Accessible Summary This research project is about social lives. Ten men with learning disabilities who had broken the law and who lived in hospital talked about their social lives. We asked the 10 men about the people who had been in their lives before they broke the law. This research project matters to people with learning disabilities because it tries to find out how different experiences affected the 10 men who were interviewed. This could help us understand all people with learning disabilities better and could make services better for everyone. Summary Although the development of secure attachments has been shown to be more problematic for people with learning disabilities, there is a shortage of research into the attachment experience of people with learning disabilities who have broken the law. The present study used thematic analysis to explore the attachment experiences of 10 men with learning disabilities in secure settings. Attention was paid to formative relationship experiences in early life, along with an exploration of current relationships, with the content and direction of interviews being guided by participants. Two superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: ‘disempowerment’ and ‘ineffective care’. Results suggest that participants experienced a ‘double‐bind of dependency’ in which they felt a strong need for others, but had experienced unhelpful or harmful relationships. The clinical and practical implications for this are discussed.