On The System Of Spiritual Damage Compensation For Criminal Victims

Protecting rights and interests of criminal victims and changing the focus of criminal judicial tasks from crime fighting to human rights protection have become the development tendency for modern criminal justice. Even though our state civil law has clear and definite stipulations on compensation for spiritual damages, our criminal law excludes compensation for criminal victim’s spiritual damages, which has severely damaged rights and interests of victims. That criminal victims cannot get material compensation for their spiritual damages goes against protecting human rights by criminal law. This article, starting with the connotation of criminal spiritual damage compensation, is an investigation on international criminal spiritual damages compensation system and the current status of criminal spiritual damages compensation in our country, and specifically demonstrated thereby the necessity and feasibility to establish criminal spiritual damages compensation system in our country with a proposal of basic structure for establishing it.The main content of this article is divided into four parts.The first part, the summary of spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims. It elaborates the concept and characteristics of spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims, and analyze the current situation of spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims in China, and then identity the contradiction between civil and criminal law in terms of spiritual damage compensation and the problems existed in juridical practice.The second part, the necessity and feasibility of establishing spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims in China. The author demonstrates the necessity of establishing criminal spiritual damage compensation system in China and the feasibility of thought based on the coordination of civil and criminal law in detail.For harmonizing related rules between civil and criminal law, protecting the rights and interests of the criminal victim, punishing and preventing crimes, settling down social contradictions, criminal spiritual damage compensation system should be established in our country. Meanwhile, our country’s legislation, criminal justice and social ideas have the right conditions for spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims.The third part, oversea inspection of the system of criminal victims compensation for mental damage. The two big legal system on behalf of the state of mental injury compensation system are investigated systematically, including the civil law countries which mainly adopt the supplementary type of lawsuit pattern, while Anglo-American law system countries mainly adopt the paratactic type of lawsuit pattern.The fourth part, basic structure of spiritual damage compensation for criminal victims in China. The author elaborates the principle and the components of the criminal spiritual damage compensation system of our country, and provide the process and scheme to modify the criminal legislation in China in the future.