문제해결법원의 도입에 관한 검토

A Study on the Introduction of Problem-Solving Court

  In America, the problem-solving court movement emerged in 1980"s in response to frustration by both court system and the public to the large number of cases that seemed to be disposed repeatedly but not resolved. Judges revealed disappointment at "revolving-door justice", namely the awareness that criminal courts recycled offenders through system. Public opinion polls made the long list of complaints including that judges were not good at the real scene of crime, the needs of victims were not met sufficiently, and offenders couldn"t get out of the mire of the recursive crimes. This dismal scene of criminal justice demanded the dramatic shift of judges" role, from merely declaring guilt or innocence to solving the underlying problems of the defendant and improving public safety more actively. In response, an innovative group of lawyers and activists put to the test of new court system, reengineering how courts address such everyday problems as drugs, crime related mental disorders, neighbor nuisances including prostitution, and domestic violence. It is reported that their endeavor has produced not a few species of problem-solving courts over the total number of two thousands. This article describes four of the most prominent American problem-solving court models in terms of their origins, contents, differences from traditional court model, and evaluations. The first model is drug courts which integrate drug treatment services with criminal justice system case processing. The others include mental health courts which link mentally-ill offenders to medical treatment instead of punishment; community courts which seek to alleviate chronical neighborhood problems like street prostitution; domestic violence courts which address violence between intimates to have been regarded as domestic matters. This article also review the possibility of their introduction into Korean court system, particularly focusing on the debate about the philosophy and legal doctrine of problem-solving courts.