Victims – Restorative Justice & Other Public Health Approaches for Healing

Communication drug rehabilitation Non-verbal communication Psychology of possibility Solution-Focused Trauma Victims

Our posture can change our mind and behaviors: important for restorative justice and healing

By Lorenn | September 23, 2014September 23, 2014 by Lorenn

Fascinating research by Amy Cuddy, social psychologist at Harvard Business School, has important implications for restorative justice interventions and for healing. Professor Cuddy and her colleagues have demonstrated how we simply hold our bodies can affect how we feel, think, behave, and even our hormones. Feeling powerful enough that we believe we can cope with trauma is vital for developing resiliency. For many years since I was harmed by abuse as a child and young…

crime prevention news prisons Restorative Justice Victims

NIJ Report: Prison Doesn’t Deter Crime Supports Restorative Processes

By Lorenn | July 24, 2014July 24, 2014 by Lorenn

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has released findings of what deters criminal behavior. The NIJ offers five findings that it has learned from extensive research in criminal deterrence including the failure of prisons to deter crime. Prison the NIJ says instead can cause people to become more criminal. The findings support restorative responses to crime instead of punishment. The United States, excluding the federal government, spends $53 billion a year on prisons and in…

forgiveness plea agreement plea bargains Restorative Justice Victims

Restorative justice for making plea bargians

By Lorenn | February 23, 2013February 25, 2013 by Lorenn

Paul Tullis wrote a fascinating article for the New York Times Magazine about restorative justice and its use in the “plea agreement” (aka plea bargain) stage (prior to conviction and sentencing) of a murder case. Can Forgiveness Play a Role in the Criminal Justice System? describes a restorative process at the plea agreement stage in a Florida murder case where a 19 year old admittedly shot and killed his girlfriend. The NYTs article, and later…

Restorative Justice Victims

Bullied Bus Montior Deserves Restorative Justice

By Lorenn | July 2, 2012 by Lorenn

“Oh yes, I would like to talk to them!” says Karen Klein (fn.1) She is the 68-year-old school bus monitor from Rochester, New York who four middle school boys mercilessly ridiculed, swore at, and even poked, recently. Over 8 million people have viewed the You Tube(fn.2) of the incident tapped by a boy who said he wanted to send in to the Tosh.0 program (fn.3). A Canadian man saw the video and started an online…

Apology Communication Family forgiveness news Restorative Justice Victims

New York Times Article Shows Why Restorative Justice is Needed

By Lorenn | February 5, 2012February 5, 2012 by Lorenn

The February 5, 2012 New York Times article by Kovaleski et al, For Killers’ Families, Struggles With Shame, Silence and Fear http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/us/killers-families-left-to-confront-fear-and-shame.html?ref=us shows why we need restorative justice. The article describes how family members are also harmed by their loved one’s criminal behavior. It shows the need for restorative interventions that can help many families deal with the harm they suffer. The article describes how lawyer Nader Hasen, whose cousin is the psychiatrist from Ft.…

death forgiveness Inspiration Judges Restorative dialogue (aka victim offender mediation) Restorative Justice Victims

Restorative justice helps us face death

By Lorenn | January 6, 2012February 2, 2012 by Lorenn

The draw for me to sit with people who face terrible loss, or who are facing their terrible behavior, is deep. Every time I do it I am inspired. It has touched me in extremely profound ways. Some people have commented on this work, e.g. http://www.oprah.com/own-confronting/Colleen-Meets-Her-Husbands-Killer, and asked me “How can you do it?” They have also said things like, “I couldn’t sleep at night if I had your job.” Far from being disturbing, I…

forgiveness Inspiration prisons Restorative dialogue (aka victim offender mediation) Restorative Justice Victims

Remembering Bob Shapel at a Walla Walla Prison Restorative Dialogue

By Lorenn | October 13, 2011February 11, 2013 by Lorenn

In January 2011 I was asked to work with three people to facilitate a restorative dialogue (a.k.a. victim offender mediation) at Walla Walla prison in Washington State. The dialogue was filmed for Confronting on the Oprah Winfrey Network http://www.oprah.com/own-confronting/Colleen-Meets-Her-Husbands-Killer Colleen Shapel’s husband Bob, who was also her best friend for most of her life, was senselessly murdered in a February 2004 robbery. Melissa, Colleen’s oldest daughter, and William Schorr, a co-defendant who plead guilty to…

Rehabilitation Restorative Justice Victims

Albert Eglash & the history of restorative jusitce

By Lorenn | July 27, 2011March 16, 2019 by Lorenn

Albert Eglash was a psychologist in the 1950s working with incarcerated people. He saw the need for his clients to be accountable for their behavior that hurt others and saw its rehabilitation value. Eglash wanted people to understand the value in their making restitution when they hurt others. He presented a paper at a conference on restitution in 1975: Beyond Restitution-Creative Restitution which was published in 1977 Restitution in Criminal Justice: A Critical Assessment of…

Inspiration Restorative Justice Victims

Restorative justice helps heal emotional wounds

By Lorenn | March 30, 2011 by Lorenn

Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. writes about her fascinating experience as a Harvard trained brain scientist who suffered a stoke in My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journal. I was fortunate to read Dr. Taylor’s book during a recent 6 hour train ride from New York City to Rochester. Dr. Taylor insightfully discusses how she healed both physically and emotionally, and says: Emotional healing was a tediously slow process but well worth the effort.…

athletics Restorative Justice Victims

Mountain Biking and Resorative Justice

By Lorenn | June 19, 2010June 19, 2010 by Lorenn

Mountain biking is like restorative justice in an important way. Each is a practice on focusing on where we want to go. In mountain biking on narrow single-track trails with steep drops on the side of a mountain, you have to focus on where you want to go. You look down the trail in front of you and pick a line to follow over around rocks and roots that’s passable. If you don’t look where…