Policija i sigurnost, Vol. 16 No. 1-2, 2007.
Stručni rad
Community service as alternative to imprisonment
Bori Tot
; Ministarstvo unutarnjih poslova Republike Hrvatske, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Imprisonment is a necessarv form of punishment, but at the same time it has a number of negative impacts, especiallv with regard to the post-penal social integration and a high rate of recidivism. Namelv, the inmate is for a certain period of time removed from his/her natural social environment and cannot actively participate in the communitv life. The personal impacts are dehumanization, social disintegration, labelling, criminal infection, prisonization and other damages, which considerablv contaminate rehabilitation. The negative impacts of imprisonment are especiallv observable with short-term confinements. The short period of incarceration reduces, among other things, the effects of the institutional procedures and programmes, hinders the individualization of treatment and represents a large financial burden for the state with only a few positive effects in return. The social development and changes with regard to crime development, crime prevention activities and the need to overcome the problems emerging from the institutional punishment called for urgent interventions into penal legislation in many countries and instigated the search for any possible solutions which could fulfil the same purpose as the institutional punishment and at the same time eliminate the negative impacts. Here we have in mind the alternatives to imprisonment or alternative sanctions. The unpaid community service or socially useful work is compared to other forms of alternative sanctions relatively new. Sentencing and carrying out the sentence of socially useful work was introduced in the Republic of Croatia during 2002. Taking into consideration the community service as alternative to imprisonment is a novelty within the Croatian criminal law, the paper deals, among other things, with the recent experience in this form of punishment and its carrying out.
Ključne riječi
imprisonment; alternative sanctions; community service at large
Hrčak ID:
79250
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.9.2007.
Posjeta: 4.975 *