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.