Apology and Restitution in a Role-play Restorative Justice Experiment: Multiple Perspectives, Multiple Measures

Abstract

Restorative justice provides an alternative to retributive justice by seeking to restore criminal offenders to be responsible members of the community. Often offenders will apologize (A) and offer to make restitution (R) for the damage done. Such offers might affect all parties present by promoting forgiveness (though that is not a stated goal of restorative justice), resolution of damages, and positive attitudes toward justice. We investigated Family Group Conferencing (FGC), which involves offender, victim, and supporters of each, in a mediated 30-minute dialogue. Namely, we organized role-play simulation meetings between “victims,” “offenders,” and the “mother” of each. There were 64 participants (16 groups of 4 participants). Each group role-played a mediated FGC that was video recorded. The offender had either to apologize and offer restitution (AR) or avoid both (No AR). Questionnaires assessed forgiveness (and other outcomes) from each of the four participants’ perspectives. Coders coded behavior during the role-play. AR promoted forgiveness by all parties, but to different degrees. Coded “softness” of offender’s behavior (i.e., nonverbal signs of remorse, contrition, and regret) affected victim’s behaviors and ratings by women role-playing both mothers. The role-play simulation allowed some understanding of the inner working of FGCs relative to retrospective questionnaires.

Apology and Restitution: The Psychophysiology of Forgiveness After Accountable Relational Repair Responses

“…An emerging literature provides evidence that victims are more forgiving if they receive an apology (see Fehr et al, 2010) or restitution (Carlisle et al, 2012;Witvliet et al, 2020) or both in combination (Kiefer et al, 2020). The present investigation extends this work by also examining emotional and embodied responses to apology and restitution, with implications for the growing literature on forgiveness and its physiological side effects as health pathways (Witvliet et al, in press) 1 .…”

“…The current experiment provides affective and stress-related physiological responses that replicate and extend self-report responses and that align with coded behavioral (and self-report) responses in a role-play simulation (Kiefer et al, 2020). Apologies and restitution represent verbal relational and tangible recompense indications of offenders' accountable responsibility-taking for an injustice toward a victim, and they have the capacity to evoke increases in forgiveness with emotional and embodied change.…”

“…In turn, these side effects can serve as pathways to health. Apology and restitution are important elements indicative of perpetrator accountability and are relevant to restorative justice (Petrucci, 2002;Witvliet et al, 2008b;Kiefer et al, 2020). Thus, it may be fruitful to identify ways in which the willingness to engage in accountable repair responses toward victims of wrongdoing may be linked to empathic and self-regulatory mechanisms that may undergird both repentant change in perpetrators and responsible forgiveness in victims.…”

“…Statistical tests showed that participants who did and did not personally experience the crime gave similar responses. Kiefer et al (2020) have begun to expand on the ecological validity in apology and restitution research by studying roleplay simulations of restorative justice using family group conferencing. Groups of four people were comprised of an offender (male), a victim (male), the offender's mother, and the victim's mother.…”

The role of truth in victim–offender mediation: Victims of crime who feel they know the “whole” truth are more receptive to apologies.

“…It is possible to take an experimental approach to answer this question by assigning participants to a victim or offender role and using the knowledge salience manipulation presented in this article to alter the perceived amount of truth available to participants assigned to the victim role. A simulated mediation approach (e.g., Kiefer et al, 2020) could provide a way to analyze how a sense of truth knowing affects victim-offender interactions in mediation.…”