White paper on crime 2010 Part7/Chapter3/Section1/1
Many homicide and injury causing death, etc. offenders lack awareness of the need to respect the lives and bodies of others and unaware of the significance of the damage they have caused to their victims. Increasing their sense of remorse by enabling them to recognize the significance of the damage they caused is therefore necessary in their reformation/rehabilitation. For this reason homicide and injury causing death, etc. offenders are currently being provided with guidance via “education from the victims' point of view” and an “atonement guidance program” as part of their correction and rehabilitation.
In addition, many homicide and injury causing death, etc. offenders have repeatedly committed violent offenses, therefore making correcting their violent tendencies necessary. Part of their rehabilitation treatment therefore involves a “violence prevention program” that is used to correct the violent tendencies of those who have repeatedly committed violent offenses, although not just limited to serious offenders (i.e. homicide and injury causing death, etc. offenders), and treatment for “designated violent offenders” improved/enhanced in preventing violent offenses from being repeated.
At penal institutions “education from the victims' point of view” has been implemented as part of special guidance for reform (See (2) of Subsection 3, Section 3, Chapter 4, part 2) for inmates that committed offenses that harmed the lives/bodies of others, including homicide and injury causing death, etc., and lack a sense of the need to apologize to their victims or the bereaved families in thus making them look back on the offenses they committed and recognize/understand the significance of the physical/mental damage they caused their victims and raise their sense of atonement for their victims, etc. and think about concrete methods of compensating, etc. them.
The guidance takes place once every one or two weeks. The standard guidance involves a unit that takes about 50 minutes to complete, with a total of 12 units being implemented. The guidance includes lectures by the officials of penal institutions and members of crime victim support organizations, etc., lectures by crime victims, etc. that convey the pain and the grief, etc. they were caused in their own voices, and methods in which inmates watch educational videos that convey the feelings of crime victims or read the memoirs of victims, etc. or literature that expresses the dignity of human life, after which the offenders then state their impressions or engage in group work and role lettering, etc. The group work involves eight or so inmates being assigned to a group and exchanging their experience and opinions, etc. under the guidance of officials, etc. of penal institutions with specialized knowledge in behavioral science in thus allowing them to realize the errors in their thinking, etc. Role lettering involves, for example, inmates being requested to write letters assumed to be sent to their crime victims, etc. and then writing responding letters from the point of view of those crime victims, etc. in thus deepening their understanding of what the crime victims actually feel.
Part of probation/parole supervision involves guidance that is based on an “atonement guidance program” being provided to probationers/parolees who killed or caused serious injury to their victims.
More concretely, probationers/parolees are requested to submit reports on the four topics of [1] looking back on their offenses, [2] thinking about the damage they caused to and the feelings of their victims, etc., [3] thinking about how the victims would consider the perpetrators from the point of view of the victims, etc., and [4] thinking about concrete atonement plans, with the probation officers or volunteer probation officers then interviewing the probationers/parolees on each subject in thus helping them to realize the seriousness of the offenses they committed and the damage they caused, be more aware of their responsibility to provide compensation, and make concrete atonement plans through discussing the content of the reports they submitted. The families, etc. of probationers/parolees are also requested to comment on the reports in thereby ensuring that the atonement plans get implemented in cooperation with their families, etc.
Penal institutions provide information on parolees that have taken part in an “atonement guidance program” at a penal institution, which then enables them to be provided with guidance that takes the guidance they were provided with at penal institutions into account.
Under probation/parole supervision, probationers/parolees that have repeatedly committed violent offenses are obliged to receive guidance based on cognitive behavioral therapy theories and in accordance with the specialized treatment program (See (3) b. (b) of Subsection 2, Section 2, Chapter 5, Part 2) of the “violence prevention program” by being designated it as a special condition for the supervision. All homicide or injury causing death, etc. offenders with a history of criminal records of violent offenses, etc. receive this guidance.
The violence prevention program involves probation officers interviewing probationers/paroles approximately once every two weeks and a total of five times in thus enabling them to analyze their behavior at the time they committed a violent act and recognize the type of thinking that led to that violent act (for example, the tendency to always blame others or force unreasonable requests on others) in thus facilitating correction of that type of thinking. Guidance is also provided through role playing in enabling them to acquire methods of preventing them indulging in violent acts in critical situations (for example, being criticized in front of a partner). In addition, assignments such as making observations on their own behavior (for example, recording their feelings when they start feeling angry) or practicing relaxation techniques (methods of relaxing through deep breathing, etc.) are given to them at the end of each interview.
Under probation/parole supervision, probationers/parolees deemed likely to repeat violent offenses are designated as “designated violent offender” and enhanced treatment in preventing them from repeating offenses is implemented (See (3) b. (a) of Subsection 2, Section 2, Chapter 5, Part 2). Designated violent offenders involves probationers/parolees that repeatedly committed violent offenses (including any homicide or injury causing death, etc. offenders with a criminal history of violent offenses, etc.) and are classified as problematic drinkers, etc. under the categorized treatment system or that committed extremely serious violent offenses (homicide and injury causing death, etc. that were extremely malignant in terms of the form of the offense or the motive).