ImpactU Versión 3.11.2 Última actualización: Interfaz de Usuario: 16/10/2025 Base de Datos: 29/08/2025 Hecho en Colombia
An Exploration of Relationships between the Propensity to Forgive Severe Offenses, Individual’s Moral Rationales and Their Preferences for Restorative and Retributive Justice
Colombia has experienced an internal and long lasting low intensity conflict. Ongoing peace talks between the national government and the main guerrilla groups suggest that this violent conflict may be over during the next years. Post conflict peace building and recovery efforts would imply dealing with reconciliation and forgiveness issues. Therefore, studies to understand the relationship between the propensity to forgive of the population and other factors are important to propose policies that can help in the forthcoming reconciliation process. In this chapter we explore the relationship between the propensity to forgive of individuals who put themselves in the situation of experiencing harm as a result of war actions and their different levels of sociomoral perspectives. In particular, we study the relationship between the propensity to forgive and Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Additionally, we investigate the relationship between the propensity to forgive and people's preference for either retributive or restorative justice. This chapter also examines within a war context how does the propensity to forgive severe offenses is affected by several circumstances associated with the offense such as the degree of severity of the consequences, the offender's intention to cause harm, and the presence or absence of transgressor's actions to repair the consequences of his/her actions. The relationship between the propensity to forgive and several demographic variables was also examined. In contrast with other studies carried out in the past, this study explores new relationships between the propensity to forgive and other factors (such as people's moral reasoning) involving situations closely related to civil war. A sample of 187 individuals participated in the study. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the required data.