Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The Part II is the continuation of the discussions begun in the last issue of Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues 6(3) in area of ensuring public security in the fight against crime and focuses in particular on the importance of creating models for control and prevention of new crime acts. Also, the problems of prevention and control of some conditionally distinguished criminal processes – shadow economy, corruption, fight against human trafficking and domestic violence – are scrutinized. In consideration of the limited scope of the work and striving for the concentration of the research, analysis of these criminal processes is conducted just to the extent it is important in order to distinguish the main topical issues pertaining to the modernization of coordination for ensuring public security.

The Part I of article presents the current issues and latest trends of one of the public security policy one of priority – ensuring public security in combating crime. In article covers the main quantitative and qualitative indicators of the present-day crime in Lithuania and in the world; the key problems of crime prevention optimization and legal regulation and institutional problems of criminal process control are elucidated. This research focuses in particular on the importance of creating models for control and prevention of new crime acts. Also, the problems of prevention and control of some conditionally distinguished criminal processes – shadow economy, corruption, fight against human trafficking and violence in family environment – are scrutinized. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in combating crime; the main guidelines of optimization and modernisation in this field are presented. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, metaanalysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction.

The safety and security research is generally presented as a problem of two levels. The first level is focused on individuals and social groups while the second level deals with the safety and security issues on a country level. Research on both levels, however, is very often concentrated on the life or health threat in direct connection with war conflicts, terrorism, organised crime, political or social persecution and natural disasters. Nevertheless, such understanding and evaluation of safety and security does not comply with the present reality. There exist a wide range of scientific studies proving that the present understanding of human safety and security consists of several dimensions which might not be directly linked to actual war activities. The human safety and security of people in a broad sense could be jeopardized also by unfair practices or abuse of political power by governmental bodies, corruption in national economies, discrimination of minorities, drugs and black markets. The threat to the safety and security of individuals and countries is a multidimensional problem and its scope, intensity and dynamics should be measured by adequate tools and should be understood as a standard dimension of the quality of life. A specific tool should be adopted for measuring the safety and security in people´s life and for measuring safety and security on a country level. Current statistical and other exact methods enable researchers to perform qualitative and quantitative measurements and evaluate the safety and security in a broad scope and with needed depth and qualification. The aim of this paper is to review present trends in the measurement of the safety and security levels in context with actual impacts of external threats from international war conflicts, terrorist attacks and corruption practices and to underline the activities of countries and the international community to stop, or to reduce such threats. To measure these dimensions of safety and security, some selected indexes and indicators of international standards will be used. Our aim is to demonstrate their application in mapping and evaluating the safety and security situation within the European Union countries and particular attention to the performance of Slovakia.

From the very beginning of existence of society, there also existed crime, in one or another its ways of manifestation. Historically the punishment tool and the goal of the punishment was greatly dependent on the existing authority, political system, traditions and scale of values in society.

The article presents the current issues and latest trends of the first public security policy priority – analysis is made of how public security is ensured in the field of public order. The research starts with the discussion of the legal basis for ensuring public order, primarily revealing the concept of public order as such and today’s main threats to public order. Further, analysis covers the problematic aspects of the legal protection of public order: the legal mechanisms of order protection are discussed, whether they are effective, if not effective, how the legal regulation in this field is to be perfected. Attention is also devoted to the problems of human rights protection while ensuring public order. Hereafter, an analysis is provided of the administrative aspects of ensuring public order, covering the setup of the state and municipal institutions, responsible for maintenance of public order, and problems of their activity organisation and coordination. Special attention in this work is devoted to the state-of-the-art problematic aspects of police activity organisation, to the compatibility of the functions and competences of the Public Security Service, analysis of strategic goals, to the research of the opportunities of municipality and local communities for their participation in maintaining public order. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in ensuring public order; the main guidelines of modernisation in this field are presented. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, meta-analysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction.

The duties of the police (to protect from criminal and other illegal threats life, health, rights and freedoms, property, and the interests of society and the State), requires the substantial financial resources to provide police operations. Nowadays, the police can be considered as a service institution, and the issue of the efficiency of the police work has become topical. The author’s research is focused on the multi-national problem of comparing of police efficiency issue. Selected set of countries are the following: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The author’s research is based on the USA and the UK researchers’ studies, surveys of citizens, indicators derived from Eurostat data. The main conclusions of research are the following. The dynamics of the number of crimes recorded in the state, number of crimes recorded by the police per 100,000 residents, as well as the clearance rate cannot be the criteria to determine the efficiency of the police operations. In the situation when regulatory enactments of various countries do not state the same results to be achieved, the author proposes to establish satisfaction with the work of the police and the level of latent crime in the country as universal criteria for transnational comparison.

Crime is an essential social problem that seriously influences the security of the society and every individual. Social security, in turn, rather closely correlates with state security. Recidivism takes an important place in the general structure of crime and is closely related with the organized crime and state security. Trying to solve the problems of crime by isolating the criminals, at the same time overlooking the gaps in legal and moral cognition, the consequences of crime are temporary prevented but the causes of this problem is often not unmade thus reinforcing the risk of recidivism. The increase of the crime rate among females becomes more topical that taking into account the role of women in the process of reproduction directly influences mental health and security of the society. That, in turn, strengthens the necessity to study the causes of female crime, as well as those determinants that deter the representatives of certain gender from the criminal action. In this regard the study of psychological preconditions in the context of gender differences can arouse interest, highlighting such component of moral and legal cognition as justice.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union the control over the production and sales of narcotic substances in Latvia and Lithuanian decreased significantly. In 1992 the law that stipulated compulsory treatment for drug addiction was abolished. At about the same time relationships among drug addicts underwent a drastic change. In the 70’s and the 80’s drug addicts acquired and produced narcotics themselves but in the 90’s with the start of economic growth, organised crime started to flood the market of our countries with cocaine, Ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines which took over the traditional homemade narcotic substances.

Consequently, as a result of implemented criminal policy liberalization in the last few years the number of convicts in Latvia has fallen sharply. Despite the fact that the range of the criminal punishment applied for adults and minors does not have a significant difference, the sharp decline in proportion of imprisonment can be explained by compulsory education measures and by forced labor, which are broadly used as criminal punishment in legal procedure of convicted minors. After conducting the analysis of criminal offences committed by minors, it can be concluded that the large amount of these criminal offences are property-related criminal offences, i.e. theft and robbery. However, the amount of violent criminal offences committed by minors, which are directed against human life and health, i.e. infliction of great bodily injuries, smurders, etc., increases with every year. The analysis of the components of crime of the criminal offenses committed by minors shows that the criminal offenses committed by minors are becoming more aggressive, more brutal and better planed, which are often directly or indirectly related to alcohol, psychotropic or narcotic substance abuse or domestic violence. This article identifies and analyses the results of the conducted study on peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment in respect of convicted minors in Latvia. This study examines the peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment in respect of convicted minors, identifies specific issues and suggests possible solutions. International standards provide that minor prisoners while being in a closed prison environment are defenseless and are at particular risk; therefore, the study obtains the status of vitally important topicality. Based on the study there has been developed a series of recommendations for the staff (of places of confinement) working with minor prisoners, as well as pointed out the necessity to make amendments to the norms of The Sentence Execution Code of Latvia.

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase of total of the total number of female prisoners. Criminal offences committed by women are becoming more aggressive, more brutal and better planed. The offences are closely related to alcohol, psychotropic or narcotic substance abuse or domestic violence. Therefore, when rendering decisions that in any way affect the conditions of incarcerated women, it is important to pay special attention to the women’s needs, namely their physical, professional, social and psychological needs. The assessment of risks and needs of the convicted women requires particular care and should be made in a tolerant manner, for it shall significantly affect the choice of the applicable social behaviour correlation tools or social rehabilitation tools and other measures that shall be the part of the convicted person’s reintegration plan to prepare the imprisoned woman for productive life in society. This article identifies and analyses of the results of the conducted study on peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment in respect of convicted women in Latvia. Based on the study there has been developed a series of recommendations for the staff (of places of confinement) working with women prisoners, as well as pointed out the necessity to make amendments to the norms of The Sentence Execution Code of Latvia.