Only a few studies have investigated the psychological consequences of wrongful conviction; several others have examined the psychological consequences of incarceration and its impact on reentry and reintegration, primarily for men. For women who have been wrongfully convicted and subsequently released from prison into the free world, there are further indignities and unique issues: having to deal with the deep personal loss of murdered loved ones along with criminal charges; the absence of DNA evidence, making convictions harder to fight; stigmatization by prosecutors and the media; and unique emotional and medical needs. This Article presents findings from in-depth interviews with twenty-one exonerated women and describes the unique qualities and needs faced by wrongfully convicted women during their arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment, release, and post-release, and the creative and resourceful strategies that have helped them cope with an untenable reality. By giving voice to their lived experiences, this Article seeks to personalize and contextualize the events surrounding the cases, to humanize the people whose lives have been destroyed, and to establish identities amidst an overwhelming sea of facts and statistics. In addition, this Article provides valuable insights and information for clinicians, counselors, families, friends, employers, and communities working to help wrongfully convicted women, and for lawyers, policy-makers, and advocates working to promote social justice and criminal justice reform.

This article addresses a significant gap in the transformative learning literature as it relates to collective transformation, a transformation that is a level beyond individual transformation and is differentiated from the designed and imposed forms of social or organizational change. We consider collective transformation as an emergent and shared worldview shift that is grounded in a shared experience. The participants might not be fully aware of or even able to describe this experience until they engage with it at the interpersonal level. In prior research and practice, the five authors have independently observed and documented the phenomenon of collective transformation among members of marginalized populations who have undergone liminal experiences—forms of disequilibrium that leave individuals betwixt and between. The common thread in these experiences is the emergence of a shared feeling called communitas, which is a deeply felt (yet often temporary) sense of belonging and community. This study’s purpose is to further explore the roles that states of liminality and communitas play in creating the conditions for collective transformation. We draw on several theoretical and practice-based areas of literature and on five particular types of experience. We then examine each case for shared experiences of liminality and communitas as well as for the underlying qualities of self-understanding, relational ability, and a collectively felt sense of new possibilities. This study also includes suggestions for the application of these concepts to other social groups and in other contexts.

The experiences of 19 Israeli civilian survivors of politically motivated violence (PMV) between 2001 and 2003 were examined using in-depth interviews to elicit resonating narratives. The narratives were informed by demographic data and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale (PSS) self-report surveys. Four meaningful groupings or patterns of change emerged, reflecting various ways to experience the trauma of PMV: little or no growth, living the attack, resilience, and posttraumatic growth. Twelve descriptive themes of resilience and growth emerged from the data. The findings provide evidence that a positive psychological impact (PPI) can result from exposure to the trauma of PMV and provide deeper insights into posttraumatic growth, in particular: the primacy of the domains of new possibilities and personal strength; the focus on action growth; and the critical role of the integration of cognition and affect.

Through a lens of resilience and growth alongside continuing distress, this exploratory research study examines a convenience sample of exonerees and innocence movement personnel who are engaged in the policy reform process to understand how exoneree involvement may change exonerees themselves, the innocence movement, and possibly the criminal justice system. Data were collected through prequestionnaires and semi-structured interviews, supplemented with archival material, and analyzed using a narrative approach. Findings emphasize both the personal and broader societal value of exoneree engagement in educating, generating awareness, and advocating about wrongful conviction and the power of having the human voice and face in front of legislators, the public, and the media-vividly portraying that "if they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody." Findings also caution to be sensitive to where individuals may be in their lives and to honor their choices to engage or not.