ABSTRACT
Crimes are directed against society; at any rate, this is what society believes. It is open to doubt whether that perception is accurate but, whether true or not, society has involved itself in the secret, sordid, domestic, run-of-the-mill situations which are the stuff of forensic psychotherapy. It is unfortunate that the focus of attention is most frequently placed exclusively on the offence and on the punishment of the offender. Any psychodynamic understanding of the offender and of their delinquent actions as a result of their own self-destructive internal and compulsive needs is automatically equated by society with their acquittal. This is an understandable but serious error.
