USE OF FORCE BY THE POLICE IN SERBIA AND CROATIA: STATE AND TENDENCIES
Keywords:
coercive means, use of force, Serbia, Croatia, Police LawAbstract
Purpose
The paper was written in order to first see the differences and similarities in the legal regulation of the use of force (use of coercive means) by the police in Serbia and Croatia. In addition, it is important to look at the state and tendencies of the use of force by the police in order to get answers to questions such as the number of unlawful used force, its share in the total force used, which state is more repressive, etc.?
Design/Methods/Approach
The authors use the normative method to analyse the legal norms that regulate the use of coercive means (use of force by police) in the observed countries. The method of analysis of the content of documents containing statistical indicators on the use of coercive means for the period 2016-2020 collected and processed data in this area. Then, the analysis was performed in spatial and temporal frames, and by the method of synthesis and on the basis of the performed analyses
Findings
Although coercive means are an 'attack' on the most basic rights of citizens (the right to life and the right to bodily integrity), coercive means remain the most effective means of combating the most extreme forms of endangering the legal order of a state. This especially refers to the fight against crime and the maintenance of stable public order and peace. Only for the needs of this research and from its results, we conclude that Serbia is more repressive than Croatia.
Originality/Value
Consideration of the situation and tendencies of the use of force by the police is important from the aspect of the introduction of new legal, technical and tactical methods in the use of force. It is also important from the aspect of exercising human and minority freedoms and the rights of man and citizen. The criminological aspect should not be neglected either, because the police are one of the bodies of formal social control of crime.
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