| Criminal reconciliation refers to a restorative, gentle handling mechanism of criminal cases in criminal proceedings, by which offenders obtain forgiveness of and reach reconciliation with victims and their families by way of pleading guilty, compensation, apology, etc. and the judiciary, after reviewing and approving the agreed settlement, decides to resolve criminal disputes by exempting offenders from criminal punishment or imposing mitigated punishment. As a new type of criminal cases settlement mechanism modeled on Western concept of restorative judicature, it allows the broad participation of multi-subjects, shows more respect to the wishes of the parties to the case, improves the status of victims in the criminal case procedures and their influence upon the outcome of the case processing, increases the chance of criminal suspects’ and defendants’ repentance and reform, and returning to the community, therefore exerting positive effects on the proper resolution of social conflicts, timely settlement of social disputes, restoration of social relations, and maintenance of social order. This mechanism handily fit the demands of the construction of harmonious society and the criminal policy of reconciliation of lenience and stricture, effectively remedies the shortcomings of the existing criminal justice system predominated by state power, enriches the contents of the criminal case processing mechanisms, satisfies people’s demands of diversification of resolution mechanisms of criminal cases, and has become a hot topic of the current judicial practice and theoretical research.The revised Code of Criminal Procedure in 2012 specifically added the "cases indictment proceedings of the settlement of parties involved" in its fifth chapter, volume two, marking the official canonization of the criminal reconciliation into the legal norms after a long period of judicial exploration and practice in our country. The institutionalization of the criminal reconciliation is to regulate the current norms of judicial practice of criminal reconciliation, unify the application of the criminal reconciliation by the judicial authority, and reduce the randomness in its application. However, the revised Criminal Procedure Law devoted only three provisions to the fundamental stipulation of the applying scope, applying conditions, and applying results in criminal reconciliation, therefore lacking sufficient guiding force to the practice. This paper, in the perspective of the existing laws, is intended to expound on the existing problems and corresponding measures of the application of criminal reconciliation in view of judicial practice. The first part begins by tackling the theoretical problems, and adumbrates on theoretical support, operational mechanism, ownership analysis, and combing legal relationship of the criminal reconciliation, in order to clarify the applicable principles of the criminal reconciliation, and make sound theoretical preparation for accurately locating and properly handling of problems; the second part analyzes the status quo and existing problems in criminal reconciliation and gives the clear direction of improving the application of criminal reconciliation by listing such problems as narrow scope of application, unsound application procedures, uneven distribution of jurisdiction, lack of supporting mechanism, etc.; the third part, based on issues identified in the above chapter, proposes such improving measures as expanding the applicable scope, normalization of the applying stage, strengthening applying procedures, and construction of supporting mechanisms. |
