GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND PRINCIPLES OF ASSIGNING CRIMINAL PENALTIES TO MINOR OFFENDERS

The article discusses the general principles and the principles applied when imposing punishments to minors who have committed crimes. Juvenile delinquents are the social base of organized crime. Juvenile delinquency harms the personal development of the minor offender himself, thereby contributing to continuing the minor's criminal activity. The research results confirm that a significant number of serious offenders began their criminal activities being minors. Correction of juvenile offenders is very important, that is, formation of stable skills of an honest attitude to work. Precise execution of laws and respect for them. Crimes committed by minors, despite the degree of their study, the share of crimes committed by minors in the total number of crimes is on average 10–12% and these are only registered official data, which means that real statistics can be 1.5–2 times higher. The above-stated points to the problem of illegal behavior of minors and the need to find effective ways to impose penalties to juvenile offenders.

Using an Integrated Model of Strain and Routine Activities to Explore the Reciprocal Relationship Between Direct/Various Victimization and Criminal Coping Among Serious Adolescent Offenders

Using an integrated model of general strain and lifestyle/routine activities theories, the study aimed to prospectively assess the reciprocal relationship between direct victimization, vicarious victimization, and delinquency/crime over time among serious offenders. A cross-lagged path model was conducted using three waves from the Pathways to Desistance Study. Past victimization consistently predicted future victimization, while past delinquency/crime consistently affected future delinquency/crime, demonstrating stability across these variables. Prior vicarious victimization also indirectly increased subsequent direct victimization and delinquency/crime. However, there were no direct or indirect effects found between direction victimization and later vicarious victimization or delinquency/crime, or between delinquency/crime and later direct or vicarious victimization. Sensitivity analyses revealed the contemporaneous effects of victimization were more consequential on offending than the lagged effects.

Sustainable Policy Measures Based on Implementation of Digital Technologies in Corrections: Exploratory Study from Slovakia and Beyond

Across the world, millions of people are incarcerated every year, while hundreds of thousands of them are released back into their home communities. Despite several alternatives within the criminal justice system, incarceration is still considered as the most natural method of correction. This can lead to different types of unsustainable pathways within a society. Despite the growing importance and increasing use of digital technologies, there are relatively few scientific studies related to the implementation of digital technologies in corrections. Therefore, the present paper aims to assess the sustainable policy measures based on the implementation of digital technologies in corrections, namely electronic monitoring (EM). The originality of our paper is supported by unique primary data gathered during the first national survey on the assessment of sustainability measures of EM in Slovakia. Our research reveals that EM implementation contributes to individual and institutional resilience in a socio-economic context; the requirements for a conditional release of serious offenders with mandatory EM seem to have created sustainable conditions for the use of this form of the EM “back door” scheme. EM programs are aimed at suppressing crime through increased accountability and monitoring, which leads to their sustainability. Maintaining social and family ties, reducing risk of imprisonment and undesirable new ties, and keeping working habits are the main sustainable policy measures of EM that support better social inclusion of offenders. Assessment of the sustainable policy measures based on the implementation of digital technologies in corrections, namely electronic monitoring (EM) uncovered in the present paper, creates space for further research and policy implications. Data protection, automated data processing and artificial intelligence in the implementation of digital technologies in corrections are important topics that deserve much more attention in research.

Developmental Patterns of Religiosity in Relation to Criminal Trajectories among Serious Offenders moving from Adolescence to Young Adult

Using Group-Based Trajectory Models and Growth Curve Models, this study aimed to identify distinctive trajectories of religious attendance, religious importance and spirituality and how these trajectories related to changes in crime. The findings varied by measures of religiosity and types of crime. Generally, different measures of religiosity had little to do with initial offenses. A few trajectories of religious attendance and importance associated with both violent and income offenses, while changes in spirituality only related to violent offenses. Losses in religiosity may associate with elevated risks of recidivism. A small range of gains and losses in religiosity may increase the risk of recidivism, while maintaining high religiosity over time may result in a smaller growth change in recidivism.

Are Dual-System Offenders Different?

Although most theoretical and policy approaches treat criminal behavior and child maltreatment as different issues, we examine the prevalence of those involved in both the criminal justice system and child protective services as perpetrators, assessing how several criminal career characteristics differ between dual-system and single-system offenders. Using longitudinal cohort data from the Queensland Cross-Sector Research Collaboration (QCRC), we found that while dual-system-involved offenders made up only 4% of the population, their proportion was much higher among those with a delinquent history, especially among females (males = 21%, females = 38%). Those involved with both systems were more serious offenders and child maltreatment perpetrators with respect to the number and versatility of system contacts. These findings suggest involvement in both the criminal justice and child welfare systems are part of an underlying vulnerability or predisposition toward antisocial behavior and represent an important overlap of service delivery that must be managed effectively.

A Longitudinal Test of the Mediational Role of Delinquent Peer Association on the Link Between Psychopathy and Offending

Although prior research has found that psychopathy and delinquent peer association are predictors of delinquency, less research has assessed the dynamic role of peers in the relationship between psychopathic traits and offending. Using 10 waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance longitudinal study ( n = 1,354), the current exploratory study investigates the impact of changes in delinquent peer association on the relationship between psychopathy and self-reported offending. Although the effects are small, results indicate that youth with higher Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth et al.) scores report higher initial levels of delinquent peer association, which results in increases in offending over the study period. Initial levels (intercept) and change (slope) in delinquent peer association are positively associated with offending. Findings also demonstrate that initial levels and changes in delinquent peer association mediate the relationship between psychopathy and changes in offending. The findings have implications for delinquency prevention and intervention efforts for all adolescents and particularly serious offenders.

Reassessing Conditions of “Prison” in Jamaica

Jamaican maximum-security correctional facilities are largely identified by their extremely poor, anachronistic, and inhuman conditions of custody. This overriding identity shelves the positive influence of reforms that have taken place or are currently underway. By drawing on interviews conducted with 55 inmates and nine correctional staff, secondary analyses, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966), this article examines the degree to which recommendations from the “Improving Prison Conditions in the Caribbean” Conference have been implemented in the Jamaican context. The results suggest that since the Conference, noticeable steps have been taken by the Jamaican state to improve the quality of the rehabilitation experience against the backdrop of challenges of size and competing priorities. However, such improvements are not necessarily the direct result of the implementation of the Conference recommendations. Despite the improvements evidenced, it is argued that more meaningful reforms are required if more inmates are to be enabled to lead crime-free and productive lives upon release. This article provides contemporary insights into the improved conditions of imprisonment in Jamaica and makes recommendations on how serious offenders in the care of Jamaica’s correctional service can be better enabled to experience effective (not successful) reintegration.

Main Problems of the Codification Works on Substantive Misdemeanor Law in People’s Poland

The result of the codification works that were carried out in the years 1960-1971 on substantive misdemeanour law in Poland was a Code on Misdemeanours of 1971. The measures created in this Code were strongly influenced by the idea of misdemeanours polarization and stratification of responsibilities. According to this idea, severe repression was supposed to be limited to the most serious misdemeanours. Towards other offenders progressive leniency was provided, with non-criminal means replacing them. Under influence of political factors the character of general part of Code on Misdemeanours was determined by provisions which were introduced aimed at severe treatment of serious offenders. Also the specific part was shaped in the repressive spirit. The conditions to realise the assumptions accepted by codifiers of the substantive misdemeanour law were created only after the fall of communist system in Poland, when in 1990 the adjudicating boards were cut off from the influence of Ministry of Internal Affairs and placed in the structures of the Ministry of Justice.

The Rise of Mass Misdemeanors

This chapter briefly recounts the origins of the policing experiment of the early 1990s that flew under the Broken Windows banner. It also explores how that experiment has become an institutionalized feature of New York City's law enforcement since then. The history is tailored to highlight those changes in enforcement that most affected the flow and composition of cases into the lower criminal courts. It also portrays how the justifications for this policing model demanded bureaucratic practices that in turn shaped how these low-level cases came to be processed by criminal justice actors. Specifically, the chapter emphasizes the new record-keeping and record-sharing practices that the police and courts innovated in this period in an effort to mark suspected persons for later encounters and to check up on prior records to identify and target persistent or serious offenders.