As a forensic psychiatrist, Duncan Harding has worked on some of the most harrowing
cases one can imagine. spending time in the prison service, the Old Bailey and at
Broadmoor psychiatric hospital. His is a life spent working with serial killers, psychopaths,
children who kill their family and friends. From notorious cases of gang violence and
repeated domestic abuse, to a twelve year old boy who set fire to his classmate's face,
Harding reckons daily with humankind's unspeakable capacity for sadistic violence.
Yet it is the humanity of these perpetrators that is the most shocking - how, with the
wrong push at the wrong time, so many people are mere inches away from similar
brutality. The people Harding has met and the stories they tell paint a chilling picture of
modern Britain, and the paths our society leads people down towards the most horrific of
acts.
In his attempts to make sense of these unimaginable crimes, Harding confronts agonizing
questions - of when to call for justice, when to argue for mercy, when to break
confidentiality, when to look closer, when to believe, when to forgive.
Broken Lives reveals the hard decisions we all must make when we come face to face
with the unspeakable.