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Victim awareness and the needs of victims of crime are a major societal concern. What Have I Done? is a photocopiable resource and DVD to encourage empathy in young people who commit crimes or hurt others through their actions. The course is flexible and interactive, and can be used on an individual basis or with small groups, and is suitable for young people with limited literacy. The exercises are challenging, and aim to be engaging through the use of creative arts, film, role-play and discussion. Clear guidance is provided for the course leader, and evaluation is built into the course, including a psychometric test. by Pete Wallis with Aldington and Marian Liebmann
Restorative Circles are increasingly valued for their ability to support communities of many kinds - families, schools, work teams, faith groups, neighbourhoods.. - to understand and benefit from engaging with conflict and difference. In an interactive day of demonstration and experiential learning, Dominic Barter will present the key elements of Restorative Circles and of the development of a systemic context that supports their use.
You have a single-minded far-leftist agenda here that is clueless about reality on the ground for the American people. There is no empathy, there is no concern for what is happening to the American people," Rush Limbaugh said on his program this afternoon. Rush was speaking rhetorically to President Obama. "All we're to do, if you listen to Obama, is to have enemies we're supposed to hate. S&P, the latest Obama target there is to hate. Yesterday it was the Tea Party. So many enemies it's hard to keep track," Limbaugh said.
Elana Katz is a psychotherapist and mediator who specializes in helping couples through a collaborative, nonadversarial divorce process — and who teaches other therapists to do the same.
What makes a good therapist: It’s empathy, it’s being able to be transparent. It’s being able to think and to feel and to help people do the same. I have a good ability to roll up my sleeves and be with people, not at them. Therapy is not surgery. By SAM ROBERTS
Alaska Justice Morgan Christen mixed it up with Sen. Al Franken. Sharon Gleason, an Alaska Superior Court judge, took tough questions from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
Hatch told Christen that Obama has said "judges should base their rulings on one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy."
Did she agree with that? he asked.
"I believe that judges have an obligation to rule based on the rule of law, and that's what I have done for 9 1/2 years," Christen said. "We are not allowed to tilt the scale depending on how we feel about a case, but I believe that there are life lessons that we've all learned that are very important that judges retain and take with them to the bench." For instance, she said judges need to keep in mind that there are real people behind the cases, with lives and businesses on hold waiting for decisions. By LISA DEMER
Our “tour guide” was a friend of mine from seminary and church.
He touched on the topic about the difference of compassion and justice.
I’ve never really thought about the difference of compassion and justice. And I’m thinking on my feet as I blog this (or more like, thinking while I’m typing) which means that I may not even make sense. So bear with me. Please.
Compassion is important.
But after our conversation, but in the end, perhaps compassion doesn’t really solve anything. It seems like, for the most part, that compassion just fixes an immediate problem.
Beneath the positions and strategies of people in conflict lies a magnetic field of possibility, our common humanity, ready to invite resolution. Empathic Mediation is a structure for resolving conflict that taps into this rich source of resolution with empathy.
Using the skills of Empathic Communication, the mediator creates a safe, and balanced environment in which people can be heard as they wish to be heard.
This model differs from other structures for negotiation in that strategic thinking is delayed until after empathic connection has been established between the participants. ..
Emily Gould brings 30 years combined experience as a coach, mediator, facilitator, and attorney to her conflict assistance practice. by Emily Gould
Della Noce asks whether and how ideology affects mediator practice. She describes the individualist ideology that supports problem-solving approaches to mediation, and the relational ideology that informs transformative approaches. She then examines how these different ideologies shape mediators understandings of the nature and role of empathy. Case studies indicate that these different understandings yield differences in mediator practice. by Dorothy J. Della Noce
We now have a fair number of posts around the legal blogosphere speaking to the question of empathy and judging, prompted by President Obama's remark that empathy is critical to judging and thus a capacity desirable in a candidate to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court.
Below I've selected the posts I've found interesting for one reason or another (a couple of which I commented on). I've also provided a handful of articles and books that provide a nice introduction to the concept of empathy.
by RATIO JURIS
I was asked how to teach empathy. I put down our booklets, invited others to do the same and I had a storytelling round. We related stories about restored connections.
The stories were followed by a round of one word responses to the stories. The comments were: powerful, emotional, wow, enlightening. I went back to the question.
How do you teach empathy? You teach listening. St. Croix Valley Restorative Justice
We have raised an entire generation without the prerequisites for developing empathy and then are outraged when they seem not to care about the impact of their behavior on others. We did not consciously decide to raise them without empathy, but that is the result of significant changes in our social behavior.
The development of empathy requires:
1. regular feedback about how our actions are affecting others, respectfully communicated
2. relationships in which we are valued and our worth is validated
3. experience of sympathy from others when we are in pain by Kay Pranis
Even though mediators/facilitators may not explicitly ask people to be empathetic to the other, they often work towards that end, understanding that the most transformation happens when participants move beyond simply hearing and understanding the others’ perspective.
Should mediators be more overt about this goal?
Should mediation training involve a course on “evoking empathy”?
Almost exactly two years ago, Americans went briefly but powerfully insane when President Obama had the temerity to suggest that a replacement for the retiring Justice David Souter might embody the quality of "empathy." As Obama explained it at the time, he wanted someone "who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook; it is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation.
Obama's foes seized on this language to insist that "empathy" was code for twisting the law to help some but not others. It stood for lawless, emotional liberal "activism."
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What Have I Done? is a book and a course on the subject of victim empathy and it's fair to describe it as a very thorough, easy to follow and constructive pathway into understanding restorative justice. Understanding how our actions affect others is without question, valuable in many respects, not least of all because it helps to guide us in our future decisions. Assuming that we learn from them, that is. When actions result in someone becoming a victim, the effect can be far-reaching and complex for some individuals to comprehend. Indeed, it can be the case that perpetrators of such actions are completely blind to the ramifications of their actions, even when these are highlighted. By Roger Blackman
To be truly at ease with yourself and those around you is transformative. The first step is to approach every conflict – whether internal or external – as an opportunity. When we understand and communicate our needs with clarity, and with deep empathy for the universality of those needs, conflict leads to connection. The illusion of separation from self and others crumbles. Finally, we are at home in the world.
“The Anti-Empathic Turn” by Robin L. West, professor of law and philosophy and associate dean of research and academic programs at Georgetown University.
Georgetown Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 11-97.The Issue: Ms. West states that throughout the 20th century, the great jurists have agreed that empathy — the ability to share the perspectives of others — is a crucial aspect of justice. To make decisions about discrimination, malpractice or injury, one must know the law and history
By PATRICIA COHEN
Justice, according to a broad consensus of our greatest twentieth century judges, requires a particular kind of moral judgment, and that moral judgment requires, among much else, empathy - the ability to understand not just the situation but also the perspective of litigants on warring sides of a lawsuit.
Excellent judging requires empathic excellence. Empathic understanding is, in some measure, an acquired skill as well as, in part, a natural ability. Some people do it well; some, not so well. Again, this has long been understood, and has been long argued, particularly, although not exclusively, by some of our most admired judges and justices.
Somehow, however, this idea, viewed as so utterly mainstream for much of the last century’s worth of writing about judging, has, in the first decade of the twenty first century, become positively toxic, at least in the context of confirmation battles to the Supreme Court. What was once regarded as non-problematically central to good judging is now regarded as antithetical to it. No one challenged this claimed antipathy between empathy and judicial excellence. How did that happen? Robin L. West
Georgetown University Law Center
img http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice
Based on the Restorative Justice model, Restorative Resources Santa Cruz (RRSC) supports groups to function at their highest levels by integration of practices that build trust and teamwork and resolution of conflicts in ways that strengthen the group. In a world that often resorts to resentment, blame, and reprimands, Restorative Resources offers non-punitive processes to create environments where trust and understanding are valued and fostered.
I became convinced that only an effort that fully involves the offender, that empowers him to be truly responsible for himself, will succeed in bringing about true rehabilitation.
If an effort is able to mobilize this power, then it will take root among the prison population, the group that can best bring about needed change. Once an offender is able to take this step he can proceed to help his companions. By developing personal insight he gains empathy for others.
According to one veteran mediator, creating empathy between the parties is a significant way to achieve a successful outcome. In the Fall 2010 issue of the Vermont Lawyer, Emily Gould writes:
'My own experience in both conventional law practice and as a mediator and conflict coach has taught me that empathy is a valuable skill for creating good outcomes, but also a way of being in the world that brings our world to life. Empathy stands shoulder-to-shoulder with persuasion as a means for motivating others and stimulating collaboration, creativity, and agreement.'
by Emily Gould
Article in PDF:
The Empathy Debate: The Role of Empathy in Law, Mediation, and the New Professionalism
http://www.vtbar.org/Images/Journal/journalarticles/fall2010/ADR-EmpathyDebate.pdf
Bush and Folger (1994) in The Promise of Mediation articulated distinctions between Individualist and Relational ideology, and linked them to specific theoretical orientations to mediation practice, problem-solving and transformative, respectively. Yet, a question persists as to whether these distinctions produce any material differences in practice. This question is approached here through an examination of a single construct in the mediation literature, empathy.
The author proposes that the Individualist and Relational ideological frameworks have material implications for the concept and the practice of fostering empathy between the parties to a mediation: The problem-solving framework fosters a social interaction which can be understood as transactional empathy while the transformative framework fosters an interaction described as relational empathy. by Dorothy J. Della Noce img http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice
Adult restorative justice services are receiving an extra $2 million in funding by the Government, Justice Minister Simon Power announced today.
Restorative justice helped address the harm done to victims, held offenders to account for their crimes, and reduced re-offending, Mr Power said.
This seminar promotes empathy and understanding by teaching offenders about the human consequences of crime. During the class, offenders are encouraged to accept responsibility for their past harmful actions. At the conclusion of the class, the offender writes a letter of apology to their victims.
Four-hour seminar includes the juvenile and their parents.
The seminar is designed to help the juvenile:
1. Hear how their actions impacted the victim, their family and the community.
2. Accept responsibility and become accountable for their actions.
3. Develop ways to respond to their victim with sincere understanding and concern.
4. Develop personal safety skills that focus on crime prevention.
5. Identify ways to better contribute to the community
Do you want to deepen your empathy skills and learn how to apply them in Restorative community circles?
These Deepening Trainings are designed for practising skills learned in your Basic Training, PLUS developing further understanding and skills in the area of empathy. (The other ‘Deepenings’ we offer are in the areas of Anger and Conflict).
The deeper problem with Compassionate Conservativism, as dreamt up by Karl Rove and articulated by Bush43, is that it tries to justify Progressive Federal overreach by setting the Golden Rule against the Constitution. We are left with a sprawling Federal government that wants to own your food, health, education, housing, job, and retirement.
As someone who takes a strongly Federalist view of the Constitution, the idea of Washington DC as an organization with copius resources that steps in to alleviate multi-state natural disasters seems ‘about right’ in terms of the ‘compassion’ that would be proper.
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