ALTERNATIVE MEASURE PROBATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

Probation is alternative measure that has immediate purpose consist of avoiding the sentence for criminal responsible perpetrators of minor crimes, when it is not necessary due to criminal legal protection, and indirect purpose of this alternative measure is to achieve the purpose penalization, by warning, by threat of penalization. The essence of probation as an alternative measure to punishment is focused on warning with the threat of effective punishment. This paper has a purpose to explain from a theoretical point of view the reasons why this measure arose in the criminal justice systems and in which countries the probation was first introduced, to explain the role of the probation in the system of penalization in our criminal legislation, to explain the purpose of pronouncement of this alternative measure, the elements of which is consist and when this measure is used. Also, the purpose of this paper is, from a practical point of view, to determine if and to what extent our courts revoke the probation, having in consideration that the probation is not covered by the Law on Probation, and our courts pronounce judgments with probation. Materials and methods: The statistical data were taken from the State Statistics Office of the Republic of North Macedonia.Results: for the period from 2020 2022 a total of 9633 alternative measures were imposed.
Deduction: In relation to the judgments with an effective measure of imprisonment, the number of alternative measures of probation is high, and that percentage is about 40% of the total number of sentences with an effective measure. Therefore, special attention should be considered to the imposition of the alternative measure probation.