‘Judging and Justice’
CAERS SUBSTACK ARTICLE #42
For reasons I alluded to in my last article, it is not unusual for us to associate judging, and its counterpart justice, with punishment. And it is easy to think that forgiving means forgetting or condoning.
But there are several types of justice beside retributive (punishment based) justice: distributive (how we apportion rights, privileges and obligations fairly within a collective), procedural (the processes we use to deliver various forms of justice fairly), and restorative.
The goal of restorative justice is to restore circumstances to the way they were before the injustice occurred as much as possible. It carries with it an underlying belief, and hope, that by doing so insights will be gained, and those who perpetrated the unjust deeds will grow past their narcissism or selfishness and behave more ethically.
It is crucial to understand that such justice does not necessitate forgetting that a misdeed occurred. If we forget, we run the risk of making the same mistake again. In fact, remembering may well require close monitoring of the guilty party and limitations of their freedom over a period of time to ensure that any lessons learned continue to be ingrained into their psyche and behaviour.
Neither does restorative justice mean that there is no accountability; quite the opposite is true. The guilty party will be held appropriately responsible for their actions and will be required to participate very actively in repairing the harms they have done. That will entail admitting fault, making personal sacrifices and working hard to accomplish restoration. Unlike retributive justice, however, its focus is not to willfully inflict pain on the guilty party purely for the sake of doing so as a means of revenge. In restorative justice we may want the guilty party to share in the pain that they have produced but only insofar as it teaches them to have empathy for those they have harmed. It is the intimacy of shared suffering that can help heal both victim and perpetrator.
Restorative justice is premised on the belief that people can change and are more likely to do so when given the right guidance and support. But it is a hope, not a guarantee. There are those among us who will continue to engage in the same harmful behaviours, perhaps with a lack of remorse. They may seem incapable or resistant to outgrowing their narcissistic or selfish behaviours. There may be a limit as to how much insight they can gain, or compassion and empathy they can achieve. We don’t always understand why this is so; no doubt there are times when structural or functional aspects of their brains may play a part. For example, there is some evidence that individuals deemed to be ‘psychopaths’ have brains that are developmentally defective in critical areas that involve relating to others in an empathic way.
If we want to build a better and safer world, revenge alone may be satisfying in the short-term but in the long-term restorative justice may be more effective more of the time. In instances when an individual demonstrates recalcitrant behaviour despite our sincerest efforts to rehabilitate them, we may have no choice but to severely restrict their personal freedoms for considerable periods.
It may seem counterintuitive, but forgiveness is not something we do for the benefit of another person; we do it for ourselves. Being imperfect humans, when victimized we can find it nearly as difficult to let go of our anger as it is for the offender to change their behaviour that harmed us. That’s when forgiveness comes into play. We forgive not to forget or absolve others of their harmful behaviour, but to sufficiently reduce our ill will towards them. When successful, we can then genuinely engage in efforts to rehabilitate the offender as much as we can, while they work to restore our lives back to normal as much as they can.
Restorative justice is not a panacea; there are times when it will fail and we must resort to other means to protect our society, particularly its most vulnerable members. Unfortunately, I suspect some ill will has been generated during the pandemic. What do you think? Within reasonable limits, can we learn to forgive while still holding ourselves and each other accountable as much as possible in a restorative, not just retributive, way?
This likely involves the kind of intimacy that contributes to altruism. I believe deep down that most of us desire it; but it requires the courage to change, something we humans seldom find easy. However, it may be the best hope we have for healing our nation of its present divisions.
J. Barry Engelhardt MD (retired) MHSc (bioethics)
CAERS Health Intake Facilitator
The soul of this question is what happens if you do not bring justice to those who have committed the Rome Statute Article 8 war crime of Mutilation, Scientific and Medical Experimentation.
If there is no justice, from the city councilor who was "just following orders" to the supreme court judge, fascism, and it's trail of death will continue.