PTSD and Restorative Justice |TODAY|

Submitted by dan. on 2007-10-02 01:11.
Offender Support | Restorative Systems | Victim Support

What does this responsibility mean? in my opinion, an opinion strongly informed by restorative justice, it means he needs to respond.

He needs to respond to the suffering that he has caused. he needs to be part of the healing for this young woman, who may now be suffering from PTSD herself. What that type of restorative justice looks like depends on many factors but saying, “PTSD made me do it” doesn’t sound responsible to me.

Read it all.

thanks

Posted by isabella mori at 2007-10-04 08:59

thanks for including my article. since posting it, i heard on the radio a friend of the the perpetrator, passionately talking about how very changed he was after he came back from the war.

my limited knowledge of restorative justice is partly informed by the approaches our first nations here in canada take to it. visually, it is always presented as a circular process.

this is particularly important here. the perpetrator's PTSD didn't just "fall out of the sky" - it was born out of the great injustice of war.

and yet, he was there as a peacekeeper. justice is complex.

Thank you, too

Posted by sarah gatt at 2008-02-26 13:28

After reading the article, it made me think about other mental disorders that offenders have and have no control of what they do when not properly medicated. Maybe RJ is an alternative route for a person with mental disorders. It would act like an intervention and a realization to someone who's actions maybe criminal and for someone who sees medication not an option for them. RJ can help someone in that case in a very positive way. Hopefully, when someone with PTSD commits a crime, it is not blamed on the illness, but works with it to help the victims and themselves.