JUVENILE PRISON SENTENCE IN THE JUVENILE CRIMINAL LEGISLATION OF MONTENEGRO

Abstract

Contemporary juvenile criminal legislation in the system of criminal sanctions against juveniles recognizes: 1) corrective measures, 2) security measures, 3) juvenile prison sentence. In addition, certain alternative or diversionary measures such as conditional opportunity and dismissal of criminal charges for reasons of fairness are increasingly being included in the juvenile criminal legislation. In judicial practice, corrective measures are the most common ones. However, since juveniles are also perpetrators of serious crimes, where corrective measures would not be adequate response, the sanction resorted to in such cases is juvenile prison sentence. This is also the topic of this paper. In addition to the introduction which lists different models of response to juvenile crimes, the paper gives an overview of the historical development of the juvenile criminal legislation of Montenegro, with further reflections on the current issue of whether the age limit of criminal liability of juveniles should be lowered, and on the characteristics of the juvenile prison sentence in relation to the prison sentence against adult offenders. The central issue is the sentencing and determining the length of juvenile prison sentences. The paper is completed with a brief overview of the enforcement of the juvenile prison sentence and parole.