Introduction to Restorative Justice System

Restorative justice is an approach to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with both families, persons affected, and representatives of the wider community to make statements, express feelings and needs, propose questions ,and dialog mutually. The goal is to decide liberally whether to discuss and deal with the problems caused by the criminal event.

Principles of Implementation

1.Mainly the cases are investigating in the district prosecutors office. The district prosecutors office shall choose the cases which are suitable for restorative process and whose parties have the will to participate. The prosecutors office has the right to decide whether to accept the cases referred from other organizations and will charge the referral organizations fees relevant.

2.Serious violent crime cases shall be instituted by the victim actively.

3.The order of priorities for the cases takes into accounts of crime name, crime damage, and characteristics of parties. Cases with subordinate order can be arranged if the cases suitable for restorative justice after evaluation.

4.The requirements for the participated parties or the case types are as follows,

(1) The offenders should commit the crime and have the will to take the responsibility for the criminal behavior.

(2) The crime cases of child abuse or without victims shall not be in the list.

(3) The cases with juvenile victims or offenders should be admitted by guardians or accompanied by guardians.

5.Respect the self-willingness and rights of relevant parties. The initial judicial process should be going on if one of the parties expresses explicitly to give up the will to participate during the process in any phase.

6.Shall treat the both parties fairly. Shall not guide or seduce the parties to participate the restorative process in coerced methods or in unfair ones.

7.The cases suitable restorative justice will not affect the initial criminal litigation process. The criminal investigation cases in the process of restorative justice cannot be closed according to the stipulation in item 35 of the Implementation Points of Cases Deadline and Delay Prevention of the Prosecution Organizations apparently, and the prosecutors in charge of the cases may sign an official document to get approval to provisionally close the cases. The provisional closing term will be three months generally and can be extended another three months if necessary. The extension is up to one time.

8.The prosecutors or public prosecutors in charge of the cases may have the discretion to consider whether to include the statements, negotiation, and implementation situation among the participation parties as the reference of the disposition of non-prosecution or the sentence of the court judgment.

Implementation Flowchart (Please refer to the attached file in the flowchart below.)