범죄피해자보호법상 형사조정제도의 시행평가 및 향후 과제

Evaluation of Criminal Conciliation on Crime Victim Protection Act

According Crime Victim Protection Act, if deemed necessary for the practical recovery from damage suffered by a crime victim through the fair and amicable settlement of a criminal dispute between a suspect and a crime victim, criminal conciliation should or could be considered. Crime Victim Protection Act had been enacted in Dec. 23, 2005 and criminal conciliation was imposed on criminal procedure in 2010 through complete revision of same Act. Before criminal conciliation was introduced as law, it has been phased in from early 2000s. In Korea, rapid increase of accusation cases has caused social problems as well as long delay of criminal procedure and personnel and materiel loss. So criminal conciliation had become accepted as an effective means in opposition to abuse of accusation in the early introduction. But now, criminal conciliation should be pursued essential purpose and an intrinsic attribute. In the truest sense of the term, criminal conciliation is derived of restorative justice. Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community. According to the progenitor of this word, John Braithwaite, restorative justice is a process where all stakeholders affected by an injustice have an opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by the injustice and to decide what should be done to repair the harm. And if korean conciliation systems sincerely desire to seek these ideal purpose, current system should become an extensive improvement. So, this study aims to legal improvement of present criminal conciliation as well as revealing issues in execution of that.