Suspended Sentence in Criminal Legislation of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Suspended sentence, as a cautionary measure, is one of the most frequently applied criminal sanctions. As such, it exists in almost all modern legislations. In this paper, after providing a brief overview of the historical development of the suspended sentence, the author analyzes the concept of a suspended sentence in the criminal law of the Republic of Serbia, by focusing on the concept and characteristics of suspended sentence, conditions for imposing a suspended sentence, revocation of a suspended sentence, as well as a suspended sentence with protective supervision. The second part is dedicated to the application of suspended sentence in domestic judicial practice. On the basis of statistical data, the author presents a comparative overview of the frequency of pronouncing suspended sentence in three time periods (the 1970s, the 1990s, and after the democratic changes in 2000), which were marked by different political, economic and other societal characteristics.