Understanding Accountability: Supports and Barriers in Coming to Terms with Violence

Accountability is a central concept and practice within the paradigms of restorative and transformative justice. While scholarship examining accountability is growing, there is limited research focused on the perspectives of people who have committed violence and sought to be accountable for the harm they caused. This is particularly relevant given that the agency of people who have caused harm is a core theoretical and practical underpinning of accountability in restorative and transformative justice. This study used a critical and interpretative phenomenological approach, interviewing 11 men who committed homicide, served long sentences in prison, participated in a restorative process while incarcerated, and have since come home. Participants were asked about their pathways to accountability starting from when they committed the violence, to their participation in a restorative program, and through to their return home from incarceration. They were asked what supported and hindered their accountability-taking including questions about the roles of prison, race, and gender. For most participants, accountability was a process that took time, in which their own agency played a central role. The findings reveal that there was no single pathway to accountability, rather, the process of accountability-taking was constituted by a constellation of factors and eventually an accumulation of supportive relationships, experiences, and programs. Supportive factors included time, experiences of safety and acceptance, peer relationships, and an intentional space to deepen accountability for their offense. Barriers included experiences of judgment, shame, and hiding, a lack of trusting relationships, gender norms, and the punitive nature of the prison environment.