교정과 피해자관점에서 본 사형제도에 관한 고찰

Abstract

Ever since Beccaria claimed abolishment of the death penalty for the first time in the world, there have been heated debates for and against the death penalty. In other words, there is tight conflict concerning prevention of heinous crimes, victims’ emotions, possibility of misjudgment and respect of people’s lives. In Korea, the press urges the death penalty based on public opinion surveys every time a heinous crime occurs. There are currently around 60 countries around the world that maintain the death penalty, including the United States, China and Japan, around 120 countries have abolished the death penalty, including Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and there are around 30 ‘actual abolishment countries’ that maintain the penalty but have not actually executed the death penalty for 10 or more years. Korea has not executed the death penalty since December, 1997, and is therefore an actual abolishment country. Overall, the tendency of countries all over the world is to reduce execution of the death penalty by sentencing criminals on death row to life in prison. However, public opinion surveys in Korea show people are generally for the death penalty. It is considered constitutional even by the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court. However, a point to focus on is that the Constitutional Court judged, “If there is hardly any need for prevention of crime through a death penalty due to changing times or we reach a time when the people do not feel the need for the penalty, the death penalty will immediately be abolished.” Korea’s debate on the death penalty has been focused mostly on the law and philosophy, and neglected victims’ families who actually suffer damages and human rights of prison wards who actually carry out the execution. Therefore, this study reexamined legal evidence of the death penalty which was insufficient in existing debates, and crime prevention effects of the death penalty, and especially attempted to solve the death penalty problem in terms of the victim and crime prevention.