In this article the author discusses the way in which one should understand criminal justice in the context of a democratic Rechtsstaat. The point is that in a democratic Rechtsstaat the entire thinking about criminal justice should be informed about certain specific view which sets the individual into the center. Even the offender must be seen as a member of the same community from which the law so defining originates，Breach of the rules by someone does not justify exclusion or simply instrumental approach to the matter. In a democratic Rechtsstaat，the role of criminal law and criminal justice should be generally minimized. An ethics of criminal justice committed to the non-utilitarian questions，the issues of what are good rules for separating legally right from wrong，and what forms of action in the last resort should be offences，that would build on mutual recognition and mutual respect，that would let these ideas penetrate all the levels of criminal justice，would mark a good polity. It would preserve the moral contents of criminal justice without turning it into moralism. It would address people as members of their community，but would leave the legal and moral responsibility for actions to individual people.