A Study On The System Of Assistance To Criminal Victims

In the course of criminal case proceedings,the sword of criminal punishment is always directed at the evil criminal offender,with the purpose of gradually repairing the social relationship,social order and the code of ethics which are broken by the criminal.However,due to the fact that,after the criminal offender is sentenced to death or to a long imprisonment,he will not have any capability or any condition to pay off the loss suffered by the criminal victim,which can consequently throw some criminal victim into a state of poverty,or even without any means of sustenance.Such situation will lead to a series of social problems.In view of this fact,the exploration and practice of criminal victim aid in China,originally emerging from local organizations,has developed so quickly that it has caught the attention of the Central Government.Therefore,the Central Government has published a series of policy documents to guide the judicial practice of local authorities,following the principle of “policy first,followed by law”.Because of the dislocation of a standardized criminal victim aid system,the judicial practices in various provinces and cities vary greatly from one another,causing endless malpractices.In addition,due to lack of indepth theoretical research on the criminal victim aid system in the domestic academic circle,the connotation and definition given to the term of criminal victim and criminal victim aid is not only confusing,but also chaotic,which is also a source of harassment for the design of the aid system.Therefore,establishing a perfect criminal victim aid system in our country is regarded as a significant and long-term mission.Throughout the world,most overseas countries and regions have established their own criminal victim aid system,prescribed the specific contents and measures for implementation,and formed a relatively complete criminal victim aid system.These will provide important implications and reference for us to set up and consummate our own criminal victim aid system.By referring to the legislative and judicial practices and experiences of foreign countries,this paper is intended to put forward proposals for improving the criminal victim aid system of our country.It is proposed to set up and improve a national compensation system and a social aid system for criminal victim aid from both the macro and micro aspects.It is also proposed to broaden the channel for the criminal victims to help themselves,that is,the criminal victim should be given the right to claim for spiritual damage compensation in the civil suit collateral to criminal proceedings.The author expects that these proposals will be conducive to improving the theories and practices of criminal victim aid.