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Satire is a form of the presentation of reality which relies on distortion and deformation. The media make frequent use of satirical forms of expression. Freedom of expression, including satirical expression, is guaranteed in the Constitution and media law. On the other hand, the civil and penal law protect the individuals being criticized and satirized from unfair or spiteful targeting.As far as the missions of freedom of speech and guardian-of-democracy of the media are concerned, article No. 212 of the Penal Code raises some serious doubts as to its undemocratic nature. The article introduces prison sentences as a punishment for libel/slander, which might be used by the politicians to silence dissident journalists. The Civil Law is not so restrictive, however, the very fact of being sued can seriously damage the financial condition of a given newspaper/website, which in turn may lead to avoidance of tackling controversial issues and self-censorship.|It is surprising how poor courts are at analyzing satirical forms of expression, and how contradictory sentencing is in cases of a similar nature. The specificity of satirical forms of expression should become the subject of extensive debate among journalists and lawyers.
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The aim of this investigation was to examine the impact of knowing the victim or the criminal on the attitudes towards convicts, and considering this, to compare those attitudes in three age groups of subjects: younger, middle aged and older subject. The examination was conducted on the sample of 2 133 randomly selected subjects in Croatia. The data was processed on the level of descriptive analysis and variance analysis. Two hypoteses were stated. It was expected that subject who know a criminal have more positiv attitudes toward convicts, which is confirmed. Also, it was expected that the subjects who know a victim of the crime have more negative attitudes, but opposite was noted. The results in general show very positive attitudes toward convicts and their rehabilitation, regardless to the age of subjects.
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The article includes theoretical reflections on the importance of work as one of the methods of rehabilitation of juveniles placed in juvenile detention centers throughout the history. At the beginning the author paid attention to the legislative changes and the related evolution in the treatment of juvenile offenders in countries recognized as pioneers in the rehabilitation thought and practice. The issues regarding alleviating juvenile policy (such as advocated dejuridisation and decriminalization while dealing with perpetrators of minor punishable acts), as well as the necessity to tighten sanctions against persons committing serious crimes were mentioned herein as well. The central part of the paper is an analysis of the functioning of various foreign and Polish juvenile correctional institutions from the evolutionary perspective, in which work was used as a key method of rehabilitation. At first the author concentrated on the characteristics of foreign institutions organized as part of historical social rehabilitation systems (the progressive and the family system, and the system of children’s republics and villages). Subsequently, the author drew attention to the functioning of Polish correctional facilities and rehabilitation institutions, in which work performed by juveniles was an important contribution to their development and translated into the educational success observed both in the individual and social dimension. The final parts of the article describe contemporary solutions applied by correctional institutions, in which juveniles take advantage of the constantly widening range and offer of vocational education, acquire necessary competences and qualifications, and are thus becoming increasingly competitive on the labour market.
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Asymmetrical warfare has rapidly evolved into a strategical option of choice among extremist terror groups, quickly becoming the 21st century widespread international security threat, and facilitating the proliferation of small covert terror groups without sociopolitical boundaries and confines to defend and therefore highly capable of attaining a very low profile while possessing ample clandestine mobility and skillfulness of engaging in unpredictable and unforeseeable violent and lethal attacks against multiple targets of choice.
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While West Germany’s judicial dealings with Nazi crimes have been amply researched, their Eastern counterpart is less well known. Initially, the similarities are striking: both the Western zones and the Soviet zone had to reconstruct their legal system. Re-erection of bombed district courts as well as denazification of legal personnel dominated the first post-war years. Legal regulations were similar, too, to an extent: both West and East German jurists used the German penal code and - with the exception of the American zone - Control Council Law No. 10 (crimes against humanity). Furthermore, in East Germany Control Council Directive No. 38 (denazification) was employed as a penal law, too which meant that many defendants were sentenced for membership in Nazi organizations. However, although the Nazi crimes to be adjudicated were necessarily similar in both Germanies, the emphasis on certain crimes was very different: denunciations, crimes against political opponents and foreign workers and Nazi party membership were most prominent in numbers in East Germany. In the West, Nazi crimes against Jews played a bigger role in post-war justice.
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In 2008, Slovenia introduced the punishment of life imprisonment. Since then it can be imposed for certain crimes against humanity and for the (at least two) crimes of intentional homicide. The proposal for introducing life imprisonment was founded on two arguments: the introduction of life imprisonment being necessary to harmonise Slovenian law with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and to harmonise it with the majority of European countries. In public debate, both arguments were rejected as false, while opponents of life imprisonment cited reasons against introducing it (e.g., rehabilitation as a purpose of punishment, respect for human dignity, the inefficiency of severe sentences). In the public debate, also elements of penal populism could be noticed. Although most experts opposed the introduction of life imprisonment, it was adopted in the Slovenian Criminal Code. In 2016, the Ministry of Justice at first proposed abolishing it, but the final political decision was different. A proposal to abolish the life imprisonment was withdrawn from the 2016 amendment to the Criminal Code and the Parliament did not vote on the proposal at all. Although the punishment of life imprisonment has been now a part of Slovenian law for eleven years, it has not yet been imposed.
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Since May 2019, Serbia has joined the majority of European countries which have the sentence of life imprisonment in their criminal justice systems. Despite the refusal of the competent authorities to hold a public hearing on the issue, the introduction of life imprisonment, excluding the possibility of conditional release of convicted persons for certain offenses punishable by this sentence, was met with noticeable interest and activism by representatives of the domestic and international professional public. Particular attention in the paper is devoted to human rights standards relating to life imprisonment, mainly stemming from the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The paper analyzes the possibility of application of human rights standards within the current criminal law legislation. At the end of the paper, the author points to possible de lege ferenda directions that could represent an alternative to life imprisonment, considering it a serious challenge for protection of the dignity of convicted persons.
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The article is devoted to the study of certain aspects of the police performance assessment in Ukraine and the Slovak Republic as subjects of combating financial and economic crimes. It is determined that the expediency of studying this issue is determined by the high level of financial and economic crimes in Ukraine and the Slovak Republic. It was insisted that the assessment of the police activity in Ukraine and the Slovak Republic is carried out mainly on the basis of quantitative criteria. In view of possible fraud with the statistical data that is the basis of the report of the police authorities of Ukraine and the Slovak Republic, it is proposed to consolidate such a criterion for assessing of the police activity as a level of latent crimes. Among the qualitative criteria for assessing the police activity in Ukraine and the Slovak Republic, public trust has been highlighted, but it was concluded that its definition should be carried out by an independent sociological service. It is grounded that the implementation of these proposals will have a positive impact on the police activity in Ukraine and the Slovak Republic in the area of combating financial and economic offenses.
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Risk assessment is one of the main areas of interest of experts dedicated to the analysis of offenders convicted to imprisonment. After theoretical assumptions, consideration of the Risk Assessment Questionnaire and relevant research in this area, we present results of an empirical study conducted in PCI Sremska Mitrovica, on a sample of 150 offenders released between 2016 and 2018. The basic hypotheses were: (1) most offenders are primarily classified into closed wards; (2) most offenders advance during the treatment into a more favorable category, and (3) those who have advanced are paroled. The hypotheses are analysed from the aspect of estimated risk based on Risk Assessment Questionnaire and being in a particular treatment group. These hypotheses have been confirmed.
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“In the First Ten Years no Staff Befriended me”: The Position of a Chaplain in the Czech Prison System. The chaplain, with a religious background practicing pastoral care, plays a role that conflicts with the norms of the secular institution that formally employs him. In this regard, prison is a highly challenging workplace. Drawing on qualitative data, we examine the position and identity of the prison chaplain in the Czech prison system. We argue that the main source of tension within the workplace is the chaplain’s profound interest in a prisoner’s personal life. This tendency is in a clear contrast with the intentions of the punitive prison system. Examples the potential of chaplain’s role are also discussed.
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The author analyzes the case of ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Croatia in 2018. After introductory explanations of the basic theoretical and methodological conditions of the analysis, the first part of the article analyzes the text of the Convention. The second part of the article analyzes its political reception in Croatian public at the time before, during and after its ratification. In doing so, it inductively establishes the discourses that both clashed and collaborated, on the basis of repetitive similarities and differences in the utterances that different actors made in the public media. After the discursive framework of the debate is analyzed, the institutional and non-institutional aspects of the ratification process that took place within these framework are presented. Emphasis is placed on the formation of a discursive coalition between advocates of the dominant discourse on violence against women and the discourse on family tradition that, with the Interpretive statement, enabled the ratification of the Convention.
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There is no doubt that the prison system in Czechoslovakia and the GDR changed along the lines of the Soviet model. This article addresses a particular aspect of the prison system by comparing the attitude towards prison labour in both states and leads to the conclusion that Sovietization in each country developed in different ways. The reasons for this can be found not only in the developments of the interwar period, but also in the geopolitical situation and the variously manifesting intentions held by the respective communist establishments in adopting the Soviet model. These differences also arose due to the fact that the Soviet model had not been uniformly defined and was constantly being modified. At many levels, Czechoslovakia and the GDR had to balance their own demands with the vision of the Soviet hegemonic power and find a way to adapt prison policy to the political, economic and societal circumstances in their respective countries. The essential questions that this article seeks to find answers to are: What was more important for prison authorities―the productivity of the prisoners and the fulfilment of the Five Year Plan or the educational purpose and potential of imprisonment? Which methods were used to increase the productivity of prison labour and what conclusions, if any, can we draw from these methods regarding the differences between the two countries?
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Based on the results of the empirical research (probation officers’ questionnaire survey), the article examines how probation officers evaluate their individual work in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the probation. The article relies on the results of a survey of 129 Lithuanian probation service officers. The study revealed that most of the respondents (probation officers) assess their contribution to the probation goals as very relevant. For example, probation officers consider that they have a very significant or significant influence on such probation goals as probationers compliance with probation obligations (78.3%), probationers compliance with the laws (67.4%), participation of probationers in behavioral correction programs (71.3%), probationers compensation for victims of crime (67.4%). Respectively probation officers assess their contribution as less relevant to such goals and objectives as treatment for addiction to drugs and alcohol (respectively 52.7% and 55.1% positive assessments), reduction of the risk of repeated crimes (51.2%), repeated crime reduction (48%), finding accommodation (44,2%), education of probationers (38%), debt repayment (33,9%). It is noteworthy that the respondents appreciate the most relevant contribution of their own to the goals related to the legal obligations, whose supervision and control is a direct function and duty of probation officers, e. g.: compliance with the probation obligations (78.2% of positive assessments) of the impostors participation in behavioral change programs and their completion (71.3% and 69.5% respectively). The article provides insights and assumptions concerning the aspects of above mentioned results of probation officers survey.
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When Ukraine introduced a new and radically reimagined patrol police in 2015, Nazar Franchuk was one of the first to sign up. Franchuk, who spent the winter of 2013 – 2014 splitting his time between university exams and protesting in Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, wanted to bring his revolutionary energy to the new law enforcement body which was intended to replace the country’s notoriously corrupt police force.
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