Galiojančių baudžiamųjų įstatymų įtakos nusikalstamų veikų recidyvui kriminologinė analizė

Abstract

The new Criminal Code came into force on 26 September, 2000. This Code has brought a lot of novelty in to the criminal law and over variety of law. It is important to understand how the new criminal rules could change the recidivism rates in Lithuania, to make a forecast of changing of recidivist criminality. The article contains: the definition of recidivism criminality, the system of punishments, separation of punishment. Under the new Criminal Code the recognition of a person to be a recidivist cannot be determined by the previous commitment of a criminal offence, and this will probably reduce the rates of recidivism. Nevertheless, this reduction would be formal reaction to the new legislation. It should be said that for the real crime prevention it is much more important the all facts of commitment of criminal deeds, regardless whether they accord the formal notions of crime or criminal offence. It is commonly recognized that the motivation for the criminal carrier is probably identified not only by the crime, but all kinds of criminal deeds. It is also possible to forecast the formal reduction of recidivism rates due to the new explanation of the property of minor value in the chapter, which foresees the liability for property crime. For example, according to the new Criminal code of Republic of Lithuania theft is considered to be a crime only in cases where the value of stolen property exceeds the size of 3 MLL (minimum living level). Having in mind that the structure of recidivist criminality mostly contains property violations such an explanation can strongly affect the formal rates of repeated crime. It is well known that recidivism is of the penitential nature. This means that repeated crimes are usually committed by the ex-prisoners. From this point of view the most significant novelty, which serves the purpose of recidivist crime prevention, relates to the new system of criminal punishments, as well as rules of imposition of punishments and release from punishment and liability. These norms of the new Criminal Code of Republic of Lithuania give to the judge large discretion to administer justice, especially in choosing various alternative punishments.