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How forgiveness can create a more just legal system | Martha Minow

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Pardons, commutations and bankruptcy laws are all tools of forgiveness within the US legal system. Are we using them frequently enough, and with fairness? Law professor Martha Minow outlines how these merciful measures can reinforce racial and economic inequality…

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Pardons, commutations and bankruptcy laws are all tools of forgiveness within the US legal system. Are we using them frequently enough, and with fairness? Law professor Martha Minow outlines how these merciful measures can reinforce racial and economic inequality — and makes the case for creating a system of restorative justice that focuses on accountability and reconciliation rather than punishment.

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56 Comments

  1. Imran Saifi

    April 27, 2020 at 4:58 pm

    Watch it too
    Very useful

  2. volkan ozkose

    April 27, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    As long as we learn from what we forgive for ?

  3. HaryBear

    April 27, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    I don’t think I could forgive someone who murdered my brother with premeditated intent, but people make mistakes. If it was an accident and they were remorseful it only further hurts you to hold on to that resentment.

  4. Vance H

    April 27, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    Unity in Diversity

  5. Najwa Laylah

    April 27, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    I do not want someone’s victim forgiving them for what they did to her to lead to the same being perpetrated on me. Thanks in advance.

  6. Brian Catt

    April 27, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    I think most people would like to start with fair and transparent execution of the system we currently have. If we can ever get that far, we should have plenty of time to discuss more fringe and theoretical approaches to augment that system.

  7. Lisa M. 1 Cor. 15:1-4

    April 27, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    Jesus died so we can be forgiven & go to heaven. No greater love is there than to lay down your life for another. 🌹

  8. katarina janoskova

    April 27, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    I wonder what percentage of people currently in prisons would still have committed the crime if they grew up in a nice neighbourhood with parents who earned enough not to be constantly stressed about it, had a chance to attend a good a school and had the choice of pursuing higher education or getting a good job.

    USA has 737 people in prison per every 100 000. UK has 148. What’s more likely, you have so many people that ‘bad’ or is the system screwed?

    • chitownmo

      April 28, 2020 at 10:58 pm

      Both. Vast competition for limited resources needed to maintain a sound standard of living unfortunately produces a permanent underprivileged class. IQ is real factor as is mental health, and interpersonal influences(Ethnic culture. Family Upbringing). Depending on ethnic and economic demographics there are a myriad of reasons. No neighborhood has to be bad. Why are not the areas these people grow up in “nice?” Lack of infrastructural development due lack of property ownership(not referring to communist redistribution BS, referring to individual business and home ownership) and a lack of corporate focus on community developmentis a common problem especially in the black community. A ghetto is only a ghetto if it allowed to be. Poverty can be but is not always the cause of crime. Ego, greed, ambition, envy and jealousy are. They are plenty of poor people who live in the worse neighborhoods yet are willing to share the little they have with whoever they can. Never stole, robbed, raped nor assaulted anyone. May not be the most educated but are wise and sharp and creative with the little resources they have. There are many criminals who come from middle to upperclass backgrounds. Embezzlement, fraud, blackmail, bribery, extortion, narcotics usage/distribution are common amongst upper class especially in the finance, corporate and government sectors. It is not always broadcasted unless their is an information leak, law enforcement operation or systemic calamity.

  9. 相川歩

    April 27, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    if I could be forgiven I’d kill every human being on earth

  10. Somphoth Siratsamy

    April 27, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    Society is diverse, people will try to survive in the pressures given by their inherited social levels. Due to the diverse environment, competition cause people to have depictional concepts to rank in competition, it’s what is depicted that creates the bias. In forms of social frequencies. “She is definitely not psychologist, but the professor sure can put together a statistical hypothesis”. Social Image conflicts w/ competition, we are bound to a diverse individual functionalism. Each & every personality has a frequency, like different types of magnets & metals that can reprogram it’s own molecules, the social diversity separates us in pairs or incrowds. These conditions given to society will only hinder the inevitable, social level segregation. Where each level has its own political command, it’s own ethical commerce. Where all will be dependant on its pairable community. It’s like stigma, but realistically, it’s a individual functionalism that is perceived to the individuals preference. Psychological Frequencies

  11. Sid'istic Atheist

    April 27, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    *Seriously.. ??* this woman is allowed to teach our youth..
    _Delusionally Naive_ is an understatement.

    • ish the fish

      April 28, 2020 at 4:44 am

      Ikr shes delusional

    • ish the fish

      April 28, 2020 at 4:45 am

      Her idea will cause some of the scariest peopel in the world to be free only to reoffend again and so on

  12. Guest of Gideon Binenfeld

    April 28, 2020 at 12:19 am

    I feel this lecture is the GATE, but what is waiting behind it?
    So, we know “forgiveness” is a big part of handling a conflict between people.

    What is meant by the words “letting go of grievance”?
    Like people said here, it’s not about forgetting the grievance.

    Inside I think, we hold an internal court, how do this court and the public one differ?

    I always felt that harming a person who harmed you is maybe more wrong,

    because when you hurt back, it’s a lot more premeditated.

    Also consider, when a public court says “you are guilty of X”, and inner court says “you are NOT guilty of
    X”, you get a result: “I am not understood/trusted/… by the public”.

    If we want to bring the personal handling of grievance closer to the public handle of grievance, we have to accept
    the bad result is a product of many processes, internal and external, therefor the court result cannot be “guilty/not guilty”, but
    A list of global community issue list, and changes in it.

    I don’t want to punish the killer!!!!!

    I want to eliminate what creates one, and the things that cause a killer to kill. Help the killers!!!!!

    In the past we consider “make an example” so people will learn, “if people fear the wrath of the court they won’t do bad things” , this is WRONG!!!!!

    We need to educate differently, we need to expose in each case the real causes (mostly external to the killer).
    If we do that, then, it’s less about “forgiving the person”, it’s more about “not lying to yourself” that the “person” is the cause, and more about assigning blame to a correct set of systems.
    When you do that, sure, no one to be angry at, only non physical “system”.
    But, just like any story, you start to realize (from learning the story of the “broken systems”) that those systems are alive, and changing,
    and you can almost relate to them as you do to people, hate and forgiveness to the system.

    I want to here about the true evil in court, I want the government to expose to us these systems a lot more, like kid stories, like life lessons, point the blame there!!!! (the system) and forgiveness should come more easily I feel.

  13. Shaolin DonkeyPunch

    April 28, 2020 at 3:21 am

    “I pardon you.”

    -Amon Goeth

  14. Rahul Sharma

    April 28, 2020 at 3:32 am

    Barack Obama my former student…I was drinking tea…it spilled over…sorry for weak English…
    I just have one doubt if America have such person of distinction and integrity, whose knowledge reflect in her every word, then why they choose people like Donald Trump as their president…Is Democracy hijacked in USA like in India.

  15. asmacarthur

    April 28, 2020 at 3:46 am

    She couldn’t do it.
    She SHRANK from it.
    She could not mention:

    or
    Second Step Act.
    She discounted her career.

    • asmacarthur

      April 28, 2020 at 3:47 am

      bias

    • ish the fish

      April 28, 2020 at 5:02 am

      Definitely

  16. ish the fish

    April 28, 2020 at 4:31 am

    Lady if you were to go to a violent psychopathic man who has killed many you wouldnt think about forgiveness you’d be running. No matter how much nuch you invest in a prisoner and try to rehabilitate them they dont work well. Some people are naturally violent and dangerous why cant we admit it ,its nature and in the genes for some

  17. James Goner

    April 28, 2020 at 7:00 am

    4:34 why didn’t he pardon Edward Snowden?

    both Democrats and Republicans are corrupt alike.

  18. James Goner

    April 28, 2020 at 7:22 am

    please don’t cancel the debt of the developing countries.
    our governments are corrupt at all levels and do nothing for the nation but keep the money for themselves.

    i’m from Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi is not much different, since she become a politician, I have seen that she has changed a lot.

  19. James Goner

    April 28, 2020 at 7:31 am

    yes! Marxism is on the rise!

  20. Moth Girlx

    April 28, 2020 at 7:54 am

    Blanket forgiveness and Write-off debts… at whose expense? Not the government’s or wealthy people who continue to keep and accumulate their own wealth, but those earning average or less paying for this. These are solutions are for early interventions in milder environments, she doesn’t sound like she has experience in the toughest neighbourhoods where you have to overcome the whole environment and those who don’t think or are motivated or incentivised by the same thing she assumes… hence this idea is so limited to a more complex set of causes that should be solved in the first place. The wealthiest organisations have an indirect part to play in this state of society because of how they take advantage of the average citizen either through labour, consumerism or basic resources like energy (gas, electricity, petrol, infrastructure) that everyone relies on in everyday life and have to pay them for. Look at how mafias and gangs operate that influence families in poverty neighbourhoods, look at the murderers who were brought up in wealthy backgrounds with parents who thought they brought them up well, and look at the victims the type of criminals target and why. There are so many different cases, incentive is a mix of motivational incentives and deterrents for them to respond positively. Justice needs to be relatively balanced for the victim and the type of criminal behaviour too, and therefore justice also should be fairly and proportionately represented.

  21. Rudraksha Vashist

    April 28, 2020 at 10:41 am

    Good work , provided subtitles thank you 🙏

  22. Modern Walking

    April 28, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    WHY ARE THERE PPL?!

  23. Sample Name

    April 28, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    I can’t forgive homophobes, they are too awful to be in our society.

    • Shazrin The Great

      April 28, 2020 at 11:01 pm

      Then you’re just the same as them because they won’t forgive you too.

    • Sample Name

      April 29, 2020 at 6:26 am

      @Shazrin The Greatlol no. I`m not an obscurantist and a criminal.

  24. d h

    April 28, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    This is severely naive. What about repeat offenders? What about people who manipulate the system and exploit forgiveness to continue criminal activity? The number of murders that have occured because a killer was released prematurely is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. “Tuned to fairness” is such a lazily vague qualification, perhaps she should go back to the drawing board and think a bit more before speaking.

  25. Gayatri Casey

    April 28, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    Forgiveness is great great, do forgive. But please let there be exception of rare cases, where there are perpetrator who enjoys the crime doings.

  26. IndianaParkWars Productions

    April 29, 2020 at 3:33 am

    My college has implemented restorative justice and I think it’s a great step towards more effective student conduct. Rather than having to pay a fine and watch an online class for drinking or smoking, they’re taking steps to have the student consider why they broke the policies and to educate how these can become bad habits. I like where we’re going with it

  27. Sahil

    April 29, 2020 at 6:15 am

    I disagree, I think justice should be there ’cause if we forgive the criminals, then people will have no fear of committing crimes 😕

  28. Joseph Davis

    April 29, 2020 at 7:49 am

    My brother suffers from a mental illness
    My father and I forgived each other for our violent behaviours towards him because we feel sorry for him.It is only when you are in these situations that we are more sensitive and feel like being forgiven.

  29. Nicholas Hill

    April 29, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    Great talk on restorative justice. How we need more. I have been teaching on the power of forgiveness for 20+ years – subscribe to my channel for more tools.

    • Sandhya Gopalan

      April 30, 2020 at 9:26 am

      Inspiring talk on utilising the concept of forgiveness for legal system! Nicholas is an expert trainer who shared deep insights on forgiveness in his training sessions. Watch his channel for more!

  30. ITouchTheSky 8GladysWorld8

    April 29, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    Thank you so much for talking of this argument. As a spiritual non perfect human, I always forgive other humans who hurts and don’t have respect on me. I pray a lot and put them in the hands of God.

  31. ITouchTheSky 8GladysWorld8

    April 29, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    So lovely watching and listening to you here on the top of Trentino Italy mountain.

  32. Gianni Marco

    April 29, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    “Forgiveness” is a dog whistle is all too often for the real goal of wanting to reduce the legal penalty for committing violent crimes against people. We should not have drug crimes — this is not a “forgiveness” issue, it is an issue of following the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that was supposed to guarantee (adults) the right to the pursuit of happiness as long as they don’t hurt anyone else…in other words, an adult should be able to decide what they want to engage in (remember when it used to be illegal to marry someone of another ethnicity or race?).

  33. kislay kunj

    April 29, 2020 at 11:06 pm

    Nice Informative talk shared. The recent interest in forgiveness and law reflects widespread dissatisfaction in the equation of justice with adversarial litigation. But we should be careful about embracing the move toward forgiveness, for our commitment to the rule of law often depends upon adversarial litigation for enforcement.

    It almost goes without saying that the dissatisfaction with conventional adversarial litigation is wide-ranging. Not only is it costly and time-consuming, such litigation also is isolating, impersonal, and potentially destructive of human ties. It offers limited or constrained roles for actual parties. It requires that people put aside the totality and complexity of their identities, needs, and beliefs in order to translate the conflict into legal terms. Its process and even its substance seem arcane, remote, harsh and divisive, even if it is principled, formal, neutral and fair.

  34. yeetmachine

    April 30, 2020 at 12:58 am

    Can’t agree sorry great speech tho 👏

  35. Chika

    April 30, 2020 at 2:57 am

    We know I have to forgive others, but it’s difficult to calm down.

  36. Chinmaya Lovekar

    April 30, 2020 at 9:35 am

    In order to develop as a society, we need to work on making it better by having better laws. An intervention is a fair process. Resentment is like drinking a poison in order to kill your enemies. Well said.

  37. Big Dave

    April 30, 2020 at 10:38 am

    You’re comparing children that’re forced into war to teen gang members that 99 times out of a 100 join gangs through choice knowing exactly what will happen if they get arrested for breaking the law?…seriously??

    That alone broke my brain🤕

  38. Punished Luxibelle

    April 30, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    only forgiveness a law school should teach is student loan forgiveness

  39. James Garness

    April 30, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    well this explains why the legal system is in such a state

  40. Stefan Nikola

    April 30, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    Jesus Christ was just plain wrong; you don’t get 100% forgiveness and 0% responsibility. 100% forgiveness and 0% responsibility are the recipe itself for addiction and sociopathy.

  41. Samuel Montoya Paniagua

    May 1, 2020 at 1:41 am

    Je pense que pardonner les autres personnes c’est un agissement qu’on devrait tous suivre parce ça nous permet de aider e notamment pour développer des nouvelles techniques de connaissance social

  42. cmh벤

    May 2, 2020 at 3:48 am

    Barak Obama was her student? Where can i see the prove of that?

  43. Sheldon Zimmerman

    May 2, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    Romans 12:19

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  48. Cabdullaahi Bootaan

    May 3, 2020 at 6:53 am

    Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity, or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men;- for Allah loves those who do good.

    Quran Verse

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