Abstract
This chapter considers the relationship between traditional practices of resolving criminal cases through settling disputes that are widely approved in East Asian countries, and the practice of modern restorative justice. The chapter describes long-established practices of “Jidan” in Japan, “Si Liao” in China and “comforting the victim” in South Korea that involve out-of-court settlement as part of the criminal justice process. However, no one, at least in Japan, would interpret these practices as those of restorative justice. Contemporary Western initiatives include the family group conference based on the cultures of the Maori in New Zealand and the sentencing circle based on community practices among indigenous people in Northern Canada. How disputes are settled in different countries, and the history of these processes, is an important area of research for legal anthropologists.
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Notes
- 1.
Examples of “community justice” are victim–offender reconciliation programs (also known as victim–offender mediation programs); family group conferences which were introduced after the model of conflict resolution method practiced by the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand; and sentencing circles in which decisions are made through discussions, led by the Native Americans in Canada.
- 2.
According to Zehr, first of all, crime is not a harmful act against the society, let alone being a harmful act against the state. Above anything else, it is a harmful act against people. Crime is the product of a legal system which attempts at distinguishing various harms and conflicts in an arbitrary manner (Zehr 2003, pp.184–186).
- 3.
While the restorative approach to property offences has been somewhat clarified, today the time has come to take a step further and verify the approach by applying it to more “serious crime” as well (Zehr 2003, pp.224).
- 4.
Ordinance on the Management and Penalty of Public Security has been revised as Law on the Management and Penalty of Public Security promulgated on August 28, 2005, and enforced on March 1, 2006.
- 5.
Generally speaking, (the lawyer of) the offender may (1) propose payment of compensation for the purpose of having the victim drop charges, or may (2) propose payment of compensation in order to give the judge in the trial a good image.
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Kawamura, A. (2017). Restorative Justice: East and West. In: Liu, J., Travers, M., Chang, L. (eds) Comparative Criminology in Asia. Springer Series on Asian Criminology and Criminal Justice Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54942-2_11
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