| title: | Drug offences in Estonia: crime rate and dynamics, types of drug offences and sentencing practice |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5713 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
5.2. Juridical Sciences |
| status: | completed |
| institution: | TU Faculty of Law |
| head of project: | Jaan Sootak |
| duration: | 01.01.2004 - 31.12.2005 |
| description: | Drug offences are a serious problem that needs substantial social and legal policy means to be employed for its reconcliation. Penal Law is an importatant part of these means. The objective of the Grant is to study criminology of drug offences: rate and dynamics of drug criminal offences and misdemeanours (recorded offences). Following step is study of court cases - what kind of drug offences reach courts and how many persons have been convicted and acquitted. Third step will be analysis of sentencing practice - what kind of punishments and how severe punishments are utilized in practice. The analysis will include study of the rate of recidivism and the efficiency of several measures of special prevention - medical and social rehabilitation versus legal instruments, including expected prohibitive effect of punishment for a misdemeanour preventing further commission of misdemeanours. Study of drug offences presume analysis of Penal Law. New Penal Code was adopted on June 6th, 2001 and is in effect since September 1st, 2002; hence, it has acted for a year. Currently there is a bill encreasing the severity of punishments for drug offences under discussion in the Riigikogu (Parliament). One of the objects of the Grant is to compare drug offences according to the Criminal Code (was in effect until September 1st, 2002), Penal Code and the new amendments. It will be important to analyze the Medical Law aspects (e.g. voluntariness of medical treatment), the International Law dimension (drug offences in International Criminal Law). It will be impossible to skip the theoretical aspects of the elements of the drug offences - protected legal good, particular traits of construction of the constitutive elements etc. The Grant is designed as a two-year project. The first year will be for collection and initial analysis of empirical data - police statistics, court judgements and, if possible, court cases. The second year will be focusing on the analysis of the material and writing the manuscript of the publication. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Jaan Ginter | Tartu Ülikool | dotsent | |
| 2. | Paavo Randma | Riigikohus | nõunik | |
| 3. | Jaan Sootak | TU Faculty of Law | professor | |