, Clerici, & Trestman, 2016; van Buitenen, van den Berg, Meijers, & Harte, 2020). Moreover, given the psychiatric problems as well as the complexity and diversity of problems (i.e., comorbidity and socioeconomic problems) that are often related to criminal behavior in people who committed offenses – forensic psychiatric patients, effective care for this group is highly warranted. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to further improve treatment effectiveness for forensic psychiatric patients to enhance mental health and reduce criminal recidivism (MacInnes & Masino, 2019; MacKenzie & Farrington, 2015; McIntosh, Janes, O’Rourke, & Thomson, 2021; Völlm et al., 2018). Therefore, practice-oriented research questions arose: How can we best help vulnerable people who are suffering from psychiatric problems not to commit offenses? How can we further improve forensic psychiatric care? Specifically, can empathy and support from people in the society help to stop reoffending?
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