Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite growing interest in the study of interpersonal forgiveness, the communication of forgiveness remains largely unexplored. This study specifically investigated the ways individuals grant forgiveness. Consistent with Kelley (1998), three types of forgiveness granting behaviors emerged: direct, indirect, and conditional. Results revealed forgiveness behavior use differed for friends (n = 133) and dating partners (n = 135), such that friends employed more indirect behaviors whereas dating partners employed more direct and conditional behaviors. Results also revealed that while behavior use was related to offender blameworthiness, it was unrelated to offense severity. A secondary focus of this study was post-forgiveness rumination, or the negative resentment that lingers after individuals grant forgiveness. Over 20% of the sample experienced moderate to high post-forgiveness rumination and individuals were most likely to ruminate following particularly severe and blameworthy transgressions. Post-forgiveness rumination was unrelated to forgiveness behaviors. Post hoc analyses suggest men and women tend to communicate forgiveness differently.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper considers whether forgiveness can ever be an appropriate response to evil in international relations. It takes as its starting point a number of questions raised in the aftermath of the death, in September 2005, of Simon Wiesenthal, the so-called ‘Nazi hunter’ and author/editor of The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness; in a world marked by humanitarian atrocities, the wonton degradation of human rights, and the infliction of undeserved suffering upon multitudes of innocent victims, does forgiveness have a place? Can atrocities such as those perpetrated during the Holocaust or Rwandan genocide be forgiven? If so, who has the right to afford the perpetrators of such acts forgiveness? Is forgiveness the exclusive domain of individuals or can groups forgive? If forgiveness is an acceptable practice in international relations, it its practice consistent with the pursuit of justice? Or, is it the case that most atrocities perpetrated on an international scale (such as genocides and ethnic cleansing) are simply unforgivable? In sum, does forgiveness have a place in international relations? The paper argues that forgiveness might be an appropriate response to atrocities in international relations in two specific types of cases; when complemented by an official justice process, such as punishment, or judicial pardon, forgiveness may provide an effective way for victims of wrongs to complete the healing process; and secondly, when no avenue of justice is available – that is, when there is no possibility of seeking punishment, reconciliation, or even revenge – forgiveness may be the best way to allow victims of serious wrong to achieve some sort of closure to their experience.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While interest in forgiveness between victims and offenders is increasing, to date there has been little empirical work that addresses issues of forgiveness by crime victims. This paper will present the findings from a pilot study of forgiveness among parents who have lost child to homicide. The paper will discuss the survivor’s definition of both justice and forgiveness, an analysis of the factors that made forgiveness decisions either easier or harder and an analysis of survivor’s perceptions of the benefits of forgiveness. Implications for the victim services and the restorative justice movement will be discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper critically examines philosophical approaches to forgiveness as an ethical relationship that has implications for the political world. It argues that the notion of violence in its capacity to destroy persons and objects, but also relationships, should be re-examined for a better understanding of ethical issues surrounding forgiveness.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Forgiveness has been found in previous studies to be beneficial for health, but exploration of its antecedents has been neglected. This study attempts to explore sociological contexts for forgiveness. To understand forgiveness, a religiously imbued concept, as having secular sources as well, the authors assess both religiosity and socioeconomic status as correlates of four dimensions of forgiveness (self-forgiveness, forgiving others, feeling forgiven by God, and seeking forgiveness). The authors find mixed patterns of association for forgiving others and feeling forgiven by God. Self-forgiveness is strongly associated with socioeconomic status, and seeking forgiveness is strongly associated with both religiosity and socioeconomic status.