Security measures of medical character (criminal aspect)

Abstract

The subject of the analysis in the paper are the criminal matters of the security measures of medical character. Individually observed, there are several groups of issues discussed in this paper. Firstly, there are general observations on security measures, their concept, type and purpose, both generally, and in the positive criminal legislation of Serbia. When it comes to this group of questions, then, in accordance with the very title of the paper, special attention is paid to the security measures of medical character - to their own concept, types, purpose of pronouncement and imposition, and in particular, two security measures of this character are specifically emphasized (mandatory psychiatric treatment and staying in a health institution and compulsory non-institutional psychiatric treatment). Having finished this, there is an expert-critical (normative and theoretical) analysis of two key security measures in the positive criminal legislation of the Republic of Serbia. From this point of view, the issues discussed in this section are analyzed both in terms of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as from the aspect of the Law on Juvenile Offenders and Criminal Protection of Juveniles, the Law on the Execution of Criminal Sanctions and the Law on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders. The analysis of the comparative group of issues has shown the large number of open questions regarding the criminal-legal aspect of the two analyzed measures of security of medical character (obligatory psychiatric treatment and keeping in a health institution and compulsory non-institutional psychiatric treatment). The case, for example, with the question: Are these measures to remain in the system of criminal sanctions, or should that the issues of the status of the persons whom they are intended be solved in the course of the forced treatment of psychiatric patients. Then, there is a question of the scope of their application. Then, there is a question of the limitation of their duration, especially in the case of application in significantly reduced insane perpetrators, and depending on the length of the imprisonment sentence. There is also the question of the introduction of a conditional release institute from the health institution, as well as the issue of improved conditions for their execution, etc. In addition to this, the results of the practical presence of this cross-section of criminal sanctions in the practice of our courts are also presented. At the end of the paper, concluding observations were given in which the author's position was outlined in a summarized way, primarily, in relation to issues that were particularly emphasized, open-debatable both from the theoretical and the normative point of view.