Criminal policy in Lithuania: Is a restorative justice applied?

Source: (2014) In the book Current problems of the penal law and criminology. Edited by Emil W.Plywaczewski. Wydawnictwo C.H.Beck, Warszawa 2014, p. 419-439.. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2497304

The main focus of this article is to answer the question whether a restorative justice is applied in Lithuania in criminal law. In order to answer this issue the author needs to find out the definition of a restorative justice especially that there is no universal one and it is a subject of intense debate among various scientists and practitioners. For better understanding of the phenomena it is useful to look how and when some elements of restorative justice appeared and what positions regarding this issue have international and regional organizations such as UN, European Council and EU. The author makes a hypothesis that Lithuania has only some elements of restorative justice and the institution needs improvements. Existing institutes in Lithuania are very restrictive in their nature. The role of the victim is not as important as in discussed possible mediation models, procedure of reconciliation in Lithuania is more formal usually with no additional actors of community level. (author’s abstract)