Here is a searing account—probably the best yet published—of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does.

Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seemingly seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. Dalrymple's...

"Forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das diagnoses, treats and rehabilitates mentally ill offenders - or the 'criminally insane' - in prisons and secure hospitals, many of whom have committed serious violence, some even murder. He is also an expert witness, and advises on insanity or diminished responsibility pleas - to either steer the incapacitated, the vulnerable and voiceless away from a lifetime of incarceration towards recovery, or literally let...