Restorative criminal justice: the rediscovery of the victim at the criminal conflict

Abstract

in recent times, and even decades, the victim of crime is once again an important figure in the criminal conflict. The victim of crime, traditionally forgotten in the criminal process, becomes again the epicenter of this process in the development of the new paradigm of restorative criminal justice, in its multiple variants. This paper offers a dogmatic criminal analysis on the institute of reparation to the victim as one of those mechanisms of the restorative criminal justice, with special attention to its distinction with respect to civil damages, and its criminal basis.