Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice

Crimes of gender-based violence, like other crimes against subordinated groups are generally crimes of impunity. Victims are blamed, shamed and isolated, so that the violence becomes hidden and socially invisible. Shame and isolation in turn predict the malignant psychological harms of complex trauma, including the formation of a defiled identity. This talk, based on personal interviews and published accounts, explores survivors’ views of what might be a just resolution of the crimes they had suffered. In general, survivors wished above all for the truth to be known and the perpetrators exposed. Beyond this, their focus was on restoring their relationships, not primarily with the perpetrators, but rather with the “moral community” from which they had been isolated. Finally, rather than punishment of perpetrators, survivors frequently prioritized prevention of future harm.