“Restorative Justice”, víctima y mediación. Tres conceptos en el nuevo paradigma de la entrópica Justicia penal” (‘Restorative Justice’, Victim and Mediation. Three Concepts in the New Paradigm of the Entropic Criminal Justice)

Abstract

Spanish Abstract: La sociedad actual encuentra en los momentos en que vivimos un complejo, inquietante y paradójicamente contradictorio paisaje penal, en el que una imparable y abracadabrante producción legislativa nos invade, en el que la esquizofrenia entre la proclamada ultima ratio del Derecho Penal y la expansión masiva del mismo se hace presente como eje central de las reformas legales, y en el que la tensión entre la tutela y protección del ciudadano y una sobredimensionada búsqueda de la “seguridad” –para la sociedad- encuentra su acomodo perfecto en sede penal.
Los cambios, los bienes jurídicos protegidos, el imparable aumento en calidad y cantidad de la criminalidad y la regresión de los modelos procesales penales, más allá de la conquista inicial de los nuevos códigos procesales, produce vértigo. Y sin apenas darnos cuenta se ha ido colando incluso una nueva idea de Justicia, y especialmente de Justicia penal, en la que lo local dio paso a lo global, ofreciendo una suerte de nuevo significado de tutela efectiva o en terminología anglosajona, universalmente aceptada, un nuevo concepto de “Access to Justice”, que nos lleva, cuanto menos, a reflexionar sobre el mismo.

English 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 punishable 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.

Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.

Keywords: criminal justice, criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal mediation, ADR, alternative dispute resolution, victim, new paradigm of justice, securitization

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K41