NCJ Number
168976
Journal
European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (1996) Pages: 163-172
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Following a review of the traditional role of the victim in the German criminal justice system, this article examines the current trend toward greater recognition of the victim's interest and poses and discusses some open questions about the integration of reparation with criminal justice processing.
Abstract
The traditional relationships among the state, the offender, and the victim are still evident in criminal justice processing in Germany; the victim's claim to recognition as a person injured, both in terms of substance and in the psyche, and the victim's chances of participation in criminal justice processing are slim. Reparation-oriented mechanisms at trial are the court- administered reparation order that requires the offender to make reparation for damage suffered by the victim and the so-called adhesion proceeding, which allows the victim to bring a claim for civil damages jointly with the criminal case. Although reparation-oriented mechanisms at trial play only a minor role in practice, the victim's chances of receiving compensation within the criminal justice process are greater when a case can be settled without the intervention of the court. The code of criminal procedure lists reparation of damages at the top of a set of enumerated orders available to the prosecution that will divert the offender from formal proceedings. Also, reparation may be a central part of a mediation process. Germany has been influenced by the current movement toward reparative justice. As discussed in the multi-national study on reparative justice that is being conducted at the Max Planck Institute, efforts to accommodate the victims fall into four major categories; these are victim-offender reconciliation, encouraging voluntary reparation within the criminal justice process, reparation as a sanction, and combining criminal procedure and civil proceedings. A number of doctrinal issues must be more closely examined in considering the integration of reparation with criminal justice. They are whether reparation is a direct goal of the criminal justice process and whether it is possible to integrate, rather than merely coordinate, reparation and criminal justice. These questions are considered in the concluding section of this article. 40 footnotes