POJAVA USLOVNE OSUDE U SJEDINjENIM AMERIČKIM DRŽAVAMA

Abstract

The author gives an overview of the origin of the institution of probation in the United States. Probation in its current form was preceded by several institutions created in judicial practice, by which judges and juries tried to alleviate the objective severity of criminal procedure and penal policy. The institution of probation originated in the United States, which was possible thanks to the peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon law, in the first place its precedent character and the creative freedoms of a judge. The contributions of John Augustus and other volunteers inspired by Protestant values were immeasurable. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it became clear that short-term imprisonment did more harm than good to certain categories of perpetrators, so probation was introduced as a means of avoiding short-term imprisonment while maintaining the repressive nature of punishment. From the United States, where it proved to be good, probation quickly spread across the ocean to European soil. Today, probation is a generally accepted legal institute with a wide field of application in all modern legal systems.