by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police Journalbut also existed in developed sense in ancient Greek City-States. Theconcept of compensation was also not new to India as it existed ina more developed sense than the present one. Manu, for example,the assailant shall be made to pay the expense of the cure”. He furtheradds that he who damages the goods of another, be it intentional orequal to the damage caused. 3The penological reactions to crime have always been changing atdifferent stages of human civilization. A Number of theories have evolvedpertaining to ‘reaction to crime’, of which, the important ones are:(1) Retributive Theory, the object of which is satisfaction of society’sfeeling of vengeance, which the offender’s criminal act hasevoked.(2) Deterrent Theory, which believes in exemplary punishment soas to deter the offender from repeating his crime and at the sametime, setting an example for others to keep away from criminalactivities.(3) Preventive Theory, which lays greater emphasis on seggregationof the offender from the society and bring out his reformation,while he is jail.(4) Reformative Theory, which seeks to eradicate criminality andcriminal traits of the offender by the process of his reformationand socialisation.It must be stated that in the early stages of civilisation, the law laid greaterstress on compensating the victim rather than punishing the offender.In ancient India, Naradavictims by the offender in order to expiate his sinful act, i.e. crime. Thevictim of crime and his family occupied a central place in sentencingpolicies of ancient time. However, with the evolution of the Stateand reorientation of Criminal Justice System, the victim's central rolechanged to a marginalized one.Problems in adjudicating Victim’s Compensation !The basic problem one has to face while dealing with the compensatoryaspect of victim of crime is whether the compensation for damagecaused by crime is an objective of the criminal process? A decision on44 January - March, 2013