Mere bezbednosti medicinskog karaktera u krivičnom zakonodavstvu Republike Srbije
Medical Security Measures in the Criminal Legislation of the Republic of Serbia

Author(s): Jagoda Drljača
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Sociology, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: criminal sanctions; medical security measures; unaccountability; risk of a repeat offense; duration of the measure
Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper are the four security measures that represent criminal sanctions based on the risk that the perpetrator will re-commit the crime, that is, the unlawful act envisaged in the law as a criminal offense, that as such have a special preventive function. The risk of reoffending may have its source in a mental disorder, tendency to overuse alcohol or psychoactive substances, and may arise from some circumstances that have had a particular effect on individuals to commit the act. The findings and opinion on the mental health of a person are given by an expert psychiatrist, and the final decision on the (in)accountability and fulfillment of conditions for declaring a safety measure of a medical character is within the competence of the judge. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia prescribes 11 security measures, four of which are of medical nature: security measure of mandatory psychiatric treatment and care in a healthcare institution, security measure of mandatory psychiatric treatment without institutionalization, security measure of mandatory drug treatment and mandatory treatment of alcoholics. The aim of this paper is to study these four measures from their historical beginnings, to the present, explain the relevant legislation and point out the shortcomings of the existing legislation and current tendencies in the development of these measures. Given that these are measures that deeply affect human rights, and since they have been amended only once and insufficiently so, the analysis of the legal solutions concerning these measures represents only the first, theoretical step, in the effort to emphasize the need of their amendment.

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