System of Alternative Measures and Misdemeanour Sanctions in Juvenile Misdemeanour Legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Countries of the Region

Abstract

Misdemeanour sanctions in Bosnia and Herzegovina represent state, coercive measures of a repressive-preventive nature, by which the offenders, under the conditions stipulated in offense regulations, are limited or deprived of certain rights or freedoms, based on the decision of the competent court, i.e. the authorized body, made in a lawfully implemented misdemeanour procedure. On the other hand, almost all modern penal, criminal and misdemeanour legislation provides for one or more parapenal, alternative measures, i.e. penal sanctions that are carried out under the auspices of the social community, such as compensation for property damage to the injured party, mediation or settlement of the perpetrator and the injured party, financial settlement, bail, subjecting the offender to treatment of a criminal offense or misdemeanour or sending him to training, i.e. attending training, police supervision of the offender, banning the offender of a criminal or misdemeanour from accessing a certain place or person, community service by the offender, work for the benefit of the community, monitory fines (which in a series of positive criminal legislation appears as a substitute for prison sentences as the most severe punishment), confiscation of a driver’s license, or educational recommendations, or educational orders, etc. In this paper, the authors deal with the juvenile misdemeanour legislation, primarily that of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then with the juvenile misdemeanour legislation of individual countries of the region, and in the context of alternative measures and misdemeanour sanctions prescribed in these legislations against juvenile offenders.