L’indemnisation des victimes d’actes criminels

COMPENSATION TO VICTIMS OF CRIMINAL OFFENCESThe system of composition, which was developed during the Middle Ages, especially under Germanic penal law, represents not only an abatement of the system of collective vengeance characteristic of this era, but also the first step towards the principle of compensation to victims of criminal offences.With the development and consolidation of a strong central power, the State asked for a share of these transactions either in the form of sanction or as a price for its intervention. W^hen at last the central government obtained the full and exclusive right to inflict punishment and when private justice gave way to public justice, the State's share of compensation increased progressively and took the form of fines, while the victim's share gradually diminished and withdrew little by little from the penal system to become civil compensation for damages.Nevertheless, the total separation between public action, whose aim is to ensure punishment, and civil action, whose main object is to secure compensation to the victim, did not materialize until very recently. This principle of total separation, which was adopted by the classical schoolof criminal law, resulted in a complete overlooking of the victim's right to compensation, in daily legal practice.New solutions were therefore proposed to remedy this deficiency in the penal systems, the most original and daring being those to be found in the Spanish Penal Codes of 1822 and 1848 which compel the State to compensate victims of criminal offences when the wrong-doers or other responsible persons are unable to do so.This idea of compensation by the State to victims of crime, although taken lip and elaborated several years later by Bentham and the Italian Positivist School, had absolutely no repercussions as far as practice was concerned. It was only in the second half of the XXth Century that an Englishwoman, Margaret Fry, drew the attention to this problem. Inspired by her compatriot Bentham, Margaret Fry proclaimed that compensation for harm caused to victims of criminal violence should be assumed by the State.This was the starting point of a considerable development in the study of compensation to the victim. During the last ten years, not only were many papers and conferences devoted to the subject, but also many legislations adopted the progressive solution of conferring upon the State the task of compensating the victim of criminal offences.In most contemporary penal legislations, the dissociation between public and civil action has resulted in relegating the