The Impossibility of Criminal Justice Ethics: Toward a Phenomenology of the Possible.

Regardless the specific theoretical perspective, all ethical formulations for criminal justice practice in some way construct the ontological character of the offender, which, in turn, situates both epistemology and method. How this ethical process ultimately constructs the offender will likely help to establish the degree of ethical worth such an individual is deemed worthy to receive. Whether based upon the seriousness of the crime or based upon the specific configuration of the architecture of incarceration, the very possibility of legitimate ethical practice is greatly compromised. Such results can be better avoided when the ethical import of the individual is ontologically situated within the very definition of what it means to be human.1 By situating this discussion within the context of the analytic psychology of Carl Jung and his concept of the shadow and the originary ethics of Martin Heidegger found in Being and Time, a more ontologically configured possibility for a criminal justice ethics can be recognized.

The therapeutic encounter within the event of forensic psychotherapy: a phenomenological hermeneutic of the givenness of the other within the therapeutic relationship.

In this article, we draw upon the works of Jean-Luc Marion and Claude Romano to offer a phenomenological hermeneutic of clinical forensics. We introduce Marion's description of givenness and the event, and apply these ideas to clinical forensics. First, we describe Romano's conceptualization of the transformative effect of the event, relative to the "openness" of the participants to this encounter. Second, we contextualize different possibilities of therapy relative to the openness and closedness of the therapist and patient.

Agnew's general strain theory reconsidered: a phenomenological perspective.

Since its inception, strain theory has attempted to explore the dynamic evoked between the process of goal identification and the process of goal acquisition as this relates to subsequent criminal behavior. Over the years of its development, strain theorists have attempted to broaden the initial scope of this perspective. Robert Agnew with his general strain theory has sought to introduce a variety of other factors relative to the experience of strain and the capacity they represent concerning subsequent criminal activity. However, these recent developments have not addressed until recently, and only in somewhat limited ways, the theoretical and methodologic implications and limits of this theoretical approach. This article proposes that the way in which Agnew's formulation of general strain, particularly in its most recent conceptualization as story lines, fundamentally transforms the theoretical and methodological grounding of this approach but fails to offer a clearly articulated alternative theoretical perspective by which to conceptualize this "turn." Phenomenology provides such an alternative perspective and helps to greatly expand our understanding of the human experience of strain.