Isn’t it funny, if you are an international sports star and you muck around with some model, you’re bound to get caught out. There are hordes of people who delight in informing the public of the misdemeanors of the rich and famous in the “public interest”. And it seems that there are even larger hordes of loyal followers eager to gleefully, gobble up any and all such information (although I have often wondered if the journalists ‘reporting’ on this stuff are feeding a need or creating it).
Anyway it seems that whilst these ravenous, celebrity devourers exist, there’ll be little getting away with anything if your profile is a public one. So I can understand the idea of getting a court order to stop people feeding on the carcass of your reputation BUT, it has become apparent that such a move could have the opposite effect.
Many of us care little about footballers or models and even less about footballers and models having affairs and as such, will not normally condone the media outlets that spew this stuff out. The recent Super Injunction scandal has served to elevate these stories into a higher realm of readership and Mr Footballer’s behaviour is far better known than if he’d let the ‘story’ rise and fall in the normal way.
What have we to learn from this? You might say nothing. You might say that if you don’t want to face the hardships that come from being caught, you shouldn’t do whatever you were caught doing. I think the message here is about taking responsibility. What Mr Footballer tried to do is hide what he had done, which of course made it worse when he was found out.
Have you ever been hurt? Have you ever found something out weeks, even years later? Didn’t it seem worse that the person you care about not only did what they did, but lied for so long as well? It’s like two wounds for the price of one.
If the perpetrator of your hurt was honest at the outset, doesn’t this reduce the wound ever so slightly? Still a wound, but only one.
Taking responsibility is a big part of the restorative justice process. Learners on the Sycamore Tree course must recognise that they are at fault, that they have caused harm, broken the law etc. Often this is the difficult. Many crimes don’t appear to have direct victims, many are acts of retaliation and revenge and therefore almost justifiable in the eyes of the perpetrator.
I have said before and will never tire of repeating, that arrest, court, sentencing and prison do not achieve this recognition in the minds of offenders. They often do not promote a sense of introspection but of resentment. The processes of criminal justice between arrest and release desperately needs to contain an underlying element of taking responsibility, learning the impact of your actions and understanding what your victims have felt.
Week after week we witness Sycamore Tree learners experience their very own ‘eureka’ moments. Realisations that their actions have caused certain feelings amongst those affected that the courts do not explain. You just can’t simply lock people up and expect them to be different when you let them out.
Here are some quotes from sycamore Tree learners recently:
‘I have been truly moved by the accounts of the people who are affected by crime. It made me see the other side of the story and most of all, it made me realise that there are no victim-less crimes’ (Oct 2010).
‘I gained a new insight into the impact of my crime on my family and the community at large. I’ve also realised that I can no longer hide behind the excuses and that I must accept full responsibility to be able to move forward in the future’ (Oct 2010).
‘I realise what I’ve done and how much hurt I’ve caused. The ripple effect of my crime and the impact on my family and friends. I really want to say sorry from the real depths of my heart’ (March 2011).
When I was much younger my mother asked me very sternly if I had been eating the raspberries that were growing in the garden. I denied it, naturally. She accused me of lying which upset me and caused me to protest vigorously. My protestations achieved one thing, a wallop round my head. When I was sent to my room, very much aggrieved, I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror and noticed the raspberry juice on my chin……
