An introduction to restorative justice practices in Taiwan

The core concept of restorative justice has long existed and been practiced in Taiwan s criminal justice system. It has however, been marginalised for a very long period of time. That was until 2003 when Taiwan began pursuing a polarised approach to its criminal policy with both leniency and punishment policies coexisting. Restorative justice has become a key component of Taiwan s leniency criminal policy. This paper examines current restorative justice practices in Taiwan. After providing a short history of restorative justice in Taiwan, the paper will focus on the various legislative bases for restorative justice at different levels within Taiwan s criminal justice system. Restorative justice practices examined by this paper include mediation, deferred prosecution, and the restorative justice pilot programme. The paper concludes by comparing each of these restorative justice practices and suggests that mediation and deferred prosecution should be applied to more types of crime. Additionally, the paper concludes that more research needs to be done to evaluate these practices.