The Gentleman who Killed my Daughter: Explaining Effects of Social Proximity on Forgiveness after Homicide

• In Event: 3481 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtables (cosponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Sociology of Sympathy

Abstract

Drawing upon 36 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with individuals who lost loved ones to homicide and 32 months of concurrent participant observation of victim-centered events, this study investigates the processes through which forgiveness occurs in cases of varying social distance between forgiver and forgiven. Through inductive analyses utilizing a symbolic interactionist framework, it illuminates two pathways to forgiveness that exist despite factors that make forgiveness unlikely. The first pathway depends upon the forgiver’s ability to effectively assume the role of the offender based upon direct understanding of the social environment in which the homicide occurred. For those without such personal understanding, the second pathway involves a more abstract form of role-taking, which leads to the generation of empathy and compassion through redefinition of the offender as a victim. This redefinition is triggered by affect control processes, motivated by the incongruence between experienced emotion and the affective meanings individuals assign to their identities associated with the loss of a loved one to homicide.

Author

• Kristen L. Hourigan, California State University-Los Angeles