청주지역 화해사례를 통해 본 범죄피해자-가해자 화해제도의 발전방향

A Study on Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program in terms of Reconciliation cases in Cheong-ju

Traditional retributive justice has not given consideration to victims. Accordingly, by branding offenders as ex-convicts and exiling them from society, the problem of a heightened possibility of repeated offense arises. Restorative justice is a formula that tries to constructively resolve the aftereffects of crime through participation of the parties concerned such as the offender, victim, and members of the regional society. Because the victim-offender reconciliation program has assumed greater prominence as the most substantial element and practiced principle of this restorative justice, victim-offender reconciliation program(VORP) can be seen as having the same meaning with restorative justice. Through examples of reconciliation cases that were directly experienced as a clerk in charge of a Korean model of the victim-offender reconciliation program, the author has affirmed this reconciliation system to be functioning effectively to resolve conflict by giving a subjective status and attentive consideration during criminal procedures to victims who have been neglected until now. By accelerating a respectable reinstatement to society for the reconciled offender in addition to giving effective support to the victim, the victim-offender reconciliation program is recommendable to offenders as well. The author has affirmed that this system possesses the accompanied merit of recovery from psychological injury in addition to recovery of economic loss for the victim. It is anticipated that system reform is put into effect to direct the system so that it can be utilized by more victims, and to reduce cost of lawsuit and labor.