CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL FORMS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF PETTY CRIME IN SERBIAN AND GERMAN LAW

Abstract

The subject of the paper is the analysis of solutions that exist in Serbian and German criminal procedural law and refer to cases in which the public prosecutor in the field of petty crime is authorized to act towards adult perpetrators in accordance with the principle of opportunity of criminal prosecution. In relation to one variant of this principle, which implies conditional and temporary restraint of criminal prosecution, there is a distinct similarity in both mentioned legislations. However, with regard to the classic form of this procedural principle, which enables the public prosecutor to refrain prosecution for reasons of expediency, where he primarily values the public interest in prosecuting, there is a striking difference, because our criminal procedural law does not allow such a variant of the principle of opportunity of criminal prosecution. This difference is a consequence of a different criminal policy approach, because while in German criminal law the problem of petty crime is solved exclusively by procedural mechanisms, in Serbian criminal law, in addition to procedural law, there are also appropriate instruments in the substantive criminal law.