CONDITIONAL DEFERRAL (AND WITHDRAWAL) OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FROM NATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Conditional deferral (and withdrawal) of criminal prosecution is a typical institution of negotiated criminal justice. It is usually applied in relation to less serious criminal offences with the aim to relieve the court system workload and humanise the treatment of the offender. This institution was introduced into the Croatian criminal justice system more than 20 years ago. Despite such a long presence within the system, it has never acquired the status of an important and widely applied institution. Quite the contrary, its application in practice is quite scarce. In order to identify possible reasons for this at the normative level, the authors have undertaken a comparative legal analysis of said institution. Main characteristics of conditional deferral (and withdrawal) of criminal prosecution in Croatia have been compared with the main characteristics of identical or equivalent institutions in five other jurisdictions: Austria, Germany, Italy, England, and France. Special attention has been devoted to five highlighted issues: the goal(s) of the institution, the offences in relation to which it may be applied, the role of the court, the rights of the defendant, and the position of the victim.