Self-harm up by 28% in prisons in the last year and deaths by suicide in incarcerated women is 20 times more likely than for women in community, even though women make up only 5% of the prison population.
Typically, services separate support for victims and perpetrators. That goes some way to provide safer spaces for women to come to terms and heal from the impact of crimes and harms against them but are we developing a polarising language that does not quite explain the complexity in the relationship between these terms?
Organisations can be victims of crime e.g. shops and shoplifting and clearly the harm to businesses is very real. Individuals can be victims of various crimes- wrongdoing from fraud to direct violence and abuse too.
What defines us as a victim or a perpetrator? At what point in our life span do we self-identify as either of these? Is there a time limit on these self-administered labels and what does it take to move beyond them? And to what extent is the label assigned by others? Is there a gendered lens where we are more likely to ascribe women as victims and men as perpetrators? When women cross the threshold into perpetrator descriptions as dominating narratives counter to female stereotypes, is the punishment more severe in response to our society disappointment? (And if you are a mother, is our societal disappointment and horror even greater?) Are we more likely to minimise the impact of harm on the men who become perpetrators? Can we be both victim and perpetrator at the same time?
In our work in prisons and with those who are in justice system the either/or labels tend to be unhelpful. Typically, those in the justice system have experienced significant emotional, physical and mental pain themselves before they perpetrate damage to others through an illegal act. They have known systemic failure to address their needs and provide the early support to prevent engagement in criminal activity and not fared well from education, health and wider community services. This renders people in the justice system as not only damaged through their brutal experience and by the historical help that failed them, but also mistrusting of future help and reluctant to engage with services.
Most of us, in our everyday lives, who are not caught up in justice services, can navigate routes between seeking help and reassurance when we feel vulnerable or harmed and turning mistakes when we may have harmed others, into apologies and learning situations. When you are in the justice system, the judgmental voice and its consequences change the dialogue. You can be in prison as a person who has experienced far more serious crimes against you over your lifetime than the one you are incarcerated for as a convicted perpetrator of crime. Women are a prime example but men too. If you are a victim in a court case, you may feel badly treated by the process of justice administration (not least the length of time to get to trial) and suffer greater trauma as a result.
When we stop seeing the whole person in front of us and label them either victim or perpetrator, good or bad, we reduce our scope to design creative and personalised approaches to helping them. In our forensic services, we have evidenced the link between getting the right help and reducing the risk of violence to others and reoffending. (In our prison data, therapies reduce the risk of harm to others, to self and reoffending by 25-70% in self report measures and practitioner impact assessment). When we fund the institutions to provide help, rather than funding the person’s support across services e.g. moving between the courts, prisons and community, we fix the labels and create barriers to access rehabilitation and recovery. To go beyond surviving, we need to be integrated people on a journey where we can learn, adjust and feel worthy of help to weave a positive place in community life.
Atrium clinic wants to see more continuity of therapy and support services across the justice and rehabilitation institutions. We believe the highest level of clinical skills and expertise should be prioritized for clients who need them more and when we provide the right, accessible support for the person, where ever they are, futures can change.
