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The Ethics of Forensic Practice: Reclaiming the Wasteland

Dr. Morse is Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Miami Beach, FL, October 19, 2007. Address correspondence to: Stephen J. Morse, JD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 3400 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6204. E-mail: smorse{at}law.upenn.edu

After beginning with a warm appreciation of Alan Stone's scholarship and character, this article argues that Stone's woeful characterization of forensic practice as a wasteland that has no genuine ethical guide to practice and little to contribute is vastly overstated. It claims that the basis for useful ethical practice is rooted in a proper understanding of the law's folk psychological model of behavior and criteria. Then it suggests the proper bounds of forensic practice, including an aspirational list of do's and don'ts. The view presented is deflationary and cautious compared to what the law permits and most practitioners do, but it still leaves forensic practitioners with a wide and important role in the legal system.