It is likely that there is no phenomenon that has led to more discussion and which has caused suc... more It is likely that there is no phenomenon that has led to more discussion and which has caused such contradictory assessments as the case of the prison sentence and the penitentiary institutions in which it is carried out. It seems that criminologists and penologists can not agree on any matter related to the prison sentence and penitentiary institution - from when they were created - to the explanation of why they survive despite all the criticism. After a brief review of the history of imprisonment and penitentiary institutions, the paper highlights the basic problems of modern penitentiary systems related to institutions, the population in them, the institutional staff and the relationship of the society towards them. It also pointed to attempts to find an exit from the crisis of the penitentiary system in order to eventually find an answer to the question: why does society, despite all the controversies that have been accompanying them for two centuries, continues to hold depriva...
Paper deals with one of so-called ?new criminologies? - specific amalgam composed by criminologic... more Paper deals with one of so-called ?new criminologies? - specific amalgam composed by criminological and epidemiological experiences. First of all, the author points the main characteristics of these two sciences and their connections. After such explanations, he give examples of famous research in the field of ?epidemiological criminology?. They show how many important issues in criminology has been neglected until the end of the twentieth century (evaluation of penal policy from the standpoint of epidemiology, health status of inmates, suicides in penitentiary institutions, as well as corporate victimization of the general public). This may be of particular importance for the development of criminology in Serbia where several topics for are repeated in scientific papers. The author, however, opposes the constitution of a special scientific discipline - ?epidemiological criminology? because he belives that criminology is the unique science with specific subject and methodology.
International journal for the semiotics of law, Mar 1, 2002
In the text, the author criticizesattitudes and conclusions in the document ofthe Hague Tribunal ... more In the text, the author criticizesattitudes and conclusions in the document ofthe Hague Tribunal under the title ``FinalReport to the Prosecutor by the CommitteeEstablished to Review the NATO Bombing CampaignAgainst the FRY''. At the beginning of thepaper, it is indicated to what extent generallegal estimation on damage inflicted to naturalenvironment, the use of projectiles withdepleted uranium, cluster bombs as well aslegal questions related to the choice oftargets for attacks are controversial andhardly maintainable.Also, it is given a comment on thegeneral estimation of the bombing campaign withan attitude that a number of killed civilians(around 500) ``does not indicate that NATO mayhave conducted a campaign aimed at causingsubstantial civilian casualties either directlyor incidentally'', by which an interestingcriterion for the estimation of somebody'sintention – the number of victims – isintroduced.Considering ``specific incidents'',it is stated which of them the Commission didnot explain. Those mentioned in the Report arecommented as well as the estimations related tothem. It is especially done in the case of thebombing of the RTS building in Belgrade, untilthen, without precedent in the history of wars.The author considers that only dueto the stated negligence, the anonymousCommission could conclude ``that neither anin-depth investigation related to the bombingcampaign as a whole nor investigation relatedto specific incidents are justified''.
And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with i... more And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with in criminal political topics shows that for thirty years he consistently advocated ideas of criminal and selective minimalism, plead for the reduction of the criminal reaction to the limits determined by the principle of ultima ratio. Already in his first papers, he points to the tendency of criminal legal expansionism in which the norms of this branch of law begin to be used as a means to solve the accumulated problems arising from the crisis of modern society. In an effort to convince citizens that they are doing everything they can to make their sense of vulnerability, government representatives resort to the means that require the least effort: to amend criminal legislation whose incriminations spread a zone of punishability, and the changes in the sanctions system foresee increasingly severe penalties. Therefore, this trend is not only the result of incompetence, but is even more a result of political manipulation. Therefore, instead of the deliberate action of social subjects that should eliminate factors that, for example, lead to violence against peers or in the family, into organized crime and corruption-they resort to retribution and the construction of an omnipotent system of social control.
SUMMARY The authors have decided to compare data on adjudicated crime (precisely on convicted adu... more SUMMARY The authors have decided to compare data on adjudicated crime (precisely on convicted adults) in Serbia and Slovenia including not only the data for the year of 2013 for which they had complete information, but they also sought to determine whether the state has radically changed in relation to the period before one (2003) and four decades (1973). First and foremost, the trend in the number of convicted adults of the age of 25 (and 23 respectively) is presented for both republics and it is concluded that in neither of them adjudicated crime has worrying trend. It is, of course, a task for criminologists to find reasons why the amplitude of the minimum-maximum number in Serbia went from 21.681 to 45.354 and in Slovenia from 3.462 to 11.321 and to explain why the smallest and the greatest number of crimes was recorded in certain years. It should be noted that the absolute number of committed crimes has decreased in both countries in this century in comparison to the period of the last four decades. In 2013 the rate of convicted persons in Serbia amounted to 442 and it was lower than the rate in 2003 whereas in Slovenia this rate amounted to 550, which was higher than the rate recorded in 2003 and this fact requires further explanations. In Slovenia and Serbia the structure of crimes of convicted adult offenders is different: in both republics offenders were most often convicted of property crimes, but in Serbia they comprise less than 1/3 of convicted population whereas in Slovenia these offenders comprise less than ½ (44%) of the convicted population. Offenders convicted of property crimes in Serbia are followed by perpetrators who were convicted of crimes against public traffic safety, crimes against public order and peace, against life and bodily integrity (in comparison to 2003 the share of the last mentioned category of convicts has decreased whereas the number of those convicted of crimes against human health and marriage and family has increased). In Slovenia the second largest group of convicted persons refers to crimes against human health. Thus, it can be concluded that both countries encounter the increase in crime related to narcotic drugs. Comparing the data with those from the period of the last four decades, it becomes obvious that the largest decrease in the share of adjudicated crime is recorded in respect of crimes against honor and reputation. Obviously, this is due to the tendency to exclude these crimes (except for the most serious forms) from the sphere of criminal justice reaction. Consideration of gender structure of adult convicts shows that women in both republics participate in a considerably lower percentage than that in which they are represented in general population and in this century it is around 10%. In comparison to the period of four decades ago it has not changed significantly in Slovenia whereas in Serbia it was higher at that time (in 1973 women comprised around 17% of adult convicted persons). When we take into account in which judicial statistics presents information in regard to the age of adult convicts, it can be seen that in 2013 in Slovenia and Serbia " the age group of maximum crime " was that of the 21 (resp.22) to 29 years old. It is also obvious that women " enter later into criminal business " , but they stay longer in it and in both states their percentage after the age of 30 is higher than the average. Although the data are not available for Slovenia, we will briefly conclude the same as for Serbia in 2013 – in respect of marital status of convicts, married offenders are dominant category (47%); when it comes to education, offenders with completed secondary school are the most numerous – around 50% (whereas in 1973 the most represented were offenders with completed primary school); now the most of offenders are unemployed – 50.1% (and in 2003 and in 1973 the most of them were employed).
The United Nations has developed live legislative activity in recent decades in order to impose s... more The United Nations has developed live legislative activity in recent decades in order to impose standards in the enforcement of criminal sanctions against juveniles. The paper pointed to the provisions of those instruments whose provisions are applied in their entirety to the enforcement of criminal sanctions against this category of persons ('primary sources'), and those instruments that only partially touch on this issue ('secondary sources'). Secondary sources in paper are listed as follows: Convention on the Rights on the Child, Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, World Program of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond and Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules); while the following documents were listed as primary sources: Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty and Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measu...
During the past decade, experts and scholars in Serbia dedicated a great deal of attention and th... more During the past decade, experts and scholars in Serbia dedicated a great deal of attention and their academic endeavours to the reform of the juvenile justice system, as well as to the establishment and improvement of a multi-agency mechanism for the protection of children from violence and abuse. At the same time, research into the factors contributing to youth delinquency and violence did not receive the same amount of consideration and enthusiasm. Even though it is impossible to claim that the problem of juvenile crime in Serbia has reached an alarming rate (Ignjatović, 2014), a moderate increase in juvenile crime during the past decade, accompanied by individual criminal offences committed by youth in a particularly brutal fashion, often contributed to the unjustified outbursts of moral panic and received inadequate media attention characterised by a sensationalistic and super-
The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: t... more The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: the first is the influence of culture on determining the circle of incriminated behaviors as well as the way in which society reacts to crime; the second problem relates to the effect of certain cultural factors on the genesis of criminal behavior. In this paper, the author analyzes the most important contributions of European social thought from the end of the XIX and early XX centuries, to the Chicago School and its followers and, finally, to British cultural criminology. When it comes to the applicability of the above-mentioned criminological directions to the experience of Serbia, it is a real detriment to the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 100 years (two unsuccessful attempts to create a multinational and multireligous society; both in the Second World War and in the civil war in which Yugoslavia disappeared, intensive industrialization and urbanization that in ...
And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with i... more And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with in criminal political topics shows that for thirty years he consistently advocated ideas of criminal and selective minimalism, plead for the reduction of the criminal reaction to the limits determined by the principle of ultima ratio. Already in his first papers, he points to the tendency of criminal legal expansionism in which the norms of this branch of law begin to be used as a means to solve the accumulated problems arising from the crisis of modern society. In an effort to convince citizens that they are doing everything they can to make their sense of vulnerability, government representatives resort to the means that require the least effort: to amend criminal legislation whose incriminations spread a zone of punishability, and the changes in the sanctions system foresee increasingly severe penalties. Therefore, this trend is not only the result of incompetence, but is even more a result of political manipulation. Therefore, instead of the deliberate action of social subjects that should eliminate factors that, for example, lead to violence against peers or in the family, into organized crime and corruption-they resort to retribution and the construction of an omnipotent system of social control.
The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: t... more The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: the first is the influence of culture on determining the circle of incriminated behaviors as well as the way in which society reacts to crime; the second problem relates to the effect of certain cultural factors on the genesis of criminal behavior. In this paper, the author analyzes the most important contributions of European social thought from the end of the XIX and early XX centuries, to the Chicago School and its followers and, finally, to British cultural criminology. When it comes to the applicability of the above-mentioned criminological directions to the experience of Serbia, it is a real detriment to the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 100 years (two unsuccessful attempts to create a multinational and multireligous society; both in the Second World War and in the civil war in which Yugoslavia disappeared, intensive industrialization and urbanization that in the middle of the 20th century led to mass migration from the village to the city, the departure of workers into developed countries and their problems of adapting to a different culture; the collapse of the socialist model and the transformation into capitalism through "robbery privatization" which leads to the fearful stratification of society ...) almost did not encourage scientists to examine what kind of reflects the related changes in the sphere of culture had to the state of crime. The latest wave of refugees from the Near and Middle East who went through the territory of the Republic of Serbia (and one of them has remained permanently here) opens new opportunities for such studies; the same holds true for the cultural adaptation of tens of thousands of refugees from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and internally displaced persons from the Kosovo and Metohija; here we need to mention the subculture of young people, football hooligans, cultural patterns of the so-called 'turbo folk' and other youth subcultures. Criminologists in Serbia have, therefore, a multitude of possible subjects of research and they should use them.
It is likely that there is no phenomenon that has led to more discussion and which has caused suc... more It is likely that there is no phenomenon that has led to more discussion and which has caused such contradictory assessments as the case of the prison sentence and the penitentiary institutions in which it is carried out. It seems that criminologists and penologists can not agree on any matter related to the prison sentence and penitentiary institution - from when they were created - to the explanation of why they survive despite all the criticism. After a brief review of the history of imprisonment and penitentiary institutions, the paper highlights the basic problems of modern penitentiary systems related to institutions, the population in them, the institutional staff and the relationship of the society towards them. It also pointed to attempts to find an exit from the crisis of the penitentiary system in order to eventually find an answer to the question: why does society, despite all the controversies that have been accompanying them for two centuries, continues to hold depriva...
Paper deals with one of so-called ?new criminologies? - specific amalgam composed by criminologic... more Paper deals with one of so-called ?new criminologies? - specific amalgam composed by criminological and epidemiological experiences. First of all, the author points the main characteristics of these two sciences and their connections. After such explanations, he give examples of famous research in the field of ?epidemiological criminology?. They show how many important issues in criminology has been neglected until the end of the twentieth century (evaluation of penal policy from the standpoint of epidemiology, health status of inmates, suicides in penitentiary institutions, as well as corporate victimization of the general public). This may be of particular importance for the development of criminology in Serbia where several topics for are repeated in scientific papers. The author, however, opposes the constitution of a special scientific discipline - ?epidemiological criminology? because he belives that criminology is the unique science with specific subject and methodology.
International journal for the semiotics of law, Mar 1, 2002
In the text, the author criticizesattitudes and conclusions in the document ofthe Hague Tribunal ... more In the text, the author criticizesattitudes and conclusions in the document ofthe Hague Tribunal under the title ``FinalReport to the Prosecutor by the CommitteeEstablished to Review the NATO Bombing CampaignAgainst the FRY''. At the beginning of thepaper, it is indicated to what extent generallegal estimation on damage inflicted to naturalenvironment, the use of projectiles withdepleted uranium, cluster bombs as well aslegal questions related to the choice oftargets for attacks are controversial andhardly maintainable.Also, it is given a comment on thegeneral estimation of the bombing campaign withan attitude that a number of killed civilians(around 500) ``does not indicate that NATO mayhave conducted a campaign aimed at causingsubstantial civilian casualties either directlyor incidentally'', by which an interestingcriterion for the estimation of somebody'sintention – the number of victims – isintroduced.Considering ``specific incidents'',it is stated which of them the Commission didnot explain. Those mentioned in the Report arecommented as well as the estimations related tothem. It is especially done in the case of thebombing of the RTS building in Belgrade, untilthen, without precedent in the history of wars.The author considers that only dueto the stated negligence, the anonymousCommission could conclude ``that neither anin-depth investigation related to the bombingcampaign as a whole nor investigation relatedto specific incidents are justified''.
And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with i... more And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with in criminal political topics shows that for thirty years he consistently advocated ideas of criminal and selective minimalism, plead for the reduction of the criminal reaction to the limits determined by the principle of ultima ratio. Already in his first papers, he points to the tendency of criminal legal expansionism in which the norms of this branch of law begin to be used as a means to solve the accumulated problems arising from the crisis of modern society. In an effort to convince citizens that they are doing everything they can to make their sense of vulnerability, government representatives resort to the means that require the least effort: to amend criminal legislation whose incriminations spread a zone of punishability, and the changes in the sanctions system foresee increasingly severe penalties. Therefore, this trend is not only the result of incompetence, but is even more a result of political manipulation. Therefore, instead of the deliberate action of social subjects that should eliminate factors that, for example, lead to violence against peers or in the family, into organized crime and corruption-they resort to retribution and the construction of an omnipotent system of social control.
SUMMARY The authors have decided to compare data on adjudicated crime (precisely on convicted adu... more SUMMARY The authors have decided to compare data on adjudicated crime (precisely on convicted adults) in Serbia and Slovenia including not only the data for the year of 2013 for which they had complete information, but they also sought to determine whether the state has radically changed in relation to the period before one (2003) and four decades (1973). First and foremost, the trend in the number of convicted adults of the age of 25 (and 23 respectively) is presented for both republics and it is concluded that in neither of them adjudicated crime has worrying trend. It is, of course, a task for criminologists to find reasons why the amplitude of the minimum-maximum number in Serbia went from 21.681 to 45.354 and in Slovenia from 3.462 to 11.321 and to explain why the smallest and the greatest number of crimes was recorded in certain years. It should be noted that the absolute number of committed crimes has decreased in both countries in this century in comparison to the period of the last four decades. In 2013 the rate of convicted persons in Serbia amounted to 442 and it was lower than the rate in 2003 whereas in Slovenia this rate amounted to 550, which was higher than the rate recorded in 2003 and this fact requires further explanations. In Slovenia and Serbia the structure of crimes of convicted adult offenders is different: in both republics offenders were most often convicted of property crimes, but in Serbia they comprise less than 1/3 of convicted population whereas in Slovenia these offenders comprise less than ½ (44%) of the convicted population. Offenders convicted of property crimes in Serbia are followed by perpetrators who were convicted of crimes against public traffic safety, crimes against public order and peace, against life and bodily integrity (in comparison to 2003 the share of the last mentioned category of convicts has decreased whereas the number of those convicted of crimes against human health and marriage and family has increased). In Slovenia the second largest group of convicted persons refers to crimes against human health. Thus, it can be concluded that both countries encounter the increase in crime related to narcotic drugs. Comparing the data with those from the period of the last four decades, it becomes obvious that the largest decrease in the share of adjudicated crime is recorded in respect of crimes against honor and reputation. Obviously, this is due to the tendency to exclude these crimes (except for the most serious forms) from the sphere of criminal justice reaction. Consideration of gender structure of adult convicts shows that women in both republics participate in a considerably lower percentage than that in which they are represented in general population and in this century it is around 10%. In comparison to the period of four decades ago it has not changed significantly in Slovenia whereas in Serbia it was higher at that time (in 1973 women comprised around 17% of adult convicted persons). When we take into account in which judicial statistics presents information in regard to the age of adult convicts, it can be seen that in 2013 in Slovenia and Serbia " the age group of maximum crime " was that of the 21 (resp.22) to 29 years old. It is also obvious that women " enter later into criminal business " , but they stay longer in it and in both states their percentage after the age of 30 is higher than the average. Although the data are not available for Slovenia, we will briefly conclude the same as for Serbia in 2013 – in respect of marital status of convicts, married offenders are dominant category (47%); when it comes to education, offenders with completed secondary school are the most numerous – around 50% (whereas in 1973 the most represented were offenders with completed primary school); now the most of offenders are unemployed – 50.1% (and in 2003 and in 1973 the most of them were employed).
The United Nations has developed live legislative activity in recent decades in order to impose s... more The United Nations has developed live legislative activity in recent decades in order to impose standards in the enforcement of criminal sanctions against juveniles. The paper pointed to the provisions of those instruments whose provisions are applied in their entirety to the enforcement of criminal sanctions against this category of persons ('primary sources'), and those instruments that only partially touch on this issue ('secondary sources'). Secondary sources in paper are listed as follows: Convention on the Rights on the Child, Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, World Program of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond and Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules); while the following documents were listed as primary sources: Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty and Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measu...
During the past decade, experts and scholars in Serbia dedicated a great deal of attention and th... more During the past decade, experts and scholars in Serbia dedicated a great deal of attention and their academic endeavours to the reform of the juvenile justice system, as well as to the establishment and improvement of a multi-agency mechanism for the protection of children from violence and abuse. At the same time, research into the factors contributing to youth delinquency and violence did not receive the same amount of consideration and enthusiasm. Even though it is impossible to claim that the problem of juvenile crime in Serbia has reached an alarming rate (Ignjatović, 2014), a moderate increase in juvenile crime during the past decade, accompanied by individual criminal offences committed by youth in a particularly brutal fashion, often contributed to the unjustified outbursts of moral panic and received inadequate media attention characterised by a sensationalistic and super-
The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: t... more The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: the first is the influence of culture on determining the circle of incriminated behaviors as well as the way in which society reacts to crime; the second problem relates to the effect of certain cultural factors on the genesis of criminal behavior. In this paper, the author analyzes the most important contributions of European social thought from the end of the XIX and early XX centuries, to the Chicago School and its followers and, finally, to British cultural criminology. When it comes to the applicability of the above-mentioned criminological directions to the experience of Serbia, it is a real detriment to the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 100 years (two unsuccessful attempts to create a multinational and multireligous society; both in the Second World War and in the civil war in which Yugoslavia disappeared, intensive industrialization and urbanization that in ...
And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with i... more And the shortest insight into some of the papers that professor Zoran Stojanović has dealt with in criminal political topics shows that for thirty years he consistently advocated ideas of criminal and selective minimalism, plead for the reduction of the criminal reaction to the limits determined by the principle of ultima ratio. Already in his first papers, he points to the tendency of criminal legal expansionism in which the norms of this branch of law begin to be used as a means to solve the accumulated problems arising from the crisis of modern society. In an effort to convince citizens that they are doing everything they can to make their sense of vulnerability, government representatives resort to the means that require the least effort: to amend criminal legislation whose incriminations spread a zone of punishability, and the changes in the sanctions system foresee increasingly severe penalties. Therefore, this trend is not only the result of incompetence, but is even more a result of political manipulation. Therefore, instead of the deliberate action of social subjects that should eliminate factors that, for example, lead to violence against peers or in the family, into organized crime and corruption-they resort to retribution and the construction of an omnipotent system of social control.
The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: t... more The relationship between culture and crime is illustrated through the processing of two topics: the first is the influence of culture on determining the circle of incriminated behaviors as well as the way in which society reacts to crime; the second problem relates to the effect of certain cultural factors on the genesis of criminal behavior. In this paper, the author analyzes the most important contributions of European social thought from the end of the XIX and early XX centuries, to the Chicago School and its followers and, finally, to British cultural criminology. When it comes to the applicability of the above-mentioned criminological directions to the experience of Serbia, it is a real detriment to the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 100 years (two unsuccessful attempts to create a multinational and multireligous society; both in the Second World War and in the civil war in which Yugoslavia disappeared, intensive industrialization and urbanization that in the middle of the 20th century led to mass migration from the village to the city, the departure of workers into developed countries and their problems of adapting to a different culture; the collapse of the socialist model and the transformation into capitalism through "robbery privatization" which leads to the fearful stratification of society ...) almost did not encourage scientists to examine what kind of reflects the related changes in the sphere of culture had to the state of crime. The latest wave of refugees from the Near and Middle East who went through the territory of the Republic of Serbia (and one of them has remained permanently here) opens new opportunities for such studies; the same holds true for the cultural adaptation of tens of thousands of refugees from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and internally displaced persons from the Kosovo and Metohija; here we need to mention the subculture of young people, football hooligans, cultural patterns of the so-called 'turbo folk' and other youth subcultures. Criminologists in Serbia have, therefore, a multitude of possible subjects of research and they should use them.
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Papers by Djordje Ignjatović