Offender Accountability matters because, when offenders are allowed to evade the responsibility to explain themselves – to acknowledge WHAT they did, HOW they did it, and WHY they did it – they’re also allowed to escape the responsibility to think about and reflect upon the choices they made. This enables them to minimize and excuse their choices to commit violent and sometimes lethal harms, as if those choices were “made for them” by circumstances. In this way, they’re effectively “given permission to  move on” – whether in prison or back in society – without ever being challenged or encouraged to change the thinking that led to their choices. Which puts them at much higher risk for reoffending.

Survivors don’t have the luxury of “moving on” from the devastation of traumatic loss, violence, or violation, and no Victims/Survivors want these Offenders to be allowed to escape true Accountability. Corrections practice today should insist that Offenders be challenged or required to examine and account for their choices – whether those choices were  careless or vicious. Examining the What, How, and Why of their choices is the first step toward Accountability. Most cannot do this without the help of rigorously clear-eyed, Victim-Centered, and Accountability oriented intervention. Accountability MATTERS.