Quality of life is an increasingly important concept in forensic psychiatry, for two reasons. Firstly, people in general strive for the good life: as high a quality of life (QoL) as possible and this also applies to forensic psychiatric patients. Secondly, objective indicators of QoL have been linked to the risk of re-offending. Theoretically, subjective indicators have also been associated with criminal recidivism.

The number of patients with prolonged stay in secure hospitals is considerable. Some of these patients have been deemed untreatable and will rely upon severe security measures in order not to pose a threat to the community. the major objective of these types of facilities is to ensure as high a QoL as possible. However, QoL is a concept which is related with autonomy. for clinical forensic patients, this demands a different approach, which has been undertaken in a Dutch, German and English facility, resulting in a setting specific QoL measure, the Forensic inpatient Quality of Life questionnaire.

In a study in community-based forensic psychiatry, subjective indicators of QoL were associated with criminal recidivism. Patients who were satisfied with their lives were three times less likely to commit violent offences. Furthermore, satisfaction with health was found to be even more predictive of aggressive behaviour: dissatisfied patients had a six fold change of committing such an offence compared with satisfied patients.