Shattered Justice
224 pages, 6 x 9
3 b&w illustrations, 1 table
Paperback
Release Date:12 Aug 2022
ISBN:9781978820357
Hardcover
Release Date:12 Aug 2022
ISBN:9781978820364
Shattered Justice
Crime Victims' Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations
Rutgers University Press
Shattered Justice presents original crime victims' experiences with violent crime, investigations and trials, and later exonerations in their cases. Using in-depth interviews with 21 crime victims across the United States, Cook reveals how homicide victims’ family members and rape survivors describe the painful impact of the primary trauma, the secondary trauma of the investigations and trials, and then the tertiary trauma associated with wrongful convictions and exonerations. Important lessons and analyses are shared related to grief and loss, and healing and repair. Using restorative justice practices to develop and deliver healing retreats for survivors also expands the practice of restorative justice. Finally, policy reforms aimed at preventing, mitigating, and repairing the harms of wrongful convictions is covered.
With this book, Cook gives voice to the original crime victims of wrongful convictions and their family members whose experiences of surviving trauma and re-traumatization are very seldom heard. Cook puts her skills as a qualitative researcher, a feminist criminologist, and a restorative justice expert, to excellent use. Shattered Justice will be a transformative work with sustaining impact.
A leading expert on wrongful conviction turns her attention to the original crime victims, who frequently receive little more than a fleeting mention following the outcome of these cases. Cook provides insights into their anguish as they try to make sense of what happened, and their struggles with trauma caused by the wrongful conviction and its aftermath. This is one of those rare books that will be a must read for academics, restorative justice practitioners, and policy makers—indeed it is a book for everyone who cares about the state of justice in this country and its victims.
With this book, Cook gives voice to the original crime victims of wrongful convictions and their family members whose experiences of surviving trauma and re-traumatization are very seldom heard. Cook puts her skills as a qualitative researcher, a feminist criminologist, and a restorative justice expert, to excellent use. Shattered Justice will be a transformative work with sustaining impact.
A leading expert on wrongful conviction turns her attention to the original crime victims, who frequently receive little more than a fleeting mention following the outcome of these cases. Cook provides insights into their anguish as they try to make sense of what happened, and their struggles with trauma caused by the wrongful conviction and its aftermath. This is one of those rare books that will be a must read for academics, restorative justice practitioners, and policy makers—indeed it is a book for everyone who cares about the state of justice in this country and its victims.
KIMBERLY J. COOK is a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is the director of the Restorative Justice Collaborative at UNCW. She is co-author with Saundra Westervelt of Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity (Rutgers University Press).
Acknowledgments
Part I: Studying Victims who Experience Exonerations (Primary and Secondary Trauma)
Chapter 1: Introduction: Issues, Methods, and Participants
Chapter 2: Shattered Lives
Chapter 3: Shattered Investigations and Trials
Chapter 4: Shattered Families
Part II: Tertiary Trauma
Chapter 5: Shattered Justice
Chapter 6: Shattered System
Chapter 7: Elements of Tertiary Trauma
Chapter 8: Shattered Grief, Loss, and Coping
Part Three: Healing, Repair, and Reform
Chapter 9: Healing Justice
Chapter 10: Repairing and Restoring Justice
Works Cited
