Penalty ranges and punitiveness of criminal legislation

Comparative analysis

Authors

  • Zoran Stojanović University of Belgrade, Faculty of Law, Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5937/crimen2001003S

Keywords:

penalty ranges; general prevention; comparative analysis; criminal repression; Criminal Code of Serbia

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine the extent to which the penalty ranges prescribed for certain offences affects the degree of repression of a criminal code, and in particular the Criminal Code of Serbia, as well as whether it can be classified as criminal code that exceed the usual degree of repression inherent in any criminal legislation. To this end, comparative research has been undertaken. Comparing the prescribed penalties for ten criminal offences in eight criminal codes of European countries with the Criminal Code of Serbia, these questions were answered. Although, when assessing the degree of the repressiveness of criminal legislation, it is not enough to take into account the prescribed penalty ranges, they significantly indicate that degree and largely reflect the repressive aspirations of the criminal lawmaker. Asked if the CC of Serbia exceeds the level of repression inherent in all European criminal codes, the answer is yes if the prescribed penalty ranges are compared. That comparison shows that the Criminal Code of Serbia is at the very top of the codes compared. With few exceptions, it prescribes the harshest penalties. From this, it cannot be concluded that these penalties in the CC of Serbia reflect some of the specific cultural, political and other circumstances, and especially not the real needs that exist in society. However, raising the level of repression by prescribing severe penalties is a symptom of the social and political climate in Serbia in the last decade in which this tendency has come to the fore.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Albrecht, P.-A. (2010). Kriminologie, Eine Grundlegung zum Strafrecht, 4th ed. Munich.

Braun, J. (2011). Einführung in die Rechtsphilosophie, 2nd ed. Tübingen. https://doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-151303-9

Carrara, F. (1886). Programma del corso di diritto criminale, Dei delitto, della pena, 6th ed., reprint, Il Mulino, 1993, Bologna.

Donnelly, R. (1952). "The New Yugoslav Criminal Code." The Yale Law Journal, vol. 61. https://doi.org/10.2307/793587

Đorđević, M. (2005). "Kazneni okviri u Predlogu novog Krivičnog zakonika." In Nove tendencije u savremenoj nauci krivičnog prava i naše krivično zakonodavstvo, Zlatibor-Beograd.

Fischer, Th. (2020). Strafgesetzbuch mit Nebengesetzen, 67th ed. Munich.

Garland, D. (2008). Kultur der Kontrolle. Verbrechensbekämpfung und soziale Ordnung in der Gegenwart. Frankfurt/New York.

Hassemer, W. (2001). Freiheitliches Strafrecht. Berlin.

Ignjatović, Đ. (2017). "Kazneni populizam." In Kaznena reakcija u Srbiji VII deo, Beograd.

Jacobson, J., and Hallgren Sandvik, V. (2015). "An Outline of the New Norwegian Criminal Code." Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, vol. 3, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.15845/bjclcj.v3i2.910

Jung, H. (2017). "Should We Compare Laws or Cultures?" Bergen Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, vol. 5, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.15845/bjclcj.v5i1.1354

Kühl, K. (2008). Freiheitliche Rechtsphilosophie. Baden-Baden. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845209876

McTaggart, J. E. (1896). "Hegel's Theory of Punishment." International Journal of Ethics, vol. 6, no. 4. https://doi.org/10.1086/intejethi.6.4.2375419

Montenbruck, A. (2018). Deutsche Straftheorie, 3rd ed. Berlin.

Perić, O. (2000). "Kazneni okviri u Predlogu Krivičnog zakonika." In Osnovne karakteristike Predloga novog jugoslovenskog krivičnog zakonodavstva, Beograd.

Pradel, Ž. (2015). "Uvodno predavanje za jedan kurs uporednog krivičnog prava" (translated by G. Ilić). Crimen, no. 2.

Stojanović, Z. (2014). "Das präventiv orientierte Strafrecht: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen." In Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. K. Kühl, Beck, Munich.

Stojanović, Z. (2019). "Kaznena politika sudova." Glasnik odjeljenja društvenih nauka CANU, 24.

Stojanović, Z. (2020). Komentar Krivičnog zakonika, 10th ed. Beograd.

Streng, F. (2017). "Sicherheitskrise, Kriminalitätswahrnemung und Strafhaltung." In Europe in Crisis: Crime, Criminal Justice, and the Way Forward, vol. II, Athens.

Škulić, M. (2019). Krivična dela protiv polne slobode. Beograd.

Vuković, I. (2017). "Materijalni pojam krivice iz ugla krivičnog prava." Crimen, no. 3.

Downloads

Published

27.04.2020

How to Cite

Stojanović, Zoran. 2020. “Penalty Ranges and Punitiveness of Criminal Legislation: Comparative Analysis ”. Crimen 11 (1):3-33. https://doi.org/10.5937/crimen2001003S.

Issue

Section

Articles