Restorative justice, forgiveness, and victims of crime
Nov 11, 2010
from Ari Kohen's entry in Running Chicken:
....I follow Howard Zehr (2005, p. 47) in thinking about forgiveness, when he argued that
Forgiveness is letting go of the power the offense and the offender have over a person. It means no longer letting that offense and offender dominate. Without this experience of forgiveness, without this closure, the wound festers, the violation takes over our consciousness, our lives. It, and the offender, are in control. Real forgiveness, then, is an act of empowerment and healing. It allows one to move from victim to survivor.
Additionally, rather than the understanding of forgiveness to which many add the concept of forgetting, Trudy Govier (2002, p. 61) argues that “The memories that accompany forgiveness will be memories that exclude resentment and allow us to ‘let go’ while retaining the knowledge that these things were done, and they were wrong.”
As Hannah Arendt (1998, pp. 240–241) argues, “forgiveness is the exact opposite of vengeance, which acts in the form of re-acting against an original trespassing…[it] is the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly, unconditioned by the act which provoked it and therefore freeing from its consequences both the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven.” On my reading, then, it is important to forgive both for one’s own good and in order to embrace the idea of restorative – rather than retributive – justice.
In the end, my sense is that if victims are unwilling or unable to begin the process of forgiving offenders, then a restorative approach to justice – with its emphasis on “noncustodial settlements” and “peacemaking [rather] than punishment” (Cayley 1998, p. 10) – will likely be seen as benefiting offenders at the expense of victims, hardly seeming to victims like justice at all.
forgiveness and RJ: must a victim forgive?
I explained to Ari that I thought victims could participate in restorative justice processes whether they had chosen to forgive the offender or not. I believe this is important. I would be very concerned if participation in restorative justice dialogue, or any RK processes, was conditional based on forgiveness. Many victims I know chose to forgive but that is not the expectation by most of us in the restorative justice field.
When victims do forgive it often does happen after or while participating in restorative justice. It is easy to see why. But I am concerned when some advocates, theorists or practitioners seem to be pushing for forgiveness first. To me, it is a matter of the heart that is trully private and person especially in light of those who have been victims of violent crime.
It is not surprising that many in the RJ field attempt to understand the presence or absence of forgiveness in crime victims, and to attempt to explain what is seen as the value of forgiveness. But urging victims to forgive? I have grave concerns. I would fear that many victims would choose not to explore RJ because they would be concerned that they themselves had NOT forgiven. The doors should never be shut on crime victims.
Lisa Rea