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NON-PUNITIVE APPROACH AS NEW TREND IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE?
CONSIDERING THE PREMISES FOR RECENT CHANGES IN PENAL POLICIES FOR NON-SERIOUS
OFFENCES IN LITHUANIA
Skirmantas BikelisLaw Institute of Lithuania
27th Baltic Criminological Conference 26 June 2014, Vilnius
2
Pre-trial Investigations with Elements of Restorative Justice
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
4075426342844956
42654382
8650
10980
436339923937329429782678
5622
6977Penal order (Art. 418 CCP)
Termination of investigation upon V/O rec-onciliation (Art. 38 CC)
3
% from total number of successfully completed prie-trial investigations
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
23.9
27.524.7
2320.6 20.3
34
39.4
11.514.2 12.9 13.8
12.1 12.6
20.624.1
12.4 13.311.8
9.2 8.5 7.7
13.415.3
V/O reconciliation + penal order
Penal order (Art. 418 CCP)
Termination of investigation upon V/O recon-ciliation (Art. 38 CC)
4
V/O reconciliation (Art. 38 PC)
Penal order (Art. 418 CCP)
Offences ANY, except intentional offences with sanction that exceedes 6 years of imprisonment
ANY, where imprisonment is not the solo sanction
Mandatory compensation for damages
Compensation for damages or agreement on compensatiįon
Compensation for damages or agreement on compensation
Necessity of consent of the victim
YES No, but appeal is allowed
Necessity of consent of the offender
No, but appeal is allowed YES
Mild penal consequences
Release from criminal liability, penal measures may be imposed
No custodial sanction
Economy of criminal proceedings
Termination of pre-trial investigation
No trial
Participation of mediator
NO NO
5
Premises for the change towards non-punitive prosecution
(1) Non-punitive approach among prosecutors
(2) New priorities set by the Prosecutor General
(3) New regulation on accounting of prosecutors‘ work load
(4) Mandatory criminal proceedings in domestic violance cases
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(1) Non-punitive approach among prosecutors
a) Awareness of victims‘ priority intersts:– Effective and rapid compensation of
damages– Emotional recovery (respect from offender
and his/her remorse is important)Punitive approach often impedes primary interests of the victim Punishments for non-serious crimes do not impress victims
b) Motivation to save efforts and working time
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(2) New priorities set by the Prosecutor General
Since 2012, the Strategic Action Plan For Prosecution indicates termination of criminal proceedings after victim-offender reconciliation as a priority measure. Where victim-offender reconciliation is not possible the prosecutor should deside for penal order.Filling of indictment and referring the case to the court proceedings should be concidered as a measure of the last resort.
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(3) New regulation on accounting of prosecutors‘ work load
Since 2012, the Prosecutor General abolished prosecutors’ workload accounting reports which placed more value on pre-trial investigations completed by indictment rather than cases terminated due victim-offender reconciliation.
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(4) Mandatory criminal procee-dings in domestic violance cases
May 26th 2011 - the Law on Protection against Domestic Violance:The police initiate pre-trial investigation on domestic violance regardless if the victim filed a complain Initiated prie-trial investigations on domestic violance: 2010 – 684, 2011 – 7586, 2012 – 10 015
Domestic violance cases contribute 33-50% to the increase of cases terminated due to V/O reconciliation or completed with penal orders
