Study On National Compensation System For Criminal Victims

The system of National compensation for criminal victims refers to that the nation though the legal process gives a certain compensation to the crime-encroached victims and their close relatives whose damages are not compensated adequately and actually. In the vast majority of criminal cases, victims have suffered physical, mental or property damage. The damage should be compensated appropriately. But in judicial practice, the perpetrator generally lack the economic capacity. Considering the actual capacity of the defendant for compensation, The Court often refuses to support the victim's requests for compensation or simply orders the defendant to compensate the victims symbolically. Even if the court affirmed the judgments of all the victims compensation request, the sentence can hardly be effectively implemented in practice. That is extremely unfair to the victims. It is an effective way to establish the national compensation system in China to compensate the damage of the victims when they couldn't obtain the necessary compensation in other ways. At present many countries around the world have already established the national compensation system for criminal victims, which has provided valuable experience for China.This paper consists five parts.The first part is the outline of national compensation system for criminal victims. This part defines the victims of the criminal and then put forward to the definition of national compensation system for criminal victims with the analysis for the characteristics of the system. Secondly, this part introduces the evolvement of the national criminal victims compensation system. The Government compensation system for crime victims came into being about 3,000 years ago. Finally this part introduces the situation of the legislation and judicial practice and exploration of the national compensation system for criminal victims in China at present and acknowledges that the establishment of compensation system for criminal victims has been imperative.The second part introduces the legislation of compensation system for criminal victims in foreign countries. Such as New Zealand, Britain, the United States and in common law countries and in national law countries: Germany, Japan and South Korea. And then analyze and compare these compensation systems for the purpose of offering reference for China's establishment of this system.The third part introduces the ground of the national compensation system .The basic theory offers the reason why the nation compensates the victims when they are not compensated or are compensated inadequately by the perpetrator. There are six kinds of basic theories of the national compensation system including the theory of nation liability, the theory of social insurance, the theory of social welfare, the theory of social justice, the theory of social defense, the theory of criminal policy. In the author's opinion, it is appropriate to hold the theory of nation liability as the main theory jointing the theory of social welfare to be the theoretical base for establishing the national compensate system in our country.The forth part discusses the significance of the establishment of national compensation system. Providing the national compensation timely to the victims through establishing the national compensation system enable them to resume normal life as soon as possible, thus the imbalanced psychological of victims can be adjusted so that they would not create resentment to other people or the society because of poverty caused by crime .It also can avoid and prevent the victims from transforming themselves into criminals so that the goal to decease the total crime in society can be reached. At the same time, it can eliminate the worries of victims so that their will to report to the police can be strengthened and they may become more active to coordinate the national criminal judiciary . Thus the progress of criminal proceedings can go on smoothly and successfully. To compensate the losses of the victims to a certain extent is effective to alleviate their social despair and revenge desire and is effective to crime prevention and maintain the social order. It can ensure that the crime victims and the public believe the authority of the law and provide a giant mechanism for protection for building a harmonious society.The fifth part outlines the basic framework for establishing the national compensation system. Legislation should be done upon it independently. The basic principles and the main contents are discussed in this part as well. It also put forward a blueprint for the scope of compensation, the targets of compensation, the terms and conditions of compensation, the manners and amount of compensation ,the sources and management of the compensation, the compensation authorities and the compensation procedures. All of the above-mentioned may help to establish the national compensation system for victims in China as a whole.