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Of Truth And Reconciliation Model For Change In Response To # Metoo

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In a society where it is fairly easy to get away with inappropriate and improper behavior towards someone that wouldn’t be considered illegal but still causes the other some sort of distress is sickening. Roddrick A. Colvin and Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill offer a system that, if it were to be implemented, would allow survivors/victims to be heard and share their testimonies, and for the offenders to admit what they did wrong and seek forgiveness. This study will provide background information, an explanation of why I chose this topic, and my main findings and data. In the article Truth and Reconciliation as a Model for Change in Response to #MeToo tells us that during the #MeToo movement, the term sexual misconduct, has become very popular for …show more content…

A “truth and reconciliation model involves providing a public forum for survivors/victims to testify to the events of their victimization and for offenders to admit previous wrongdoing, take responsibility, and ask forgiveness”(Colvin & Hill, 2020). This process provides the survivors/victims to be heard and share their traumatic experiences and to allow the offenders to take responsibility for their actions and correct the wrong they did. Both sides contribute to healing and growing. Survivors/victims are able to heal through confronting their offender and understanding why their offender behaved the way they did while the offender is able to learn and grow from their mistakes. They do recognize that this process is only in the beginning of what they hope will turn into a system that will be implemented in all states and countries. This process would not replace the criminal justice system but be added to it. A truth and reconciliation system would offer healing, forgiveness, redemption, and encourage society to be open and honest about any sexual misconduct …show more content…

The hypothetical story they gave included a state-based process and their “envisioned process will also diverge from previous truth and reconciliation commissions by being a permanent process, with ongoing mechanisms for reporting, including both anonymous and nonanonymous public testimony”(Colvin & Hill, 2020). They highlight that this process is only a part of the journey for healing, forgiveness, and education and they suggest there should be programs where victims can go through therapy and where offenders can reflect on their previous actions and how to prevent similar situations to arise in the future. A truth and reconciliation system will also be able to educate and enhance societies by normalizing individuals and groups to speak about their truths and reconcile with past harm. Colvin and Hill believe that this system would promote people to speak openly about power and sex, it would encourage individuals to come forward about their previous misdeeds and correct them, and allow survivors/victims to reconcile with their offenders.(Colvin & Hill,

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This process will ensure that each offender receives the proper punishment and that the community is satisfied with the decision. The offender-based models, retributive and utilitarian, does not help the victim recover. Restorative justice is designed

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This system is meant to empower victims since their actions are not taken seriously in a court of law and form a procedure for repartitions without any lawyers (Hyde & Quest, 2012, page 293). The victim meets with her offender and they have an extensive counseling session. This technique may see unorthodox but it holds the defendant responsible for his actions and could be therapeutic. Another conflict of this case was that Brock Turner not only spent a short amount of time paying for his crime but he never took ownership.

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A Bishop in South Africa said this to illustrate this principle“The TRC went into a place like Sharpeville and had a hearing. But as we know, in a day you might be able to get through five, six, seven people at the most. And in a community like this … you’ve got hundred[s] who have been profoundly traumatized who [want their stories] told,(Document 4)” This demonstrates that many cannot even get the healing effect of testifying in front of the court ( and do not get any other benefits from it). An Article from BBC stated “ Truth and reconciliation has been hard to come by in South Africa.

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This type of justice system is designed very differently when compared with the retributive justice system. The restorative justice system endeavours to bring the victim and the offender together and allow them to speak with each other in the hopes to support the healing process. It will enable the victims to express themselves to the offender and lets the offender apologize and express their feelings to the victim. The restorative justice system often offers the victims of crime closure. The system encourages both parties to reveal themselves to each other and develop a solution for the future to satisfy both parties involved.

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Underlining the systemic issues within the US legal system, particularly the over-reliance on punitive measures and the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. Promoting restorative justice calls for a shift in the legal system towards a more compassionate and just approach that prioritizes healing and repair. The criminal justice system has continuously overlooked the issues that it causes with the use of a retributive system in

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Crime victim Dolman fervently noted that the offence “didn’t happen to the fucking queen” a passionate feeling of disillusionment that restorative processes seek to redress (Dolman 2001: 144 cited by Richards 2009: 303). RJ schemes primarily provide opportunities for social restoration as evident in a 1993 NZ case where the families of two young car crash victims welcomed their accused with mercy rather than bitterness. (Braithwaite, 1999:2) (Consedine, 1995: 9). Whilst emotional catharsis for victims following serious crimes is the goal of RJ it is subjugated by current Australian restorative schemes that almost solely address “shallow end” or minor crimes that have little victim impact (Richards 2009) (Garland 2001: 169 cited by Richards 2009: 304).

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The two individuals in question were convicted of rape and several additional charges. The presiding judge rendered a verdict of incarceration and mandated the individuals to comply with the requirement of registering as sex offenders (Sweeney, 2020). The trial presented evidence of the profound consequences of sexual assault, highlighting the imperative importance of consent within interpersonal dynamics. The incident served as a poignant reminder of the profound impact that the consequences can have on the individuals and those responsible for the wrongdoing.

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Our legal system has progressively become less and less concerned with the victim. Focus has been misplaced on the state and overall victim satisfaction where the outcome is completely ignored, instead of on who is most affected by the crime. Nils Christie has the idea to view “Conflicts as Property” as a factor to investigate the process of the criminal justice system. Christie 's idea is that criminology to some extent has amplified a process where conflicts have been taken away from the parties directly involved and thereby have either disappeared or become other peoples property (christie, pg. 1). In order to explore Christie’s point of view, one must first understand his perspective.

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Victim witness programs are used by the government in order to provide support and assistance to those who fall victim to a crime. According to Victim Witness Program, the primary goals of such programs, include but are not limited to, encouraging victims to participate in any parole and supervised release processes of their offender, notify and facilitate victims in participation of any hearing or release dates in regards to their offender, provide options for supportive services, and advocate for crime victims (2015, para.1). The organization under which the victim-witness program is located is under a system, which has many internal constituencies, thus creating competing and conflicting purposes. The goals of the victim-witness program are quite simple and seek out to give the victim the right to be represented during the processing of the offender, however, given the multiple roles the court, for example, must serve, the goals of the victim-witness program can be both complex and conflicting.

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Being a voluntary process, restorative justice requires the offender to take responsibility for their actions, truly understand their impact, and begin a journey of healing (Eggleton & Saint-Germain, 2018). Many Indigenous offenders are the product of their circumstances and feel helpless against the systemic hurdles they must overcome within society (Editorial Board, 2022). Restorative justice takes a less traditional approach compared to the oppressive justice system of today, enabling the Indigenous offender to be treated as a human being, and not just another statistic (Eggleton & Saint-Germain,

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True, Genuine Forgiveness While many people let the wrongdoings of others swell a deep hatred within them, I believe that, regardless of whether the culprit offers an apology, true forgiveness begins in the heart of the victim, before any words are uttered, when they actively make the choice to let the events of the past go. Through the article, “Does the Justice System Neglect Forgiveness?”, the authors display the stories of the Tutsi survivors and the Hutu people as they began their reconciliation process following the horrific genocide in Rwanda during the spring of 1994. While summarizing their claim, the authors continue with, “Many Tutsi survivors have shown an impressive ability to forgive and thus have become reconciled with their Hutu perpetrators” (FeldmanHall and Sokol-Hessner 2). Although, in this example, the two

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Restorative justice is an alternative approach to criminal justice, which focuses less on abstract legal principles and more on the needs and interests of all parties affected within a particular situation (Williams & Arrigo, 2012 p.206). Restorative justice focuses attention on who was affected or harmed by an action; it allows the person who caused the harm and the community to create a meaningful solution. The victim offender mediation is a restorative justice program where the person who has suffered physical or emotional harm, property damage, or economic loss as a result of a crime meets with his or her offender face to face in the presence of a trained mediator in a safe structured environment. In this program the victims have the chance to talk about

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Today our justice system has a multitude of options when dealing with those who are convicted of offenses. However, many argue that retributive justice is the only real justice there is. This is mainly because its advantage is that it gives criminals the appropriate punishment that they deserve. The goals of this approach are clear and direct. In his book The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr Howard (2002), illustrates that the central focus of retributive justice is offenders getting what they deserve (p. 30).

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The shortcoming of this approach is that it is not appropriate for more serious crimes such as rape and murder, because in cases like those, most of the time there is nothing that offenders can do to restore the loss or make things right The benefit of this approach is that all parties who are involved get the chance to face each other. The victims get an opportunity to be directly involved in the process and get a chance to respond to the crime committed against them. The offender becomes aware of how their offense has impacted the victim, and this in turn allows the offender to take responsibility and to apologize or show remorse to their wrong doings. Through the process healing is promoted to all the parties involved, the offender might be required to pay for the harm caused.

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