Maloletnički narko-kriminal u Srbiji - stanje i kretanje

Abstract

The growing involvement of minors in drug-related crimes is a problem that our country has been struggling with in recent years. First, it is necessary to point out the increase in the number of drug-related crimes in which juveniles appear in the role of perpetrators, which is the main goal of this paper. The need to highlight the increase in the number of criminal charges and convictions of juveniles for this group of crimes stems from the fact that in other categories of crimes there is a decrease in the number of juvenile offenders, and at the same time, in the group of crimes involving drug abuse the number of juvenile offenders is growing. A worrying circumstance is that juveniles keep pace with adult perpetrators of drug crimes, as in both categories there is a noticeable trend of increasing the representation of this group of crimes. Data from judicial statistics, imprimis of the Republic Bureau of Statistics, provide insight into the new state of juvenile drug crime, while data from the Ministry of the Interior show more detail in the development of this delicate phenomenon. The criminal offense of unauthorized production and distribution of narcotics and the of criminal offense of unauthorized possession of narcotics are committed by a large number of juveniles, and over a period of ten years there has been a marked increase in the number of committed offenses. The age structure of juvenile perpetrators of drug crimes is such that the majority of perpetrators are older juveniles, that is persons aged 16 and 17. When it comes to gender structure, boys constitute the dominant category. The goal of this paper is to draw attention to the prevalence of this problem by presenting the current situation and trends of juvenile drug crime.