TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - Moral truth and compounded trauma: the effects of acquittal of homicide defendants on the families of the victims JO - Homicide studies A1 - Thiel, Darren SP - 199 EP - 219 VL - 20 IS - 3 N2 - This article examines the impact of acquittal of homicide defendants on the families of the homicide victim(s), illustrating how the families' trauma was framed and complicated by the criminal justice process. Homicide trials had particularly compounded their trauma because to manage and partially repair the shattered reality wrought by the homicide, the families were compelled to construct moral and causal narratives about the event. Yet, defense counter-narratives conflicted with those of the families, and the acquittal validated those as truth. This fractured the families' repair work, denied their claims to victimhood, and prolonged their bereavement indefinitely.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1088-7679 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088767915600200 ID - ref1 ER -