Long-Term Prison Sentence in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Long-Term Prison Sentence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Criminality as a constant phenomenon in society has also caused a reaction of the society to it. Nowadays, punishment is a dominant reaction. The punishment of deprivation of liberty is prevailing among the sentences in the world and in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). In B&H, deprivation of liberty appears in two forms: imprisonment and long-term imprisonment. The object of observation in this paper is the long-term imprisonment sentence, which provokes objections since its appearance. Most often, objections relate to it as being inhumane and incapable of contributing to special and general prevention. The analysis of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian normative framework (criminal laws and laws on the execution of criminal sanctions) presented in this paper, shows a series of non-harmonization of the norm throughout the territory of B&H, which is unacceptable and needs to be harmonized. These inconsistencies are particularly noticeable in substantive law and criminal law enforcement. For the purpose of this paper and full consideration of long-term imprisonment, an empirical research was conducted, covering 42 persons sentenced to this punishment, from the territory of the Federation of B&H, in the period from 2000 to 2016. With this research, the authors showed the sociodemographic data of the convicted persons, the territorial and temporal distribution of the sentence, and the phenomenology of the crimes for which it was pronounced. Empirical research also showed deficiencies in the recording of personal data on suspects/accused persons in verdicts, which should definitely be obviated.

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