Presentation and correlates of moral injury as a response to Past transgression

Abstract

The concept of moral injury has been researched mostly on military personnel who have either witnessed or engaged in acts generally deemed to be moral transgressions, during combat. Although, it is explored mostly among war veterans, moral injury among nonmilitary personnel who have committed moral transgressions, too, ought to be investigated for the greater good of society. The purpose of this research was to qualitatively explore the presentation and the correlates of moral injury in a non-military prisoner sample, using a working model, postulated by Litz (2009) and his colleagues. Fifteen prisoners who had committed acts of manslaughter or pre-meditated murderspresently kept at the Welikada Prison, Colombo Sri Lanka were interviewed. Using the qualitative method helped to explore each step of the model in-depth. The research revealed that despite the sample experiencing cognitive dissonance, they did not progress to Litz’s et.al.,(2009) next step; that is ‘global, internal’ attribution, but they engaged in ‘moral justification and externalization’ as attribution, which became a prevalent protective factor in the prevention of psychological, social and emotional impairment. According to the model shame and guilt are jointly expected to lead to social withdrawal. However, that was not observed in this sample. Interestingly though the use of the spiritual attribution both to justify and rationalize their actions as well as a mechanism in distress management was observed frequently among the subjects.