Criminal Mediation as a Restorative Instrument for Victim: In All Cases and for All Victims?

BARONA VILAR, S., “Criminal mediation as a restorative instrument for victim: in all cases and for all victims?”, in Guarantees and rights of the especially vulnerable victim in the legal framework of the European Union (Montserrat de Hoyos Sancho, Dir.), Valencia, Tirant lo Blanch, 2013, pp. 449-47

30 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2020

See all articles by Silvia Barona Vilar

Silvia Barona Vilar

University of Valencia - Faculty of Law; President, Court of Arbitration and Mediation Chamber of Commerce of Valencia

Date Written: December 2, 2012

Abstract

Insofar as the intention is to provide legal protection, to speak of victims and of certain victims in particular, implies recalling the obscure past that enveloped them with regard to their invisibility in the criminal system as a whole. Society assumed the burden of the criminal response, through the expropriation of the victims’ rights by the State in the interests of that social safeguard. We have for centuries accepted that it was what society required –it was the conquest of civilization, ending “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” and the lex talionis. That was the best solution, although the outcome of these responses to that situation, owing to frustration, disenchantment and the inoperability, on occasions, of the model of social response, have prompted progress towards a more active role of victims in the criminal response and in the modulation of that response. In other words, to go beyond the preventive approach, and to incorporate resocialization or the restorative approach. This would open a wider range of possibilities that should not be exclusively considered as previously addressed or with a particular person in mind (prevention, society; resocialization, the accused; reparation, victims). Rather, they should all imply together that society can act and assume the burden in the face of criminally sanctionable conduct. Undeniable steps have been taken at national and international centres that have implied progress towards achieving victim visibility. And that progress has necessarily to include criminal mediation, which has been acquiring, over recent decades, an extended scope.

Keywords: criminal law, criminal procedure, restorative justice, Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, criminal mediation, victims, criminal law

JEL Classification: K10, K41

Suggested Citation

Barona Vilar, Silvia, Criminal Mediation as a Restorative Instrument for Victim: In All Cases and for All Victims? (December 2, 2012). BARONA VILAR, S., “Criminal mediation as a restorative instrument for victim: in all cases and for all victims?”, in Guarantees and rights of the especially vulnerable victim in the legal framework of the European Union (Montserrat de Hoyos Sancho, Dir.), Valencia, Tirant lo Blanch, 2013, pp. 449-47, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3511391 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3511391

Silvia Barona Vilar (Contact Author)

University of Valencia - Faculty of Law ( email )

Avda. de los Naranjos s/n
Valencia, Valencia E-46022
Spain
34-96-3828102 (Phone)

President, Court of Arbitration and Mediation Chamber of Commerce of Valencia ( email )

Poeta Querol - 15
Valencia, Valencia 46002
Spain

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