Exploring converging and diverging opinions of rehabilitative interventions for individuals who have committed serious criminal offences: The need for forensic-specific education in the general public.

It may be argued that political doctrine has coloured public perceptions of prison as a sole deterrent in the reduction of crime rates. Literature pertaining to public attitudes of criminality reports harsher punitive views towards offenders in the UK, however, this has not been analysed as a function of participants’ education level. This manuscript extends existing literature by exploring how forensic psychology-specific education may impact the punitive or rehabilitative leaning of an individual. A comparative deductive thematic analysis into diverging and converging themes found forensic psychology student were better able to utilise critical thinking – seeing the bigger picture – than those without a degree classification. Findings indicate the need for transparency of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the provision of better education, allowing members of the public to make better informed decisions of their punitive judgments of individuals who have committed serious criminal offences. Furthermore, applicability can be directed in both domestic and international impact in the development of forensic-specific knowledge worldwide; the derivation of such opinions implicating governmental policies regarding rehabilitative care of individuals who have committed serious criminal offences.