Editorial

In this, the second issue of The International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy, we are excited to bring together a collection of new articles exploring diverse forensic perspectives within mental health and criminal justice. These range from the individual stories of offending adults, who may enact their own unspoken early traumas in situations with unexpecting members of the public or their own vulnerable children; to offending that encompasses corruption on a national or international scale; and the seeking of retribution for those who offend in response to ill-conceived policy through the withholding of humane, creative, and efficacious prison interventions. With an election looming in the United Kingdom, criminal justice is at the forefront of campaigning by political parties from all sides. In the current climate of binary thinking, simplistic bombast, and intolerance, the current Home Secretary uses rhetoric that includes the statement that she wishes criminals “to literally feel terror”. As mental health professionals in forensic settings, often working with the long-term sequelae of terror and humiliation, we understand that the archaic attitude of “an eye for an eye” does not provide safety or security for victims of crime, for the wider community, or for the criminals themselves.

Brett Kahr's article, “Penile trauma and genital exhibitionism: from castration anxiety to verbal potency”, eloquently illustrates the results that come from surviving experiences of frightening humiliation instilled by others, through acts of violence and intolerance of difference. In this moving account he demonstrates powerfully the necessity of the simple, yet challenging, principles of compassion and patience at the heart of psychotherapy. His patient, an intellectually disabled man from a loving family, is an example of an individual who is assaulted while in the care of an institution and feels unable to speak to anyone about this experience. The offences that result from