Title
Getting even, or getting equal? Retributive desires and transitional justice
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Political Psychology
Publication Date
4-1-2009
Volume
30
Issue
2
First Page
161
Last Page
192
Keywords
Retribution, Reconciliation, Transitional justice, Victims
Abstract
This article examines the effect that different policy interventions of transitional justice have on the desires of the victims of human rights violations for retribution. The retributive desires assessed in this article are conceptualized as individual, collective, and abstract demands for the imposition of a commensurate degree of suffering upon the offender. We suggest a plausible way of reducing victims' retributive desires. Instead of "getting even" in relation to the suffering, victims and perpetrators may "get equal" in relation to their respective statuses, which were affected by political crimes. The article hypothesizes that the three classes of transitional justice: (1) reparation that empowers victims by financial compensation, truth telling, and social acknowledgment; (2) retribution that inflicts punishment upon perpetrators; and (3) reconciliation that renews civic relationship between victims and perpetrators through personal contact, apology, and forgiveness; each contributes to restoring equality between victims and perpetrators, and in so doing decreases the desires that victims have for retribution. In order to test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of former political prisoners in the Czech Republic. Results from the regression analysis reveal that financial compensation, social acknowledgement, punishment, and forgiveness are likely to reduce victims' retributive desires. - See more at: http://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/pub_details2.aspx?pub_id=35622#sthash.iF85q0AD.dpuf
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00687.x
Print ISSN
0162895X
E-ISSN
14679221
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2009 International Society of Political Psychology
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
David, R., & Choi, S. (2009). Getting even, or getting equal? Retributive desires and transitional justice. Political Psychology, 30(2), 161-192. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00687.x
