Today's criminal justice tries to solve the problems of crimes between criminals and the government, not between the victims and the criminals. Despite the fact that it is the victims that fall a prey to crimes, they are excluded from the solution of ...
Today's criminal justice tries to solve the problems of crimes between criminals and the government, not between the victims and the criminals. Despite the fact that it is the victims that fall a prey to crimes, they are excluded from the solution of the accidents in question. Accordingly the criminals have only to share responsibility for their crimes in relation to the nation. However, this method leaves much to be desired for it cannot prevent crimes and reduce the ratio of a second offense. In this context, restorative justice has been brought into stark relief. Restorative justice relates to a method that all those concerned including offenders, victims, and community members are involved in the solution of accidents. That is, it is a new crime-responding method based on the reconciliation programs for offenders and victims in North America and Europe since the 1970s.
Restorative justice is being implemented as the third justice model to get over the limits of traditional retributive justice in various countries in the world in the late 20th century. Korea didn't introduce foreign literature till the 1990s but those concerned felt unfamiliar with the concept of restorative justice.
Restorative justice based on the reconciliation of offenders and victims and breaking away from the unilateral crime solution of a nation is brought into relief as a new pattern of criminal policy in the 21st century. It is high time people should have a better understanding of reconciliation. Yet, people seem to regard the solution of a trial as a zero-sum game in that they think that they can get benefit if their opponents suffer damage. But this cannot possibly have society integrated in addition to its inability to prevent crimes or second crimes. Therefore it is believed that solution based on restorative justice models can supplement the current justice system.
Of course, minor offenses are to be unofficially solved through the reconciliation of the offenders and the victims. Yet, it is hard to solve crimes in an unofficial way. So it is desirable that restorative justice should be introduced to solve crimes by converting our traditionally unofficial reconciliation into official one.
Retributive justice is designed to determine a crime according to the law in the mutual competitive relationship between the offender and the government, whereas restorative justice is designed to work out a solution with which the offenders, the victims and the community may heal their wounds and bring about reconciliation. The former focuses on the past on the basis of the retribution of a crime and pays no respect to the rights of the victims, whereas the latter focuses on the future as a means of working out problems and pays respect to the rights of the victims. Therefore restorative justice can relate to victim-oriented justice designed to protect victims.
Restorative justice can satisfy the victims, reduce the burdens of the courts, improve the trust of the nation, make the offenders re-socialized and contribute to the peace of local society.
The practical models of restorative justice can be categorized according to the form of implementation, participants and mediators. The representative models include victim-offender mediation program(VOMP), family group conferencing, and circles, etc.
The following are the suggestions of my own making. First, restorative justice should start with minor crimes and grow to include serious crimes. Second, it is necessary to raise fund for the sake of the victims. Although restorative justice serves as an ideal measure for handling crimes, it will be impossible to carry it out without proper finance. So money should be gathered by changing part of the offenders' penalty into funds for the victims or the National Organization of Victim Assistance (NOVA) should be established like America. Third, the coordinators may include NGO, various civil cooperative groups under the jurisdiction of the police, the prosecution or the court, lawyers, and probation officers.
After all, restorative justice will change the repression of the current justice system into the reconciliation of modern justice, consolidate social solidarity through the voluntary conflict solution of civil society and serve as a new measure for handing crimes.