Restorative Justice From The Perspective Of Criminal Victim

The emergence of restorative justice, as a new form of justice, could be traced back to the late 1970s. R·Barnett was the first person who used the term"restorative justice". Restorative justice, aiming to replace traditional criminal justice, has undergone rapid development in Western Europe, USA, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, etc. Such a rapid development is inseparable from victim protection campaigns. In the traditional concept of criminal justice, a crime is a wrongful act that may do harm to the society. In the criminal procedures, the state assumes the responsibility of charging the offenders. From the very beginning of committing the criminal act, the offender is related to the state by criminal laws. Hence criminal responsibilities, in nature, demonstrate the relationship of rights and obligations between the offender and the state. In the center of the traditional approach of criminal justice are the state and the offender, from which the victim is totally excluded. A brief glance of all criminological theories shows that the behavior-oriented approach of the classical school and the actor-oriented approach of the positive school are both in essence focused on the offender, leaving no room for the victim.In view of the fact that in the traditional criminal justice system it's very difficult to achieve the goal of providing adequate protection for the victim, more and more people are placing their hopes on restorative justice. In the restorative justice system, the victim is encouraged to speak out their thoughts and wants, with such thoughts and wants respected and treated seriously. Restorative justice system cares about the actual harms caused to the victim as a result of the offense, including material, emotional and physical harms and damages of the social relations and social functions. The goal of protecting the victim effectively is realized through understanding the needs of the victim and trying the best to meet such needs. In this manner, restorative justice helps rebuild social equality and truly restore social justice. Such justice truly reflects the equal basic rights of all parties concerned, enabling them to respect the other party while at the same time enjoy being respected. In this way a normal inter-dependent human relationship is established.This paper consists of four parts. Part One examines the theoretical background that fostered the emergence of restorative justice. First of all, the paper introduces the emergence of victim studies by defining the conceptual scope of the term"Victim". For the purpose of this paper, victim refers to a victim of a criminal offense. The development of the legal status of the victim could be narrowed down into 3 phases: the golden peak, the valley and the revival. Descriptions of the current situations of the victims lead to the assertion that restorative justice is the best approach to transform the tragic fate of the victims. Secondly, the paper provides an analysis of prison corrections and the concept of"reintegration of the offender into the society". A comparison of the number of people imprisoned and the crime rates reveals that the more the imprisoned the higher the crime rate. It can therefore be deducted that imprisonment as a means of criminal punishment is not as effective as expected in deterring people from committing crimes. The paper then examines the negative impact of prison corrections on the reintegration of the released prisoners into the society. Driven by the desire to avoid such negative impacts, some criminological scholars and experts started the search for a justice system that facilitates the reintegration of the offenders into society. Then the paper explains the nature of the crime typical of the restorative justice system by comparing it with that of the traditional system.Part Two focuses on the contents of restorative justice. By starting with an introduction of the several wide-accepted concepts of restorative justice, the paper discusses its connotations on the basis of the definition given by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. This part also describes the 4 features of restorative justice: effective protection of the victim's interests; introduction of dialogue mechanism into the criminal procedures; the equal legal status of the offender and the victim; the principle of free will.Part Three examined in detail victim protection in the context of restorative justice. By means of comparative studies, the paper reveals the tragic situations faced by the victim in the traditional justice system, their tragedies being caused by the fact that the status of the victim is not guaranteed and that as a result the victim is often vulnerable to repeated offenses. On the basis of such revelation, the paper goes further to explain the advantages of the restorative justice. The advantages exist not only in the victim's right to compensation for property damages, physical damages and mental damages, but also in the realization of such compensations.Part Four provides a reflection of the victim protection in China from the perspective of restorative justice. First, the paper quotes and examines existing legal provisions concerning victim protection in China's criminal procedures. Certain weak points of the victim-protecting provisions are identified. The root causes of these weak points include: the lack of principal status for the victim in the charge; the inadequacy of the legal representative scheme for the victim; failure of the private prosecution system to play its expected roles; the deficiency of China's criminal procedures involving civil procedures. On the other hand, the paper also examines the feasibility of expanding restorative justice in China and proposes necessary reform and improvement for that purpose.