Globalization and Restorative Justice: in the Thai Criminal Justice System

Jutharat Ua-amnoey*

Figure 1 The Theoretical Framework: "The Journey of Restorative Justice from the International Community to the Thai State, Society, and Criminal Justice System"

 

from the declination of the retribution paradigm that focuses on punishing offenders and neglecting crime victims and communities because this paradigm showed serious inside-out factors that called for reformation.

2) Globalization in Restorative Justice influenced the "nonprofit international organization " networks in imitating victim supported activities by pushing their governments to rethink, and revise criminal policy toward offenders, victims, communities, and the criminal justice system in step with international trends. At the same time, the social movement of the reforming network influenced the "state system " throughout the United Nations Organization to Use state power in solving social and legal problems. Then, the Thai change agents this concept from the international community.

3) The change agents, representatives of the Thai criminal justice offices adopted and disseminated the idea of restorative justice through the social movement of the network. The currency of restorative justice has power in pushing the state mechanism to change criminal justice processes to better-fit new trends in the international community.

Thus, these assumptions are accelerating factors that affect the paradigm shift in the Thai criminal justice system.

3. The Emergence of Restorative Justice: Value and Praxis Concepts

Restorative justice has a "universal paradigm" for criminal conflict management and has become increasingly popular as an alternative to solely punishment-based, retributive approaches to crime and justice. This trend seems to have developed out of the belief that victims should be actively involved in the criminal justice system instead of being the marginal man of 'the court-based system by taking limited action and, as Zedner (1994) said "remaining on the sidelines as witness in court."

Furthermore, restorative justice is strongly linked with and aspires to a notion of community and communitarian ideals which views control of disputes as an entitlement and obligation of the community rather than of "the centralized organs of the state" (Mary, 1982; Belgrave, 1997, p.1). In other words, there is a strong emphasis on community responsibility as opposed to the rights of individual. Those who adhere to these ideals advocate a form of criminal justice that is based on reparation, or on actions, which attempt to repair, either materially or symbolically, the damage caused by crime. Reparation is usually made to the victim by the offender, and is considered a duty or obligation for the offender (Marshall, 1990; Belgrave, 1997, p. 2).