When justice and forgiveness come apart: A feminist perspective on restorative justice and intimate violence

Abstract

This essay considers how forgiveness can be problematic for restorative justice. It takes up a critical, feminist focus on un/ethical relations in forgiving, and in withholding forgiveness, of intimate violence. Justice and forgiveness come apart when, on the one hand, justice requires blaming the offender who inflicts intimacy wounding on another; and, on the other hand, forgiveness requires the opposite: forgiving rather than blaming so that, in metaphorical terms, the slate of wrong-doing is wiped clean. To illustrate a feminist perspective on this problem, the essay focuses on an internalized, religious location where forgiveness which is given by, or expected of, the loving (hyper-traditional Christian) woman is not just. The question is when does justice render this forgiveness unethical, if not unjust. Restorative justice depends upon ethical reparation between offender and victim. So, the proposal is that a woman who is injuriously wounded—experiencing intimate violence—should withhold forgiveness in a process of ethical reparation; it is especially urgent to withhold forgiveness, if she seeks eventually a changed relationship with her offender. This will ensure the possibility of ethical accountability which, as the author maintains, is necessary for practices of restorative justice.