ABSTRACT
Chapter five offers an exploration of the second theme that emerged from the qualitative research supporting this book – Music therapy for offenders: Perspectives and experiences. Theme two delves into the practitioner's perspectives and experiences of music therapy for high-risk offenders (HROs). As such, the interviewed participants included offender treatment facilitators, music therapists and forensic music therapists. This chapter presents the three subthemes that form theme two of the research: (1) beneficial elements of music therapy for offender treatment, (2) the (mis)perceptions of music therapy, and (3) forensic music therapists: experts in the field. The three subthemes highlight the benefits and challenges to implementing music therapy in correctional settings as perceived and experienced by the interviewees. Thus, this chapter provides the reader with a “state of play” of an area that has limited research – the practitioner's perspectives and experiences of music therapy for HROs.
