Editorial: Developing compassion focused and trauma sensitive forensic practice.

Abstract

When Felitti (1998) and his team first published their research that explored the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and later life health outcomes, they opened Pandora’s box of public health concerns. The striking links between household abuse, neglect and adversity, and chronic physical and psychological health conditions, invited practitioners to reconsider the underlying causes of various difficulties. Of particular note was the finding that the experience of four adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is most likely to predict harm to the next generation; a finding that places ACEs at the centre of forensic practice.