ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the methodological and theoretical implications of that perspective for research in the field of juvenile justice and articulates its relevance for policy analysis. The thrust of the argument is to explicate the relationship between theory and practice and examine the status of the knowledge gathered on the basis of the phenomenological perspective. The chapter also examines the theoretical and methodological assumptions implicit in what may be termed the 'traditional' approach to the study of decision-making in juvenile justice. It argues that the phenomenological paradigm offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for analysing decision-making about children. Phenomenological theory can contribute to analyses of practice in juvenile justice in two main ways. First, the theories of delinquency espoused are identified as appropriate objects of empirical investigation; second, questions about the origins of the ideologies of control agents and the legitimacy accorded to specific positions may be articulated to analyses of the relationship between power, knowledge and social structure.
