Biljana Gavrilović Grbović*
LEGAL-HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF MINORS IN SERBIAN LAW
Summary
The subject of analysis in the paper is the criminal responsibility of minors in Serbian law, i.e. in the Principality and Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the Principality of Serbia, in the Criminal Code of 1860, the legislator regulated the issue of juvenile responsibility in a special way. In other words, the domestic legislator determined the sanctions against minors differently compared to adult perpetrators of criminal acts, with the fact that it also adopted a punishment system for minors, as a primary one. This decision was also valid in the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia, although there were attempts, in 1910, to change the legal decisions on the responsibility of minors. The change in the legal treatment of juvenile delinquents, in the territory of Serbia, occurred in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, based on the Criminal Code of 1929. Namely, the Yugoslav legislator prescribed a system of correction of minors, as a basic one, instead of a system of punishment. All in all, the diversity of the systems that were applied to the criminal responsibility of minors in the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia and the Yugoslav Kingdom, but also the fact that juvenile crime represents one of the most important issues in criminal policy, which is still current today, it is expedient to carry out a legal historical review.
Key words: minor, criminal liability, criminality, sanctions, correction.