THE STATUS OF JUVENILE WITNESSES IN JUVENILE CRIMINAL LEGISLATION OF SERBIA AND EU STANDARDS

Abstract

Juveniles have a special status in criminal procedure, in whatever capacity they take part in the procedure – as offenders, as witnesses, or as victims. Their special status is the result of understanding of specific characteristics of their biopsychic and social development and the level of their maturity, which distinguish them from adults. Consequently, their involvement in criminal procedure is adjusted to these specific characteristics. This is the situation in most of national legal systems, as well as in the Republic of Serbia. Serbia has a separate juvenile criminal legislation, which regulates the position of juvenile offenders, and their position and protection when they appear as witnesses and victims in a criminal procedure. In the paper, author analyzes the position of juvenile witnesses of criminal offences according to the juvenile criminal legislation of Serbia. Then, EU standards related to juvenile witnesses will be analyzed, because EU has plentiful legislative activity related to this. The aim is to compare Serbian regulations related to juvenile witnesses with EU standards and propose some useful guidelines for their further development and improvement.