Justice v. Vengeance – A Work in Progress?

6 Commentsawareness, capacity for change, conceptual frameworks, empowerment, justice, Morality, Uncategorized, vengeance

What is the difference between justice and vengeance?

Does it really matter?

Won’t vengeance redress the karmic balance anyway?

Surely an eye for an eye or tit-for-tat = reciprocity?

Won’t that suffice?

What does vengeance bring us?

(It must bring something or we wouldn’t still practice it so extensively)

What problems does it cause?

Do justice and vengeance ‘feel’ the same?

Does justice offer us something different to that which vengeance offers, or is it much the same?

How often do we dress up vengeance in a ‘justice’ costume?

Does it matter?

What kind of a lens do we need to use so that we can tell the difference between justice and vengeance?

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6 Comments

  1. There are times when it is difficult to tell the difference, certainly. However, as a victim of violent crime I can honestly tell you the day I was shot three times I was handed a life sentence. I live with the results of actions not mine, every day. My life was shortened and changed.

    My “justice”? They were caught and they were given sentences commensurate with the crimes they committed, not just against me but against other victims as well.

    20 years later, the first of the three offenders will be walking out a free man in 17 days. Is that justice? I don’t know. Can I feel okay about it? I don’t know. Has he served his time, yes according to the state he has and justice has been served. Yet, I am still serving mine.

    1. There is no doubt that when we are victimised it leaves lasting, life-long scars. I am very sorry to hear about your horribly traumatic experience and I can only imagine how awful it was for you. There isn’t really anything I can say that can adequately address your points as they are so personal to you, except to admire your bravery for having survived that horrible attack and thank you for commenting in such a considered way. I wish you all the best, especially at the moment when this additional trauma is unfolding.

      1. Oddly, I have worked within the system for years now. I speak inside the walls of prisons and juvenile detention centers in a program called “Victim Impact” which is sponsored by are State Attorney General. Many of the offenders who are in the program are violent offenders, many are serving life sentences. They don’t get gold stars for completing the program and they have to get recommendations and sponsorship to attend, it is a twelve week program and it is tough.

        I am one of the few “first person” victims who speak in this program, meaning one of the few who isn’t a family member but actually a victim of violence. It can be tough, you stand in front of up to 60 people and tell your story. You are behind the walls of a prison doing it, They are there because they have committed crimes, often against people just like you. It took me a long time to realize they were perhaps also victims, maybe not the same kind of victims but victims nonetheless. That recognition changed the tone and tenor of my participation, changed my view even of what happened to me.

        Doesn’t change me anger at the three, I can’t help that. But it changed my view of the whys. I have written a great deal about my story over the years and about the system in the US, the whys.

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