Many countries in (post-)transition are facing quite a specific social phenomenon, that could be called "freedom without responsibility". Democracy, at least as perceived by EU and UN, is based upon free elections. Yet, after this ritual, democracy normally turns to tyranny of the rulling political party or coalition. Of course, the next elections may lead to changes in terms of personal that occupy the highest positions of state power, but tyranny remains. Its basic characteristic is "state capture", accompanied by adoption of repressive legislation. Inequality of wealth is a permanent object of criminological research (although from theoretically and normatively more or less different perspectives). The reason is obvious enough: economic and financial power is usually quite easily translated into political and legal power (and consequently also into social and ideological power). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that legislation is influenced more by lobbists and less by independent experts or public opininion. Increasing repression of the criminal justice system (and of other apparatusses of the otherwise debilitated national state) is generally in line with the growth of poverty, as measured by Human Poverty Index. The number of people in prisons reflects the social and economic margin in a manner quite new to us. Research from 2000 shows that there is a surprising correlation between the poverty and the number of prisoners in the EU (the level is 0.58). In spite of many warnings (pointing to the danger of the criminalization of poverty), this number has risen up to 0.86 in 2006, including new, ex-socialist member states.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1633614The chapter of the scientific monograph was written as a part of a EU funded research project on model rules for the European Public Prosecutor's Office. It contains a presentation and analysis of investigative acts and principles of evidence law in Slovenia that are particularly relevant to the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The result of author's research of the novelties in the field of criminal material and procedure law is also the scinetific article "Assets of illicit origin forfeiture and the criminal law", published in the review "Podjetje in delo" (Enterprise and work", no. 6/7, pp. 1143-1151, COBISS.SI-ID 13421137). In the article Gorkič presents his analysis of relationship between the criminal law and civil forfeiture in Slovenian legal order. Thee are several instances in which civil forfeiture procedure relies heavily on the on-going criminal prosecution of persons of interest. This solution in welcomed insofar as it strenghtens the legitimacy of civil forfeiture: it can never fully replace criminal prosecution. On the other hand, reliance on criminal prosecution places considerable restrictions on civil forfeiture procedures: in most cases, they can effectively proceed as long as criminal prosecution is in place. Both scientific works contain new theoretical insights and especially many possibilites for the acquiring of practical knowledge and information that could be very useful for the state officials working in criminal justice (and legal) system.
F.01 Acquisition of new practical knowledge, information and skills
COBISS.SI-ID: 1620558The serious crimes of "Business fraud" and "Abuse of position or trust in business" as they are defined in the Slovene Penal code, are the two central legal constructs in prosecuting economic crime in Slovenia. This article tries to point out the differences between the two and aims to do this, not via an abstract analysis of the norms themselves, but by using quantitative data. In terms of the number of criminal complaints being processed in the category of economic crimes, "Business fraud" has the highest frequency, while "Abuse of position or trust in business" trails far behind. However, despite the relatively lower frequency, it is estimated that "Abuse of position or trust in business" cumulatively causes the most damage/illegal gain in the group of so called economic (serious) crimes in Slovenia. Outlined he re are other quantitative differences between the two categories on two different leveis. Firstly, the general statistics collected by the Slovenian Ministry of Internal Affairs are aggregated into an original graphical representation of the most basic numerical relationships. Secondly, the results of the fieldwork research that was conducted at the Ljubljana District Prosecutor's Office in which 1255 cases were analysed are presented. Both serious crimes were included in the sample and the results are analysed and compared in the following categories: the number of suspects/per crime, the length of the procedure/per crime, the number of guilty verdicts in cases where the prosecutor filed the indictment and finally the amount of (estimated) illegal gain/per crime. In conclusion, the author synthesises his quantitative findings with his qualitative observations and presents a model according to which difficult economic crime cases are divided into two categories, namely complex cases (these are more often found among the cases of "Abuse of position or trust in business") and complicated cases (these are more often found among the cases of "Business fraud"). The article closes by noting that in reality, prosecutors and investigative bodies have to deal with an "untidy" mixture of complex and complicated cases which need to be reduced to a more manageable level, if we wish to limit economic crime more effectively. This is where, in a system governed by the so called legality principle of prosecuting serious crimes, interpretative discretion and the imagination of investigative and prosecutorial bodies comes into play.
F.01 Acquisition of new practical knowledge, information and skills
COBISS.SI-ID: 1639246The scientific monograph analyses basic elements of tipically criminological problematics in the light of post-modern capitalism. The book is divided in eleven chapters dealnig with the following themes: (a) ideals, values, normative (legal and moral) systems and actual capitalist reality; (b) dominant perceptions of noramality, deviance, conformism, problematic phenomena and rebellions in post-modern ("fluid") society and culture; (c) the question of resposibility and iresponsibility; (d) key characterisics of the regime of postive and negative sanctions (i.e. rewards and punishments) in the capitalist (global) system; (e) relationship between violence and culture; (f) prevalent forms of frauds; (g) work and theft (good and bad acquistion of goods); (h) the role of national state in defining and preventing socially harmful phenomena; (i) vaw in peace in criminological perspective(s); (j) relationship between post-socialist transition and global processes of post-modernization (neo-liberal and neo-conservative counter-revolution); (k) causes and consequences of actual structural crisis of private, profit-oriented economy. Special attention is paied to the relationship between crime and reproduction of capitalist exploitation, oppression and humiliation of structurally subordinated sellers of work force (or capabilities), normalization and even naturalization of structural violence, and functioning of repression (e.g. economic, financial, political and ideological sanctions) in the class struggle (between capital and labour or the rich and the poor). The monograph can be used as a study material (or text-book) at the under- and postgraduate study of criminology, security sciences, sociology and law. Moreover, the general public can find in the book many new insights in the nature and key characteristcs of capitalist violence that is directed towards people, nonhuman nature, society and culture.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 268870400Cyberbullying (mobile phone bullying and internet bullying) refers to bullying and harassment of others by means of new electronic technologies, primarily mobile phones and the Internet. The chapter presents labels and definitions of cyberbulling, similarities and differences between cyber and traditional bullying. It shows the scale and forms of cyberbullying around the world and in Slovenia. The chapter contextualises this new form o (juvenile) delinquebcy in the light of the latest penetration trends of the internet, mobile phone and social networking site usage in Slovenia and beyond. It particularly highlights the proliferation of use of information technology among increasingly younger children. Završnik is also a co-editor of this monograph ("Essays in honour of Alenka Šelih: Criminal law, criminology, human rights") containing scintific contributions of 37 authors written in Slovene, English, German and Croation language). Their articles are classified in 11 sections: theory of law and constitutionalism, crime policy, criminal justice system, general part of substantive criminal law, special part of substantive criminal law, criminal sanctions, resorative justice, victims of crime, juvenile justice, children with special needs. The book includes new scientific insights and a lot of knowledge and information that could be useful in practice. Also, it can be used in pedagogical process as a valuable study material (at under- and post-graduate study of criminology, criminal law, victimology and penology). In the monograph, other members of our research group have published their articles: Zoran Kanduč (Crime, punishment and class struggle), Renata Salecl (Violence and ideology of choice), Matjaž jaber and Katja Šugman Stubs (Emotional judges?) and Mojca M. Plesničar (Sentencing in continental legal systems).
C.02 Editorial board of a national monograph
COBISS.SI-ID: 1657678