JUVENILE PERPETRATORS OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Sources and methods of data collection

On the basis of the Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23), data on criminal offences of reported, accused and convicted juvenile persons are collected by regular statistical surveys which use the following statistical reports: the Statistical Report for a Juvenile Against Whom Criminal Proceedings Based on Crime Report and the Interlocutory Proceedings Have Been Concluded (SK-3 form) and the Statistical Report for a Juvenile Against Whom Criminal Proceedings Have Been Validly Concluded Through a Senate (SK-4 form).

Statistical reports are filled in by competent public prosecutor’s offices after the final decision has taken place as well as by county and municipal courts of first instance after the criminal procedure has been validly concluded.

Observation units are juvenile perpetrators of criminal offences who can be either direct perpetrators, accomplices, instigators or assistants.

If a perpetrator commits several criminal offences (merger), the most serious criminal offence is considered the main criminal offence. If several persons participate in a commitment of a single offence, each participant (perpetrator) is considered a unit of observation. In this case, each offence shall be recorded as a characteristic of each perpetrator, providing that complicity is established by an appropriate answer to a specific question.

On 1 January 2013, the new Criminal Code (NN, Nos 125/11, 144/12, 56/15, 61/15 – correction, 101/17, 118/18, 126/19, 84/21, 114/22, 114/23 and 36/24) entered into force. This Code, besides implementing new and modified existing general institutes of material criminal law, prescribes a new catalogue of criminal offences.

Coverage

Statistical surveys cover all juvenile perpetrators of criminal offences, whether reported, accused or convicted, in order to examine the volume and spread of crime for the whole territory of the Republic of Croatia.

Definitions

Crime in terms of statistical surveys ranges from reporting a criminal offence to the valid conclusion of the legal proceedings by a public prosecutor’s office, that is, to pronouncing a valid decision of a juvenile court.

Unlike the Criminal Code that was in force until 1 January 2013, the new Criminal Code (NN, Nos 125/11, 144/12, 56/15, 61/15 – correction, 101/17, 118/18, 126/19, 84/21, 114/22, 114/23 and 36/24) no longer uses the term "juvenile" or "juvenile person", but defines a term “child” as a person younger than 18 years of age (Article 87, Paragraph 7). At the same time, Article 7 of the new Criminal Code excludes the application of the criminal legislation to a child who, at the time of committing the criminal offence, did not reach the age of 14. As these changes are basically terminological and not substantive ones, as well as to ensure the correct interpretation of published statistical data, the current terminology has been kept for the purpose of this First Release. The Juvenile Courts Act (NN, Nos 84/11, 143/12, 148/13, 56/15 and 126/19) kept the term "juvenile" in its unchanged meaning.

Juvenile perpetrator of criminal offences is a person who turned 14 but not yet 18 at the time of committing the criminal offence, against whom legal proceedings have not been initiated (crime report dropped), interlocutory proceedings have been terminated or a proposal for a criminal penalty or other measure has been filed. Legal proceedings have been validly concluded by issuing the decision on the termination of proceedings or by pronouncing a criminal penalty or other measure.

Younger juvenile is a person who turned 14 but not yet 16 at the time of committing a criminal offence and who may not be sentenced to juvenile imprisonment but may only be given educational measures.

Older juvenile is a person who turned 16 but not yet 18 at the time of committing a criminal offence and who may be given educational measures, but may also be sentenced to juvenile imprisonment, if the Code foresees any conditions for that.

Reported person is a juvenile perpetrator of a criminal offence against whom the legal proceedings based on the crime report and the interlocutory proceedings have been concluded.

Accused person is a juvenile person against whom the legal proceedings through a senate have been concluded by a valid court decision by which the legal proceedings have terminated through a senate, or a criminal penalty or other measure has been pronounced (juvenile imprisonment or educational measures).

Convicted person is a juvenile perpetrator of a criminal offence against whom a criminal penalty and other measure have been pronounced: juvenile imprisonment, suspension of juvenile imprisonment or educational measures. Educational measures may include a reprimand, special obligations, assignment to a centre for disciplinary development, increased care and supervision, increased care and supervision with daily stay in a correctional institution, assignment to a correctional institution, assignment to a rehabilitation centre and assignment to a special correctional institution.

Personal data on a criminal offence perpetrator

Personal data on a perpetrator of a criminal offence relate to the situation as at the time of committing a criminal offence.

Age is considered the age a person turned at the time of committing a criminal offence and not the age at the time of reaching the decision.

Educational attainment is considered the highest school degree that a person acquired by graduating a regular school, a school replacing regular school, by passing private exams in a regular school or finishing a course by which a certain education degree is obtained under valid regulations.

Occupation is considered the type of job that a person performs to earn a living and is divided by types of occupation taken over from the National Classification of Occupations 2010 – NKZ 10. (NN, Nos 147/10 and 14/11).

Citizenship is a legal status of a person determined by the affiliation to a country, which means that the person has rights and duties foreseen for its people (citizens) by the state, its constitution or administration.

Criminal penalties and other measures for juvenile persons

Juvenile penalty measures include educational measures, juvenile imprisonment and security measures.

The aim of educational measures is to influence upbringing, development of personality and to strengthen the feeling of personal responsibility of a juvenile by offering protection, care, assistance and surveillance and by providing general and professional education, in order to influence him/her to refrain from committing new criminal offences in the future.

Educational measures are measures of warning, increased supervision and correctional institution measures.

Measures of warning are reprimands and special obligations, pronounced when juvenile person's personality or behaviour should be influenced upon.

Increased supervision measures are increased care and supervision, assignment to a centre for disciplinary development and increased care and supervision with daily stay in a correctional institution, pronounced when long-term measures are needed for the upbringing and education of a juvenile person with adequate surveillance and assistance, without the juvenile's separation from their environment.

Correctional institution measure refers to the assignment to a correctional institution, the assignment to a rehabilitation centre and the assignment to a special correctional institution, prescribed when long-term and intensive educational measures or measures of treatment are needed, with the juvenile’s separation from their environment.

Correctional institution measures are pronounced as extreme measures and may last, within the limits prescribed by the Juvenile Courts Act, only for the time needed to achieve the aim of educational measures.

Juvenile imprisonment is the penalty of depriving freedom with particularities related to the pronouncing, duration, aim and content of penalty.

Juvenile imprisonment may be pronounced only for criminal offences for which the law prescribes a three-year penalty or a more severe one and may neither be shorter than six months nor longer than five years. Only exceptionally it may be up to 10 years for criminal offences for which long-term imprisonment penalty has been prescribed, or in case of a merger of at least two criminal offences with prescribed imprisonment above ten years.

Suspended juvenile imprisonment – juvenile may be found guilty of a criminal offence by a court and at the same time a juvenile imprisonment penalty may be suspended if the court thinks that, by the pronouncement of guilt and by threatening with the subsequent pronouncement of a sentence, the perpetrator can be diverted from committing further criminal offences. In this case, the court may pronounce an educational measure of increased supervision and one or more special obligations.

In addition to educational measures or juvenile imprisonment, the court may pronounce the following security measures (one or more) to the juvenile perpetrator:

– Compulsory psychiatric treatment, Art. 68 of the Criminal Code

– Compulsory treatment of addiction, Art. 69 of the Criminal Code

– Compulsory psychosocial treatment, Art. 70 of the Criminal Code

– Prohibition to drive a motor vehicle, Art. 72 of the Criminal Code

– Prohibition to approach, harass or stalk someone, Art. 73 of the Criminal Code

– Prohibition to access the internet, Art. 75 of the Criminal Code

– Protective supervision following the full execution of a prison penalty, Art. 76 of the Criminal Code.

The confiscation of pecuniary gain and the confiscation of objects represent special measures foreseen in the new Criminal Code (Articles 77 to 79).

The classification of criminal offences is the basis of statistical surveys on perpetrators of criminal offences. Criminal offence codes and penalty spans prescribed, in concordance with the regulations of the Criminal Code, are determined by the criminal offence's name, article, paragraph, item and by relations of articles and paragraphs.

Changes in the classification of criminal offences are conditioned by amendments to the Criminal Code. In accordance with the structure and content of the new Criminal Code (NN, Nos 125/11, 144/12, 56/15, 61/15 – correction, 101/17, 118/18, 126/19, 84/21, 114/22, 114/23 and 36/24), the Croatian Bureau of Statistics compiled a new classification of criminal offences, which has been in force since 1 January 2013. In order to ensure the comparability with the previous classification of criminal offences, the pairing has been done between the current and the former Criminal Code (NN, Nos 110/97, 27/98, 50/00, 129/00, 51/01, 111/03, 190/03, 105/04, 84/05, 71/06, 110/07, 152/08 and 57/11) at the level of criminal offences in cases in which a legal continuity existed. As changes have also occurred with regard to the structure, number and content of the chapters of the Criminal Code, the maintenance of the time continuity between two criminal codes at the chapter level as well as at the level of “other criminal offences” was not feasible.

The criminal offences in the field of the secondary criminal legislation (outside the Criminal Code) are shown by the name of the act, without stating articles.