Research On Offender Reconciliation

With the rise of the movement of protecting the victim, some traditional concepts of criminal justice have gradually been questioned. In addition, because of the traditional shortcomings inherent in the criminal justice system, namely, the disregard for the interests of the victim, exacerbation of the conflict between the parties, the undesirable result of the rehabilitation of offenders, low efficiency of the judicial process, etc., the reform of the traditional criminal justice system is in urgent need. As a new type of crime processing mode, offender reconciliation creates a new resolution for interest disputes. The significance of offender reconciliation in criminal law has been attracting universal attention of the Chinese criminal law scholars and practitioners in recent years. Based on the justice and effectiveness of criminal law, this paper elaborates the basis for the role of the elements of reconciliation in sentencing and the concrete rules of its application.The full text consists of five major parts and has forty- five thousand words in all.The first part reviews the so called concept of"criminal reconciliation", pointing out that the mention of"criminal reconciliation"is inaccurate and undesirable, and thus puts forward the concept of offender reconciliation, which replaces the concept of reconciliation between the offender and the victim. The author holds that offender reconciliation focus on the protection of victims of natural persons, thus the mention of"criminal reconciliation"is unscientific. What's more, the relationship between offender reconciliation and criminal reconciliation is that of subordination. The so called concept of"criminal reconciliation"can not be used to refer to reconciliation between the offender and the victim.The second part elaborates the theoretical basis for offender reconciliation. The author believes that the theoretical basis for offender reconciliation includes human rights theory, restorative justice theory, theory of psychological treatment of victims and criminal contract theory. As for the basis of human rights theory, the author believes that broader equity and justice can be achieved through offender reconciliation; the restorative justice theory is the most important theoretical basis for offender reconciliation; based on the theory of psychological treatment of victims, offender reconciliation is the process of psychological treatment of victims; criminal contract theory provides a theoretical prerequisite for consensus between the offender and the victim.The third part analyzes the effectiveness of offender reconciliation. The introduction of the elements of reconciliation from the perspective of criminal law is of great importance and significance. The infusion of the elements of reconciliation can better implement the criminal policy of temper justice with mercy, effectively protect criminal victims, achieve crime control and prevention, and can improve the efficiency of criminal proceedings.In the fourth part, offender reconciliation is discussed in the scope of normative criminal law. It is believed that offender reconciliation can be integrated with the criminal law theory, and occupies a prominent position and is of great value. And this is mainly analyzed through the relationship between offender reconciliation and the three aspects of theory of the nature of crime, the principle of balance between crime and punishment and theory of criminal justice. The author holds that the theory of the nature of crime does not exclude offender reconciliation, and integration can be achieved between the two; offender reconciliation can make up for lack of achievement in the function and purpose of punishment. There are no inevitable conflicts and contradictions between offender reconciliation and the principle of balance between crime and punishment, offender reconciliation are conducive to the realization of the principle of balance between crime and punishment, and thus can better reflect the equity and justice of criminal law; under the condition of"losing some money and commuting a sentence", offender reconciliation can relatively ensure criminal justice.The fifth part proposes the idea of institutionalization of offender reconciliation, holds that offender reconciliation should be institutionalized from the view of legislation, and puts forward specific legislative proposals. In addition, the effect of offender reconciliation on sentencing is elaborated respectively on the four stages of investigation, prosecution, trial and implementation in the form of case study. In the opinion of the author, offender reconciliation should be institutionalized, which can be used as a legal lenient circumstance of sentencing. Offender reconciliation, strictly speaking, should not be limited to the scope of application, but it mainly applies to victims of natural persons. As for offender reconciliation, the public security can close a case by revocation of the case during the investigation stage; during the prosecution stage, non- prosecution in a relative manner or deferred prosecution can be applied by the Procuratorate; during the trial stage, offender reconciliation can be regarded as a legal lenient circumstance of sentencing; and during the implementation stage, offender reconciliation can be used as a statutory condition for reduction of sentencing or parole.