Childhood Victimization, Recent Injustice, Anger, and Forgiveness in a Sample of Imprisoned Male Offenders

Abstract

The links between childhood victimization, subsequent emotional dysregulation, and insufficient coping skills have been repeatedly documented in the scientific literature. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the role of forgiveness as a coping strategy and relationships between offense-specific hurt, chronic anger, and early victimization. The goals of our study were (a) to explore how offenders cope with recent unjust treatment, and test the links between type of injustice, hurt experienced due to injustice, and use of forgiveness; (b) to test the links between childhood victimization, hurt, and chronic anger; and (c) to assess the mediating role of chronic anger in relation to hurt and forgiveness. The results reveal that multiplicity and severity of victimization exposure in the prison sample are positively associated with chronic anger, but not with hurt. The type of injustice affects the level of hurt and forgiveness, while chronic anger mediates the link between hurt and forgiveness. To improve coping and promote forgiving, offenders should be helped to identify everyday sources of stress and learn to express vulnerable feelings beneath anger.

Comparing Compassionate Love and Empathy as Predictors of Transgression-General and Transgression-Specific Forgiveness

“…According to Wu (2016), the EFI-30 has an alpha of .98, is strongly associated with a single-item forgiveness scale (i.e., “To what extent have you forgiven the person you rated on this scale?”) used as a construct validity check ( r =.72), and is not associated with social desirability. This 30-item scale has been used in other empirical studies (see for example Erzar, Yu, Enright, & Erzar, 2018). Participants first were asked to recall their most recent experience of being hurt severely and unfairly.…”

“…used as a construct validity check (r =.72), and is not associated with social desirability. This 30-item scale has been used in other empirical studies (see for example Erzar, Yu, Enright, & Erzar, 2018). Participants first were asked to recall their most recent experience of being hurt severely and unfairly.…”

A Pilot Study for Forgiveness Intervention in Adolescents With High Trait Anger: Enhancing Empathy and Harmony

“…Trait anger has a significantly positive correlation with negative life events (Puskar et al, 2008), as frustration and a sense of injustice caused by negative life events are important triggers of anger (Potegal and Stemmler, 2010). Recent studies have identified that multiplicity and severity of victimization exposure in a prison sample were positively associated with chronic anger (Erzar et al, 2018). The relationship between early victimization, violent behavior, and crime has been supported by several studies, and anger plays an important role in this relationship.…”

Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Anger: Resources and Risk Factors for Italian Prison Inmates

“…The role of forgiveness has also been recently, albeit limitedly, investigated with specific attention to the prison population. Indeed, Erzar et al (2019) suggested that levels of forgiveness depend on the type of injustice perceived and that prison inmates tend to show lower levels of forgiveness when compared to non-offender samples. With specific regards to the wellbeing of prison population results are inconsistent; indeed, previous research has highlighted that forgiveness does not predict anxiety or depression in prison inmates (Allen et al, 2008), but forgiveness of others seems to play a relevant role in positively influencing the evaluation of life (Randall & Bishop, 2013).…”

“…According to the available literature, these are highly interrelated among them; More specifically, both in general and clinical samples gratitude and forgiveness have been shown to be positively related among them (e.g., Neto, 2007; Toussaint & Friedman, 2009). Gratitude and forgiveness have both been also shown to be negatively related to anger (Erzar et al, 2019; Ford et al, 2018). It follows that it is highly important to understand whether and the extent to which each of these traits uniquely predicts well-being and criminal attitudes in order to comprehend on what kind of intervention it is important to lean on.…”