But does restorative justice actually work? Research affirms the efficacy of this approach, if you ask Dr. Caroline M. Angel. A lecturer in criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, Angel studied the impact of restorative justice on post-traumatic stress symptoms in victims of robbery and burglary, according to a piece in the Huffington Post. “What you have here is a one-time program that’s effective in producing benefits for the majority of people” she said. “So instead of focusing on the not-always attainable and sometimes detrimental expectation of forgiveness, we should recognize that restorative justice reliably helps victims, and those who love them, to cope with the trauma of crime.”
In other words, restorative justice per se does not concern itself with assessing whether forgiveness has occurred or is even feasible. Instead, it relies on a shift in understanding of, and relationship to the other person, oneself and the world. This internal change requires an attitude of openness and empathy-driven understanding. Under the latter condition, research shows that feelings of anger and vengeance can be reduced in the afflicted. To that end, forgiveness is expressed as a transformation of sorts that allows the victim to view both his or her own experience and the offense perpetuated against him or her in a different light.
There are no comments