70 Years of Slovenian Penal Policy

• In Event: Macro Approaches to Criminal Policy and Punishment

Abstract

The penal policy can be considered an evolving concept that, to a limited extent, reacts to wider political, social, and economic changes. This study comprehensively addresses the development of penal policy in Slovenia in the last 70 years, supported by statistical analysis of crime, convictions, and prison population trends. After the Second World War, penal and prison policies in Slovenia began distancing themselves from harsh punishment, and focusing on ideas of prisoners’ treatment, resulting in the unique “welfare sanction system”. After independence and democratisation in the early 1990s, despite the tightening of criminal legislation, Slovenia managed to avoid general punitive trends. In the following two decades, a continuation of tightening of criminal law and sanctions occurred, accompanied by an increasing prison population rate. From 2014 onwards, a decrease in all segments of penal statistics could be observed. Despite rising punitiveness after 1991, Slovenian penal policy can still be considered as moderate, and in certain aspects, such as the treatment of prisoners and low prison population rates, exceptional among former socialist countries.

Authors

• Benjamin Flander, University of Maribor

• Gorazd Meško, University of Maribor

• Rok Hacin, University of Maribor