Forgiving in the Face of Injustice: Victims' and Perpetrators' Perspectives (Restorative Justice: International Perspectives, P 303-313, 1996, Burt Galaway and Joe Hudson, eds. -- See NCJ-172607)

• NCJ Number: 172623
• Author(s): M Estrada-Hollenbeck
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 11 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Harvard University
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined victims' and perpetrators' perceptions of incidents of victim-offender interaction after the offenses when forgiveness did and did not occur.

Abstract

Researchers content-coded the micronarratives, assessed victims' and perpetrators' affect, analyzed the extent to which victims and perpetrators rated themselves and the other as contributors to the forgiveness process, and assessed victims' and perpetrators' ratings of relationship quality. The results show that forgiveness more heavily influenced victims' emotions and assessments of relationship quality than the perpetrators' reactions. Communication was important to victims' process of forgiveness, of moving from negative to neutral or positive feelings for the perpetrator, because communication provided an opportunity for perpetrators to express remorse and guilt and to make amends. Communication enabled perpetrators to gain knowledge of victims' forgiveness. Knowledge of forgiveness potentially influenced perpetrators' cognitive representation of the conflict; their self-image; and the emotions, guilt, and anxiety associated with the incident. A context that facilitates a forgiveness process, and potentially the restoration of justice, should include an opportunity for victims and perpetrators to communicate if both the victim and perpetrator desire to work toward forgiveness. 3 tables and 20 references