Study On The Protection Of The Rights Of Criminal Victim

With the vigorous growth and development of the study on victims and the protection movement of victims, the status of the victims would become more important, and the voice of protecting the victims' rights would become louder. Though the current criminal procedure law of our country satisfies the global trend, brings the victims up to the party's lawsuit status and grants them a lot of lawsuit rights correspondently, but still there is a very great loophole in it. Based on the task and goal of criminal lawsuit as well as the inherent demand of the criminal judicial system, as the organic component of the mechanism of avoiding criminal victimization, protection of the right of criminal victims is in accordance with the philosophy of judicial civilization and taw humanization and meets the need of realizing social justice necessarily and realistically.The main body of the thesis is divided into four parts. The first part primarily talks about the definitions, characteristic of criminal victims and the change of their status in history. There in academic circles exist different definitions given from different angles. The author believes that victim is a person whose lawful rights and interests are infringed upon by a crime. Accordingly, the main characteristics of criminal victims are briefly summarized.As for the status of victims, the thesis briefly discusses the historical process in which the victims' position went from a higher level to a lower level and then to another higher level gradually. Victims in primitive society were punishers. In the early years of slave society they played an executive role of penalty. In the middle and late period of slave society in which the state function had become more and more strong and the judicial authority came into being, the accusing-style proceeding had been carried out to punish the law offenders. In feudal society the key position of victims gradually faded since the 1460s , after the establishment of public prosecution system and the setup of public procurator department, the interests and the will of victims were seldom taken into account by the criminal procedure. Since the 1950s much attention had been paid to the unfair treatment of victims in the course of proceeding. From the 1960s to mid-1980s,the increasing attention had particularly been paid to the status of victims in criminal proceeding. So the extensive concern for victims' rights and interests and their status had main been aroused.The second part expounds the distinction of victims' rights and position abroad and the international standards protecting the rights of criminal victims. In this part the author discourses the procedural status of victims in the Continental and the Anglo-Saxon's law families. In the countries of the Continental law family, much attention has legislatively been paid to the victims' protection. In these countries the victims, playing a role of one party, enjoy extensive procedural rights. It can be said that the regulations concerning the right-protection for is taken seriously .Victims as one party are complete, and their human right protection is taken seriously. The countries belonging to Anglo-Saxon's law family lay stress on or unduly emphasize the human right protection is obviously unbalanced compared with that of the victims'. Yet, in recent decades, it has become a trend in judicial reform to strengthen the smashing of crime, to protect the victims' rights, and to keep the balance among the defendants, the victims and the state. While the international contents as to the right-protection and assistance of victims can be found in" Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power" and some other international documents. According to them, a victim enjoys the following rights to: (1) obtain the just and fair treatment ;(2) be paid damages; (3) acquire assistance; and (4) be compensated by the state. Etc.The third part of the thesis discusses the present situation of the right-protection and assistance of victims in China, and the analysis of its causes. The author considers that, for one thing, the right-protection for victims is being progressively perfected, for another there exist evident shortcomings owing to the factors affected by the lawsuits, the judicial system, and the shortage of judicial resources. The shortcomings include: Victims weakened party position, the civil compensation of victims of serious deficiencies in the law , and unprotected the right to compensation and social assistance of Victims. etc.In the fourth part of the main body the author proposes several suggestions on the establishment and the completion of the right-protection and assistance of victims in our country. Author thinks that we should use the successful experiences of other countries and consult the international conventions concerned. Measures must be taken as soon as possible to establish and amplify the systems of right-protection and assistance of victims with Chinese characteristics. These include establishing judicial review application system, improving the participatory rights of victims , improving the Criminal civil system, establishing criminal victim's state compensation system and establishing system for social protection to safeguard criminal victim's rights. EtcIn conclusion the author presents what he has learned from the writing of the thesis.