КАЗНА МАЛОЛЕТНИЧКОГ ЗАТВОРА - Законодавство, теорија и пракса Србије
JUVENILE PRISON SENTENCE: Law, theory and practice in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: The system of criminal sanction imposed by competent courts on juvenile criminal offenders comprises: 1) educational measures, 2) security measures, and 3) juvenile prison sentence. In addition to criminal sanctions, on the basis of relevant international standards, our juvenile criminal law envisages alternative or diversion measures in the form of educational or correctional orders. Educational measures are the basic, most numerous and most important type of juvenile criminal sanctions. As a rule, they are regularly imposed on every juvenile offender (both younger and older juvenile), provided that the legally prescribed requirements are satisfied. Similarly, a juvenile may be subject to all other security measures envisaged in the Serbian criminal legislation, except for the prohibition of performing professional duty and activity, but they are never imposed on their own. Given that juveniles may also commit serious crimes, often involving elements of violence and progression, all contemporary criminal legislations (including the Serbian law) prescribe a juvenile prison sentence as a special kind of punishment for juvenile offenders. In addition, some jurisdictions provide other types of penalties that can be imposed on juvenile criminal offenders. Juvenile prison sentence is the only kind of punishment that can be imposed on a juvenile offender in Serbia. It entails elements of both repression (the offender’s imprisonment and deprivation of liberty for a period of time) and prevention (correction and education of minors). This punishment is only imposed on an older juvenile who has commited a serious crime (felony) and in exceptional cases, if the protection of social values as the primary purpose of criminal law cannot be achieved by applying corrective measures. In such a case, the competent court delivers a judgment imposing a juvenile prison sentence for a specific period of time, ranging from one to five years, and exceptionally up to ten years.

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