The influence of offense-generated factors, social perceptions, and preexisting individual characteristics on restorative justice coping responses

Source: (2000) Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia State University.

Educators and trainers have recently begun to develop approaches for helping individuals deal with offenses precipitated by the behavior of others. This study examined those psycho-social factors that predict different types of offendee coping responses associated with revenge and forgiveness in the workplace. For the dependent variable of revenge, or unforgiving responses, there were three measures: revenge behavior, grudge holding, and giving up. For the dependent variable of forgiveness, there were two measures: internal release, and conciliation. Three sets of independent variables were used in the study: anger and blame (offense-generated factors), offender likableness and apology (social perceptions of the offendee), and religious commitment and empathy (individual offendee characteristics). Study participants were 255 employees of a public safety agency located in the southeast. A critical incidents technique was used to elicit responses from individuals who had been offended in the workplace. After providing a written description of an incident in which they were offended, participants answered questions about the offense. Author’s abstract.