The criminal experience of mentally disordered offenders

Although most traditional criminological perspectives contend that offender’s interpretation of events hold little importance to understanding the actual crime, the narrative approach seeks to explain crime as a function of the stories offenders interpret from their actions. The current chapter therefore investigates the potential of using an offender’s criminal as a means of providing insight into the motivation and intention of offenders to act. In particular, the chapter explores the research on the criminal narratives of general offending populations, and introduces new insight into Mentally Disordered Offenders (MDOs), and the impact various mental disorders may have on the structure of criminal narratives.