The Victim’s Protagonism in Light of Restorative Justice: A Necessary Adjustment in the Judicial System

Abstract

The Retributive System, long established in the Brazilian Legal System, bears the significant flaw of reducing and rendering the role of the victim invisible in the process of investigating and punishing crimes. This is because, in this systematic logic, the victim is the State, and it is generally the State’s role to oversee the entire criminal process. On the other hand, the Restorative System introduces a new perspective on the victim, as this approach addresses conflict resolution with an interpersonal perspective, granting the parties the power to construct a sense of justice. In light of the exposed dichotomy, the primary motivation of this study lies in the need to analyze the role of the victim in Restorative Justice. In this regard, the study aims to examine the treatment that the Retributive System affords to the victim, contrasting it with the emphasis on protagonism that the Restorative System provides to this same procedural figure. To achieve this goal, the study employs exploratory research with explanatory-descriptive objectives, while the adopted technical procedure is bibliographic and documentary. Therefore, Restorative Justice, through its ideology of victim protagonism, proves to be the most effective solution for reestablishing the victim's place in resolving conflicts arising from crimes.