Criminal Victims' Rights Protection And Rescue Study

The right-protection and assistance of criminal victims is a heated problem in the research of victimology at present. Based on the analysis of the situation of right-protection for victims in our state and that compared with the related international standard, this thesis expounds the inadequacy of the right-protection and the assistance of victims in our country. Thus the author offers several proposals concerning the establishment and the completion of right-protection and assistance of victims in China. This thesis can be divided into preface, main body and conclusion according to its systematic structure.The preface briefly discusses the present situation of criminal victimology. The author considers that the research of science of criminal law has long been undertaken from the angle of convicts instead of that of victims. The right-protection for the defendants has a long history, while the victims' protection has greatly neglected compared with it. With the increasing demand for the human right protection for victims, much attention has been paid to the matter, which has become an important factor of judicial reform in many countries. With this background, victim has been determined one "party" in our criminal procedure law. As for the protection of victims, it is widely different from the international standard in many factors owing to the differences between ideas and theories. Furthermore, the research of right-protection and status of victims in criminal proceeding started late. So it is the unavoidable mission for any nation ruled by law to seek and strengthen the protection and assistance of victims.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. The definition in broad sense differs from that in narrow sense. The former generally refers to one who suffered from a crime, including : (l)the victim in a case of public prosecution; (2) the victim as a private prosecutor in a case of private prosecution; (3)the victim as a plaintiff in incidental civil actions ; and (4)the victim raising a counterclaim the private prosecutor. Since natural person is in most cases the criminal object, the thesis, only approaching the problem of right-protection for victims in the cases of public prosecution, adopts the definition in narrow sense. 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. Victims in this period played a plaintiff part who could start a criminal prosecution and decide whether or not to prosecute someone in a judicialdepartment at their discretion. In feudal society the power of prosecution was completely taken by the state, and the key position of victims gradually faded since the 1460s. After the establishment of public prosecution system and the setup of public procuratorial 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 again been...