Victims and Criminal Justice: Asian Perspective

Source: (2003) Tokyo: Hogaku-Kenkyu-Kai, Keio University.

The introductory chapter provides an overview of the historical development of victimology and victim support in Asia. Subsequent chapters focus on the scope and characteristics of victimology and victim services in each of the countries, with critiques by the authors included. The chapters indicate that with the exception of some individual pioneers of victimology in Asia, there has been a delay of victim support in Asian countries compared with Western countries. This has been largely due to a focus on the guarantee of offenders’ rights and the rehabilitation of offenders in the period following World War II. The situation gradually changed in the 1980’s, as first Japan and then Korea enacted legislation that authorized victim compensation in 1980 and 1988 respectively. Beginning in the 1990’s, growing new trends in the victim support movement were clearly evident throughout Asia, although progress varied from country to country, reflecting the differences in social context and criminal justice systems. Many of the chapters note that the international victim support movement — especially the 4th International Symposium on Victimology held in Japan in 1982 and the United Nations Declaration on the Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power adopted in 1985 — fueled and guided the development of victim support in Asian countries. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.