Research On The Impact Of Civil Compensation On Sentencing In Traffic Accident Cases

In the theory of victimology that began in the 1950s and restorative justice that began in the 1960s,the defendants and victims of criminal cases have become the focus of attention in the criminal justice system,and the rights and interests of victims have received unprecedented attention.Affected by this,the system of compensation for criminal defendants,state compensation,criminal reconciliation and other related rights and interests of victims in western countries has gradually been established,and judicial organs in various countries have gradually recognized the impact of civil compensation on sentencing.However,there are still disputes about the effect of civil compensation on sentencing in China’s legal circles.Scholars’views are mainly divided into the following two kinds:the first is to support the inclusion of civil compensation in the consideration of sentencing in criminal cases;the second is to insist that civil compensation as a civil liability should not be"mixed up" with sentencing activities on behalf of criminal liability.Both views have their own reasonableness and shortcomings.The first view is more reasonable in theory,but some of them are suspicious of sticking to conventions.The second view focuses on protecting the rights and interests of the injured party and restoring the losses of the injured party from the practical point of view.It is beneficial to repair damaged social relations and maintain social stability.It is also a more pragmatic view.At present,people’s courts generally adopt the second viewpoint in judicial practice and have achieved good results.However,it is undeniable that the second view does have serious defects in jurisprudence.It is easy to be considered that"redemption with money" has affected judicial justice.The author tends to the second point of view.For some problems existing in the current practice of civil compensation affecting sentencing,the author believes that it can be improved through national legislation,judicial reform and other ways.Taking traffic accident cases as an example,this paper uses empirical research,qualitative analysis,theoretical analysis,case study and other methods to study the effect of civil compensation on sentencing in such cases.Hope to dig out the deep-seated relationship between civil compensation and sentencing activities,find out the problems existing in the current practice,and put forward targeted solutions.The first part of the paper firstly analyses the basic theory of civil compensation and sentencing and the relationship between them.The purpose is to explore the real connotation of these two concepts,clarify the relationship between them,and lay a foundation for further study of these two concepts.The second part of the paper takes 89 first instance criminal judgments of traffic accident cases uploaded by the Chinese Judicial Documents Network from December 20,2017 to December 21,2018 as samples for empirical analysis,and studies the impact of civil compensation on the sentences of traffic accident cases,the probation rate of defendants,the application rate of summary procedure and expedited judgment procedure.In the third part of the paper,according to the data obtained from empirical analysis and the basic theory of civil compensation and sentencing,the author makes a corresponding theoretical discussion on the impact of civil compensation on the sentencing system of traffic accident cases.It is found that there are three problems in the influence of civil compensation on sentencing:first,the lenient circumstances of civil compensation as sentencing in traffic accident cases have not yet been legalized.Secondly,the circumstances of civil compensation excessively improve the probation rate of the defendants in traffic accident cases.Thirdly,there are still some deficiencies in the standardization of sentencing in traffic accident cases affected by civil compensation.The fourth part of the paper puts forward five suggestions to improve the above-mentioned problems,including raising civil compensation to statutory sentencing circumstances and specifying them in detail,standardizing the application of probation in traffic accident cases,focusing on the behavior after the accident,establishing the rescue mechanism for victims of traffic accidents,reducing the impact of compensation factors on the application of probation,improving the community correction system,and strengthening the application of probation.Punishment function of probation,speeding up the standardization of sentencing,and reducing the difference of sentencing in similar cases.The author hopes to draw a conclusion through the analysis and study of the impact of civil compensation on sentencing in traffic accident cases,so as to provide reference for the standardization of sentencing in minor criminal cases and even serious criminal cases.