Suspended Prison Sentences: Elusive Punishment in Central and Eastern Europe (Innovations in Corrections)

This book uncovers the controversies around the suspended prison sentence, its main aims and features, and the role that it occupies within the wider criminal justice context.Suspended prison sentences were introduced in Central and Eastern European (CEE) states as alternatives to short prison sentences: although they were initially generally conceived of as exceptional penal tools, over time, they became the most imposed and dominant penal sanctions and, in that sense, a defining feature of criminal justice systems in the region. The book provides a rich source of information about the development and features of suspended sentences in eight CEE countries, a topic that, although of great importance due to their frequency, has received only scant academic attention.Employing a legal, socio-legal, and criminological approach, it achieves this goal through individual chapters on eight countries (Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, and Slovenia), an