On Thursday, 17.11.2022, at 11:00 , the Institute of Criminology Library will host a Tuesday meeting of guest lecturer Jakub Drapal and our researcher Mojca M. Plesničar entitled ‘Can a suspended prison sentence ever be just? A discussion about hard treatment’.
This time the meeting will be organised in the form of a discussion, through which Jakub and Mojca will try to raise some questions related to punishment, specifically the suspended sentences and the appropriate severity of the sentence. One of the criticisms of suspended prison sentences is that they are too harsh on offenders (they do not contain an element of ‘hard treatment’). Is this a flaw in their design or is it just an acceptable feature? More broadly, is harsh treatment necessary for the imposition of just sentences? If the absence of a harsh treatment element is a shortcoming, what are the possible solutions?
Jakub Drápal studies punishment in post-socialist Europe, especially in the Czech Republic. He conducts both theoretical and empirical research, which is both local and global and has both doctrinal and practical implications. His current research focuses primarily on probation in post-socialist Europe. He is an Assistant Professor at Charles University in Prague and a member of the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Mojca Plesničar is a researcher at the Institute of Criminology, where she focuses on punishment and decision-making in (criminal) law. Despite her broader research interests, which also include e.g. marginal groups in criminology, new technologies, sexual and violent crime, her research focuses on punishment. Some of her recent research has thus been directed towards a more unified and thoughtful penal policy in Slovenia.
