다이버전의 발상.전개와 경찰다이버전의 도입

Abstract

Recently the focus of the juvenile criminal justice is moving from punishment to diversion or restorative justice in Korea. It is because of the spread of recognition that the traditional juvenile justice system has not been effective to prevent juvenile offences and to promote there reunion to the community. In many countries police have the discretion to divert the suspect from the formal justice system into an alternative program for rehabilitation and restitution. But the police in Korea is not endowed with the discretionary power. In contrast to police, prosecutors have options that they can suspend the indictment with guidance or under probation. They can withhold any criminal charges, provided the young suspect successfully completes the designated program or the conditions that the prosecutor specifies. But the benefited were so small and the expert manpower and the system to support it were not enough to realize the goal of diversion. Under this circumstances the police has released the young offenders with light charge with warning. In this way the minor crimes of the young people can be filtered out at the begging stage of criminal procedure and they can have the better chance to return to society without being branded as a criminal. And an experimental model of Expert Committee which was schemed for diversion of juvenile offenders in early stage was attempted in some police station in recent years. Many expert on juvenile delinquency participated in the Committee and in many cases the juveniles were diverted under the care of these experts. In addition to the Expert Committee, constant efforts has been made to systemize the police discretion and the control system on it. This article reviews problems and limits of the suspension of indictment with guidance or under probation as diversions in the prosecutorial stage, and examines the police discretion to realize the ideal of diversion.