On The Regeneration Of Justice And The Realization Of The Local Community

A drive for restorative justice has risen in the international society in recent years, which is an alternative dispute settling mechanism developing on the basis of reviewing the unsuccessful factors of the present criminal justice mode. Restorative justice is the system that enables the victim to negotiate with the criminal to settle the dispute under the help of a mediator after a crime happens. Compared with penal justice, restorative justice is an informal method of dealing with crimes, which emphasizes compensation and prevention instead of penalty. In the procedure of restorative justice, the duty forms of criminal include apologizing, compensation, providing community service or service for the victim and his family and so on. Restorative justice dates from the early days in colonial era, or even more remote times. Restorative justice theories have flourished since the 70's in 20th century and have been applied in judicial practice in Britain, America, Germany, France and other countries. The United Nations and other international organizations have also formulated a series of documents about restorative justice to guide the foundation of restorative justice system.The theoretical basis of restorative justice is the criminal conciliation theory. As a new crime-settling judicial mode, restorative justice has the following functions when compared with the present criminal mode: The first is the function of guarantee human rights. Restorative justice's victim- offender conciliation proceedings can protect not only the criminal suspect's human rights but also criminal victim's rights. The second is special prevention function. Through the communication between the victim and the offender, restorative justice enables the criminal to realize the harmfulness of his acts and to regret for his acts, then the possibility of his committing a crime again can be reduced. The third function is to enhance the procedural efficiency. Through the relations of mutual restriction between right and power, restorative justice motivates the victim and the community to control crimes,...