Background: There is growing recognition that an individual's personal history can be extremely influential in shaping their future experience, though there has been a limited exploration in the context of learning disability and offending behaviour. Method: Research questions related to participant interpretation of offending behaviour and individual and service responses. A series of focus groups comprising learning disability forensic nurses were conducted across all secure settings, high, medium and low. Results: Three themes were produced: interpreting offending behaviour; the impact of personal history; responding therapeutically. The difficulties relating to understanding the relationship between offending behaviour and personal history significantly informed the construction of the most effective therapeutic relationships. Conclusions: An increased focus on the impact of someone's background might inform nursing as it seeks to deliver care to individuals with increasingly complex needs in a time of service transition.