Truth and Repair

Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice - is a 2023 book by psychiatrist and trauma expert Judith L. Herman, who advocated for recognition of "complex PTSD" diagnosis, which is widely seen as a consequence of CSA. This book explores how survivors of sexual abuse and other forms of trauma perceive justice and how conventional legal systems often fail to meet their needs. The book represents a deeply radical feminist and victimological perspective, but it is unique and useful in that it attempts to truly focus on the needs of victims, giving greater importance to their voices in the criminal justice process, and offering a humane approach to those convicted.

From the publisher:

"The conventional retributive process fails to serve most survivors; it was never designed for them. Renowned trauma expert Judith L. Herman argues that the first step toward a better form of justice is simply to ask survivors what would make things as right as possible for them. In Truth and Repair, she commits the radical act of listening to survivors. Recounting their stories, she offers an alternative vision of justice as healing for survivors and their communities."

Some excerpts from the book

For survivors to heal, they need offenders to acknowledge the harm they have caused, but punishment does nothing to it:

"Acknowledgment of the survivor’s truth, acknowledgment of the harm she has suffered, and full apology, with remorse and without excuses—for many survivors, these are the requisite actions by which perpetrators and bystanders can begin the process of healing, moving from truth to repair."

"Many survivors feel very ambivalent about punishment because it does nothing substantive to repair the harm that has been done to them. Rather, they try to envision alternatives that would require the perpetrator and complicit bystanders to make amends."​

"Asked what would be a better form of justice, Sardina reflected, 'There was no way for me to say to him ‘Why did you do this?’ or for him to acknowledge what he did and take responsibility. There was no opportunity for a personal exchange. We need more protection for survivors from being smeared, and we need more incentive for defendants to acknowledge rather than deny, deny, deny.' She saw only too clearly how the existing system gave offenders every incentive to be steadfast in refusing to admit what they had done and instead to attack the credibility of their victims. Many of the other survivors whom I interviewed expressed similar sentiments. The justice system offered them very little incentive to endure the rigors of a trial, since few sought satisfaction in the outcome that a conviction would provide: punishment of the offenders."

"The restorative element of the survivors’ vision was most apparent in their focus on the harm of the crime rather than on the abstract violation of the law and in their preference for making things as right as possible in the future rather than avenging the past.”

Preference for restorative justice over retribution:

“The Survivors’ Agenda does call for a fundamental “reimagining [of] how communities address safety” and for creation of alternatives to the “criminal legal system,” centered on the healing of survivors rather than punishment of offenders. It calls for imagining new ways to hold perpetrators to account without caging or exiling them or denying their humanity.”

"Although survivors are so often stereotyped as vengeful and excessively punitive, most of those I interviewed seemed remarkably uninterested in punishment. Some were opposed to punishment on principle; others simply didn’t see what good punishing the offender would do for them or for anyone else. In general, they wanted justice to be centered more on themselves than on the perpetrator, more on healing than on just deserts. As far as the perpetrator was concerned, they much preferred the idea of rehabilitation to punishment."

Exploring alternatives to incarceration:

"On the other hand, advocates for RJ would argue that our current punitive system is both extremely expensive and actually quite ineffective. The expense of prosecutions, trials, and mass incarceration far exceeds what it might cost to provide adequate funding for a professional staff for well-designed RJ programs. And nothing in the prison system offers the prospect of true community safety. [...] In fact, some critics argue that incarceration hardens first-time offenders and makes them more likely to reoffend once they are freed."​

"Many offenders might indeed be more receptive to intensive community-based efforts at rehabilitation than to confinement and ostracism. A small pilot study in the United States used Circles of Support and Accountability to assist imprisoned sex offenders at the expiration of their sentences. The researchers found that, compared to probation as usual, the restorative intervention both reduced reoffending and saved the state money."​

External links

the book on libgen