경찰청 범죄피해 평가제도에 대한 평가와 향후전망

An Evaluation of the ｢Victim Assessment Report｣ and Its Future Prospects - focused on reviewing the need and usefulness of its expansion across the nation -

The National Police Agency has implemented the Victim Assessment Report( VAR ) within a limited scope since 2016. VAR was introduced institutionally in response to the demand that the intentions of victims should be reflected in criminal procedures. Based on a victim s statement about his or her damage, an objective third party expert writes an assessment report. VAR is used as evidence to prove injury of the component indicators, reference for punishment, and consideration for arrest or detention. VAR s major features include many factor as below; management as an original integrated model to maximize the advantages of similar cases in advanced nations, evaluation by psychology experts outside the police from the perspective of protecting victims, and utilization of objective measuring instruments to digitize assessment results. Of its many functions, the system has functions that improve the participation of victims in the criminal procedures by assisting and facilitating them with their statements, realize the systemization and specification of crime victim, write a report on victim statements in document records, provide basic data for the punishment decision by a judge, help victims recover and heal psychologically, and make the recovery from damage fast and simple in combination with the compensation order system. Its dysfunctions include the possibilities of contamination or suggestibility in victim statements, risk of leakage of a victim s personal information, decrease of the victim s trust in the judicial system due to his or her excessive expectations, the court s increased burdens with trial affairs or reduced discretion for punishment, and secondary victimization.