Yes, there is certainly a difference in semantics here. I would also say that for me, it is important to differentiate when I forgive someone in a more traditional sense, and when I am doing this other internal process being described. For me, it doesn't feel accurate to call them the same thing. I forgive my dad for his physical abuse when I was young. I truly don't hold it against him and we have a very good relationship. When he does something that makes me angry, it does not summon thoughts of the physical abuse because I truly forgave him and moved past it in how I thought of him and related to him.

I certainly don't forgive the perpetrators who sexually abused me. I think anger is an appropriate emotion to feel towards them. I won't pretend I am currently at peace with what they did, either - so I haven't forgiven them, regardless of the definition.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it's important to me personally to differentiate between the forgiveness of my dad and any possible outcome of how I think about and relate to the perpetrators of sexual abuse. It will never be the same thing to me, so I don't want to use the same word. I don't plan on opening my heart to these people as if they had not done what they did, and for me, that is part of forgiveness. I can't say I forgive someone while also wanting nothing to do with them because of what they did, and also feeling less empathy and compassion towards them than I would someone who had not hurt me. The latter doesn't mean I sit around wishing them ill, but I would not feel the same instinctual sense of concern for them if something bad happened as I would for a stranger. That would create cognitive dissonance around my definition of forgiveness.