Jakub Drápal - Böcker

This book develops principles of proper sentence justification, presents results of comparative empirical study on sentence justifications in the post-communist countries and provides practical measures to improve the current situation. Providing justification for sentences is an essential feature of any sentencing system that strives to achieve principled practice. Principled sentencing requires factors to be considered as well as explained both individually and comprehensively, in a manner that allows the process of determining the sentence to be reviewed and repeated with a similar result. This work determines why reasoning is relevant and provides compelling evidence in favour of an increased role for justification of sentences, grounded in the best sentencing, legal and psychological scholarship. It further explores how various theoretical and practical obstacles might be overcome. Relatedly, it introduces and expands on Schuyt’s novel concept of justifying sentences, which approaches sentence justification in three stages. The authors investigate to what extent these stages are followed in practice in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Moldavia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The results suggest that the quality of sentence justification in these countries is generally low, although there is some variation. The book concludes with suggestions for improving the process and quality of sentence justification. The work will be of interest to those working in the areas of Criminal Law, Criminology, Comparative Law and Legal Philosophy.

This book uncovers the controversies around the suspended prison sentence, its main aims and features, and the role that it occupies within the wider criminal justice context. Suspended prison sentences were introduced in Central and Eastern European (CEE) states as alternatives to short prison sentences: although they were initially generally conceived of as exceptional penal tools, over time, they became the most imposed and dominant penal sanctions and, in that sense, a defining feature of criminal justice systems in the region.The book provides a rich source of information about the development and features of suspended sentences in eight CEE countries, a topic that, although of great importance due to their frequency, has received only scant academic attention. Employing a legal, socio-legal, and criminological approach, it achieves this goal through individual chapters on eight countries (Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, and Slovenia), and also through three general chapters, which outline the main specificity of the region as a whole but also present nuances between different countries.The book will be of interest to a wide variety of academic researchers who study crime, punishment, and the penal system, and especially to those interested in sentencing. Given the huge discrepancy in the frequency of use of this sanction in CEE countries and the frequency of use of parole in contemporary practice, the work provides unique insights into the potential and desirability of its wider use, particularly due to the minimal supervision that it requires in examined countries. The book therefore seeks to critically inform current thinking on the value and appropriateness of particular forms of sanctions in responding to crime.