The severity of punishment and execution of custodial sentence with respect to juvenile offenders

The subject of the dissertation is the legal liability of juvenile offenders, the severity of punishment and execution of custodial sentence with respect to the said group of convicts. The present dissertation constitutes a theoretical study dedicated to the analysis of the provisions of criminal law as well as executive criminal law that address the distinct group of juvenile convicts. The thesis adopted in the present dissertation states that custodial sentence may lead to the improvement of juvenile convicts who serve their sentence under a rehabilitation programme, on condition that the programme is not enforced as mandatory and juvenile offenders serve custodial sentence in specialized juvenile penitentiary institutions. The dissertation covers seven chapters divided into smaller editorial units. Chapter 1 of the dissertation presents the evolution of the principles of criminal liability of juveniles as well as the history of definition of the concept of a juvenile offender in criminal law. Chapter 2 analyses the provisions of the Criminal Code and Executive Criminal Code as regards juvenile convicts. The structure of the population of juvenile convicts who serve custodial sentence has been characterised in general in the following chapter. In Chapter 4, the legal basis of custodial sentence with respect to juveniles has been discussed as well as the objective of its execution. The issues taken into account include the obstacles to the implementation of the educational and correctional measures of the custodial sentence. Chapter 5 presents the institutional forms of the personalised execution of custodial sentence with respect to juvenile offenders. The Chapter contains the analysis of the legal regulations governing the institutions of classification, personal background surveys, psychological as well as psychiatric tests, as well as the evaluation, progress and verification thereof in the process of designing individual rehabilitation programmes. The execution of custodial sentence under the rehabilitation programme is the subject of Chapter 6. This part of the dissertation attempts to respond to the question whether the mandatory implementation of rehabilitation programme with respect to juvenile convicts is a sound and feasible solution in the settings of Polish penitentiary institutions. The last chapter characterises rehabilitation remedies designed for juvenile convicts. The issues under investigation in the present dissertation have been presented in consideration of the doctrine of law as well as the jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeal, the Supreme Court as well as the Constitutional Tribunal. The doctoral dissertation reflects the legal status as of 31.12.2014