Criminological Diagnosis in Yugoslavia (From Criminological Diagnosis - An International Perspective, P 449-525, 1983, Franco Ferracuti and Marvin E Wolfgang, ed. - See NCJ-90506)

• NCJ Number: 90522
• Author(s): K Vodopivec
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 77 pages
• Sale Source: Lexington Books
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Procedures and research bearing upon the criminological diagnosis of juveniles and adults in Yugoslavia are discussed.

Abstract

An analysis of relevant literature and legislation examines the initiatives, problems, and dilemmas of criminological diagnosis in criminal processing in Yugoslavia. It was found that in criminal proceedings against juveniles, the public prosecutors decide whether to initiate proceedings with or without clinical diagnosis. In criminal proceedings against adult offenders, sentences are usually passed without clinical diagnoses. Psychiatric investigations are used in about 3 percent of the proceedings against adults. As a prelude to this study, 1971 pilot research examined the role of criminological diagnosis in the penal process and during the execution of punishment. Psychiatric diagnosis was found to have considerable influence on the court's decisions. Diagnosis appears to contribute to a wider distribution of penal sanctions and to differentiation. The study concluded that clinical diagnoses in the current institutional situation have relatively little significance for the individualized treatment of offenders. Insofar as the systematic classification of offenders is decided in advance and does not change, clinical diagnoses are merely an addition to an established system and not an initiator of change. The concluding section notes some of the influences that have impacted efforts to introduce criminological diagnosis into Yugoslavia's criminal proceedings. Ninety-three notes are provided.