Dynamics of Forgiveness

• In Event: Roundtable: Redemptive Criminology: A Humanistic Response to Pycroft and Bartollas

Abstract

Pycroft and Bartollas describe what they identify as the dynamic of forgiveness, which becomes a central focus of redemptive criminology. They argue that to repent, one must first be forgiven, if the process is to succeed. However, to forgive seems to evoke the presence of an authoritative stance that seems to fall outside the auspices of the therapeutic frame. Given the obvious “weighted” signification that the term forgiveness evokes, a more neutral term needed to be applied. Rather than forgiveness, a stance of nonjudgemental concern seems to satisfy what the notion of forgiveness evokes. A critique will be offered concerning the clinical risks that can be avoided when working with forensic populations.

Author

• David Polizzi, Indiana State University