NASILJE U HRVATSKOM ZATVORSKOM SUSTAVU – ANALIZA SLUŽBENIH PODATAKA
VIOLENCE IN THE CROATIAN PRISON SYSTEM – OFFICIAL DATA ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: Violence is a significant public health problem. In the prison environment, it is seen as an unavoidable and ubiquitous phenomenon. Penal authorities are responsible for ensuring the safety of both prisoners and prison staff. Maintaining security is much more difficult when the number of prisoners increases. Prison overcrowding is one of the frequently studied correlates of violent behavior in penal systems. Violence results in a variety of negative consequences that are reflected in many aspects of prison conditions. In order to better understand the problem of violence in prisons, as well as its prevention and suppression, it is necessary to constantly monitor and adequately address it. One of the approaches to monitoring the various forms of violent behavior in the penal system is the monitoring of official indicators. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to analyse the official indicators of certain forms of violent behavior in Croatian prisons (physical attacks by prisoners on prison staff and physical conflicts between prisoners) in the period from 2013 to 2022, and for the purpose of verifying part of the situational model of explaining violence in the prison system. The analysis of the official reports of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia indicates a decrease in the number of prisoners in the period from 2013 to 2016, while their number increases after 2016 and, according to the last two available reports, exceeds the available accommodation capacity. The increase in the number of prisoners was not accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of judicial police officers. In the period observed, the rates of physical attacks by prisoners on prison staff were highest in 2013 and 2019 and lowest in 2015. The rates of physical conflicts between prisoners are relatively constant, with a slightly larger increase in 2020. In summary, although the problem of violence in Croatian prisons is not alarming according to official data, there has been a slight increase in these forms of violent behavior in prisons recent years (2021and 2022).

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