MASOVNA ATRICIJA I MENADŽMENT KRIVIČNOPRAVNIM ODVRAĆANJEM
MASS ATROCITIES AND CRIMINAL LAW DETERENCE

Summary/Abstract: General prevention, as one of the functions of criminal punishment, along with socialization and retribution is usually achieved by intimidation, which affects the crime deterrence. The paper analyzes the role of the international criminal justice in deterring from mass humanitarian attritions/killings that have been defined as crimes of war, crimes against humanity and genocide. The article compares the effects of deterrence theory in the national justice system, the requirements imposed by that theory, specific conditions and perpetrators of international crime in order to deterrence to work. Studies about: the effects of punishment, the economic nature of war, the role of information in the battles deciding the leader, the characteristics of mass attrition perpetrators and effects of the existing national criminal systems on such crimes, planning the operations to stop the mass attrition, doctrinal views of deterrence theory as a part of criminal law, internal conflict andrebellion, criminal profiles of perpetrators of mass attrition and insurgency, managing the fear of the perpetrators at the time of the crime and the fear of punishment as a deterrent prerequisite. The paper starts with the comparison of the role of the criminal justice system in controlling the conduct of war in particular countries. Stable democracies with strong institutions are able to guarantee that all citizens are protected by domestic criminal law and enemy country citizens by international law - during the war. Failed states with weak criminal justice system do not apply the same rules for each and every group in society. Instead, parts of their own population – civilians are seen as external enemies, and attacked by lethal military force by the state or by the communities within the state trying to become a state – which leads to the criminalization of the war as a whole. Political and military elites implement through mass attrition their policies and strategies which can be considered as crime by international law. In the situations where internal mediation shows no success, criminal justice system role in crime deterrence can be achieved only with some sort of international military intervention (including the one supported by the victim). Intervention, as a means of informal sanction, aims to neutralize, suppress and deter perpetrators and enables international tribunals to work.

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