Narrative Healing among Victims of Violence: The Impact of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Abstract

narrative interventions have been increasingly incorporated into social practice and applied to victims of violence. truth and Reconciliation Commissions (tRCs) are interventions that seek to provide victims of violence with opportunities for healing and validation through a narrative process. in a qualitative study of the first tRC in the United states, the Greensboro tRC (GtRC) in Greensboro, nC, this research investigated the impact of giving testimony to the GtRC on the victims of a 1979 incident of racial violence. most victims (N = 17) reported positive healing and validating experiences from their participation in the intervention. this study provides support for the healing assumption embedded in tRC processes and discusses implications for narrative interventions with victims.

Constructing “Ideal Victim” Stories of Bosnian War Survivors

“…For a specific category to achieve victim status, there must be some common interest that acts on behalf of the victims; in other words, there must be someone who has an interest in ensuring that the category achieves victim status. These activities sometimes take place on an institutional level and could be transferred to an individual level, as a conversation topic, for instance (Åkerström, 2001;Androff, 2012;Bartov, 2000;Brewer & Hayes, 2011Christie, 1986;Confino, 2005;Delpla, 2007;Fischer & Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Holstein & Miller, 1990;Kiza, Rathgeber, & Rohne, 2006;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover & Shigekane, 2004;Olick, 2005;Olick & Demetriou, 2006;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009).…”

“…Attributing to someone a perpetrator status implicitly points out the perpetrator's complementary contrast-the victims (Åkerström 2001;Androff, 2012;Bartov, 2000;Hayes 2011, 2013;Christie 1986;Delpla, 2007;Confino, 2005;Fischer, Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Holstein and Miller 1990;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Kiza, Rathgeber, Rohne, 2006;Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Olick, 2005;Olick and Demetriou, 2006;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover, Shigekane, 2004;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009). The previous empirical example shows how "perpetrator" and "victim" are constituted at the same time: The acts of the perpetrator take evident form as concrete drama and an explicit designation.…”

“…In the eyes of the perpetrators, this war victim was a deviator who did not respect the current social order (or rather the current disintegration of social order according to victim's perspective) and therefore should be punished. Interviewee dramatizes the described situation, aiming at presenting the perpetrators' actions as morally despicable and the victim position as a typical example of submission and weakness (Åkerström, 2001;Androff, 2012;Bartov, 2000;Brewer & Hayes, 2011Christie, 1986;Delpla, 2007;Confino, 2005;Fischer & Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Holstein & Miller, 1990;Kidron, 2004Kidron, , 2012Kiza, Rathgeber, & Rohne, 2006;Maier, 1993;Moeller, 1996;Olick, 2005;Olick & Demetriou, 2006;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover, Shigekane, 2004;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009). The image of the perpetrators and victim does not seem to exist merely as a construction of the mind.…”

“…Victims are partly exemplified by individuals killed in the war and partly by individuals who survived the war but lost relatives or were displaced or raped during the war. The picture of the perpetrator is exemplified partly by former soldiers and policemen who had killed and raped as well as participated in the displacement, and partly by economic perpetrators who became rich during the war (Androff, 2012;Delpla, 2007;Fischer & Petrović-Ziemer, 2013;French, 2009;Helms, 2007;Kiza, Rathgeber, & Rohne, 2006;Stefansson, 2007;Steflja, 2010;Stover & Shigekane, 2004;Webster, 2007;White, 2003;Zarkov, 2007;Zdravković-Zonta, 2009). These two concepts of "victim" and "perpetrator" are objects of a general postwar discussion on a symbolic level.…”

Adaptations of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in the North American Context: Local Examples of a Global Restorative Justice Intervention

“…TRCs focus on providing the victims of human rights violations with information about the nature and details of crime; this serves to clarify the nature of the violence and to create opportunities for closure and healing for victims (Androff, 2012b). TRCs can include multiple forms of justice, but are centered on the restorative justice principles of responding to victims' needs, engaging multiple stakeholders, and attempting to rebuild the relationship and social fabric that are damaged by violence (Androff, 2010a).…”