Offence-related effects and perceptions of forgiveness: Experiences of victims and offenders

Abstract

This thesis explores crime and forgiveness from the perspectives of victims and perpetrators. While extensive research exists on the traumatic or harmful effects of crime for victims (Davis & Friedman, 1985; Frieze, Hymer, & Greenberg, 1987; Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Orth, Montada, & Maercker, 2006) far less research exists on the effect that criminal wrongdoing has on the perpetrator (Collins & Bailey, 1990; MacNair 2002a). The literature likewise holds little in the way of explicating how victims and offenders may be able mitigate such effects. One factor that appears to make a difference in this respect is forgiveness. Yet while forgiveness has received more attention in the religious and psychological literatures, there is much less known about its impacts in relationship to the effects of crime. In this study I seek to gain a richer and more nuanced understanding of the effects of crime and forgiveness in the lives of victims and offenders. As the focus of this study is the understanding of forgiveness from the perspectives of victims and offenders, as well as an examination of how they view forgiveness as affecting their lives, I utilized an interpretive phenomenological approach. Interpretive phenomenology provides a methodological framework from which to explore detailed and intimate understandings of people’s lives as they seek to make sense of and live in their social worlds (Reiners, 2012; van Manen, 1990); in this case for victims and perpetrators of crime. Towards this goal, in this study I employed semi-structured, in-depth interviews, conducted with a purposeful sample of 12 victims and 19 offenders ranging in age from 19 to 70. Following these interviews, I utilized an iterative process of data analysis, involving multiple readings of the interview transcripts and three divisions of coding which facilitated the identification of emergent and master themes within each case and superordinate themes which occurred across cases. In this study, I find that victims and offenders are decidedly affected by the harms they received and/or perpetrated, and that many credit forgiveness with restoring their psychological and emotional well-being as it released them from the distressing aftereffects of the crime they experienced. In my analysis of 31 interviews with victims and offenders, I developed seven themes used to explain the offence-related effects experienced by participants from their perspectives. Victims reported suffering ‘traumatic effects’ in the form of mental, behavioural, and somatic outcomes. Crime victimisation also created ‘threats to identity and self’ for many victims. In the aftermath of the crime victims often explained their ‘lost faith in a just world’ or having ‘unmet justice needs’. Offenders reported experiencing ‘challenged lives’ in the form of mental, emotional and future effects due to their criminal behaviour. They also explained significant impression management strategies as a way to ‘save face’ as they engaged in what I call ‘blame talk’ as a means to either accept or reject blame. In the second part of my focus, namely the effects of forgiveness on victims and offenders, I analysed the interviews to develop several themes related to how participants explained their understanding of forgiveness, or how they understood it to have affected their lives. Victims’ conceptualised forgiveness in terms of both ‘victim-focused’ and ‘offender-focused benefits’. Victims also perceived forgiveness in terms of its restorative and transformative ‘functions’ in their lives. Offenders viewed forgiveness in terms of ‘giving’ and ‘receiving’ it as a part of the way they made sense of what it felt like or meant to them to be the forgiver and the role they played with respect to receiving forgiveness. Most offenders believed forgiveness assisted them in ‘moving forward’ with their lives. Of particular salience for offenders was ‘self-forgiveness’ and forgiveness they receive from loved ones. This study makes contributions to both theoretical and applied knowledge regarding the complex needs of victims and offenders in terms of how they make sense of their experiences in the aftermath of crime. Theoretically, the findings of the study suggest that forgiveness may be an effective means for mitigating the offence-related effects experienced by both victims and offenders. In terms of applied knowledge, a keener understanding of the viewpoints of victims and offenders has practical applications as it may assist those such as clinicians, service providers, and criminal justice professionals involved in the treatment or custodial care of both victims and offenders in the creation and implementation of treatment programs and protocols that would better address the complex needs of those who have experienced deleterious effects as a consequence of the harms they received and/or perpetrated.