PTSD and perpetrator participation in restorative transitional justice

Abstract

Restorative transitional justice—mechanisms that prioritize truth-telling, reparation, and stakeholder participation over punitive sanction—is an increasingly prominent feature of post-conflict peacebuilding. Its success depends fundamentally on participation by all stakeholders, including perpetrators, who have strong incentives not to engage. Why, then, do some perpetrators participate while others do not, even when facing identical incentives? We argue that post-traumatic stress disorder, specifically the avoidance and arousal symptoms characteristic of perpetration-induced trauma, increases the likelihood of perpetrator participation by motivating pro-social engagement as a coping mechanism. We test this argument using original survey data from 299 former members of the Colombian Armed Forces implicated in the “false positives” extrajudicial killing scandal, all of whom face proceedings before Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Logistic regression results support both hypotheses: increasing severity of both avoidance and arousal post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms independently increases the probability of perpetrator participation in restorative transitional justice, even under conditions of institutional abandonment and personal risk.