Punishing offenders for their misdeeds can restore a sense of justice achieved (i.e., justice-related satisfaction) among victims and increase their willingness to reconcile, especially if offenders signal that they understand why punishment has been inflicted on them. In this article, we theoretically disentangle and empirically test two explanations for this effect. One possible interpretation for this effect is that offender feedback empowers the victim and that empowerment is the crucial prerequisite for reconciliation. An alternative interpretation is that offender feedback benefits the victim because it suggests that the punishment had an educational effect and initiated a positive "moral change" in the offender. Six studies-four scenario and two autobiographic recall studies (combined N = 2,134)-suggest that the positive effects of offender feedback on victims' justice-related satisfaction and willingness to reconcile cannot be reduced to empowerment. Empowerment and moral change rather constitute two independent mechanisms explaining when and why punishment facilitates the posttransgression process. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings (e.g., for restorative justice procedures). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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受害者需要的不仅仅是权力：赋权和道德改变独立预测受害者的满意度和和解的意愿。

惩罚犯罪者的不当行为可以恢复受害者的正义感（即与正义相关的满足感），并增加他们和解的意愿，尤其是当犯罪者表示他们理解为什么要对他们施加惩罚时。在本文中，我们从理论上解开并实证检验了对这种效应的两种解释。对此影响的一种可能解释是，犯罪者的反馈赋予受害者权力，而赋予权力是和解的关键先决条件。另一种解释是，犯罪者的反馈使受害者受益，因为它表明惩罚具有教育效果并在犯罪者中引发了积极的“道德转变”。六项研究——四项情景和两项自传回忆研究（合并 N = 2，134)-建议罪犯反馈对受害者与司法相关的满意度和和解意愿的积极影响不能简化为赋权。授权和道德改变构成了两个独立的机制，解释了惩罚何时以及为什么会促进犯罪后的过程。我们讨论了这些发现的理论和实践意义（例如，对于恢复性司法程序）。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。恢复性司法程序）。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。恢复性司法程序）。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。