During the Second World War Slovenia became a part of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. In this period of history Slovenia's society, politics and economy developed according to the prevailing socialist principles. In the thesis I studied the development of punitive policies in Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia before as well as after the year 1991, when the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia fell apart. By studying Slovenia’s prison system in the decade before and after the break-up of Yugoslavia, I attempted to validate my hypothesis, whether democracy and capitalism, evident in the period after 1991, left their mark in Slovenia’s punitive policies.
In the first part of the thesis, I discussed the theoretical context, relevant for the understanding of the development of punitive policies. I focused on the theory of social discipline and some of the relevant punitive policies theories, as well as the development of criminology and penology in Slovenia. After setting up the relevant historical, administrative and theoretical context, I ventured to check my hypotheses by comparing the statistical data from the publication Statistični letopis Republike Slovenije. I also compared the state of prison system of Slovenia after the year 2005 with the other republics of the former Yugoslavia.
By statistical comparison I have shown that the break-up of Yugoslavia left its mark on the punitive policies of its former constituents. Prison sentences were not as severe and were more humane, which was a reflection of growing democracy trends in Slovenia. The structure of crimes also changed, which is evident from the fact that more people were punished due to crimes against property, whereas recidivism did not recede in the years following the break-up of the former state. I have also shown that the development of punitive policies in the other former republics of Yugoslavia was not similar between one another after the break-up of Yugoslavia, although it was tightly intertwined by being part of a common socialist state for decades.
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