TY - JOUR
T1 - From parallel to intersecting narratives in cases of sexual assault
AU - Bletzer, Keith V.
AU - Koss, Mary P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: A grant was received from the National Injury Prevention Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R49/CCR921709-03, “Prevention Program for Perpetrators”).
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - Restorative justice alternatives to criminal justice are designed to balance the needs of victims, offenders, families, friends, and the community at large to achieve social justice, repair of victims, and deterrence of crime. In the model we evaluated from RESTORE (Responsibility and Equity for Sexual Transgressions Offering a Restorative Experience), each offender and victim received individual services and met in guided conferencing to mutually determine reparative actions for the offender. At the exit meeting, the offender, as the responsible person, read a written apology to the survivor/victim. In this article, we analyze the expression of empathy in the apology, in which the initial mitigation of responsibility in early documents was replaced by acknowledgment of harm to the survivor/victim and acceptance of responsibility for the assault. Those accused of felony rape and those targeting a visible person in cases of misdemeanor indecent exposure expressed greater regret and remorse than offenders of indecent exposure with an indeterminate victim.
AB - Restorative justice alternatives to criminal justice are designed to balance the needs of victims, offenders, families, friends, and the community at large to achieve social justice, repair of victims, and deterrence of crime. In the model we evaluated from RESTORE (Responsibility and Equity for Sexual Transgressions Offering a Restorative Experience), each offender and victim received individual services and met in guided conferencing to mutually determine reparative actions for the offender. At the exit meeting, the offender, as the responsible person, read a written apology to the survivor/victim. In this article, we analyze the expression of empathy in the apology, in which the initial mitigation of responsibility in early documents was replaced by acknowledgment of harm to the survivor/victim and acceptance of responsibility for the assault. Those accused of felony rape and those targeting a visible person in cases of misdemeanor indecent exposure expressed greater regret and remorse than offenders of indecent exposure with an indeterminate victim.
KW - empathy
KW - interpretive methods
KW - language/linguistics
KW - lived experience
KW - program evaluation
KW - recovery
KW - violence, against women
KW - vulnerable populations
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U2 - 10.1177/1049732311430948
DO - 10.1177/1049732311430948
M3 - Article
C2 - 22307958
AN - SCOPUS:85047688186
VL - 22
SP - 291
EP - 303
JO - Qualitative Health Research
JF - Qualitative Health Research
SN - 1049-7323
IS - 3
ER -