Forgiving Murder: A Qualitative Exploration of the Factors that Promote or Impede Forgiveness

• In Event: The Aftermath of Victimization: Coping and Forgiveness

Abstract

This article analyzes data from 36 interviews of individuals who have lost loved ones to homicide and 32 months of participant observation of victim social networks and events in order to explore the factors that promote or impede forgiveness after homicide, highlighting variation based on race, gender, and religion. Results support previous literature, which focused on forgiveness of relatively minor harm. Key findings include the discovery of a factor which promotes forgiveness that had been previously overlooked: evidence of pro-social change. The salience of this factor in the promotion of forgiveness varies by gender, as do the factors of victim empathy and offender acceptance of responsibility. Racial and religious variation are also analyzed as they relate to factors of offender remorse and offense severity.

Author

• Kristen Hourigan, State University of New York at Albany