Source: (2005) Newsletter of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. 6(2-3):6-8.
Despite the extensive and constant development of alternative sanctions, measures and procedures such as community service, conditional caution, probation supervision and restorative justice programmes in Western countries, they are not widespread in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) where the y have been introduced only since the fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’. In some CEE countries (for example Czech Republic, Slovakia) the first mediation and probation initiatives appeared in the middle of the 90s, but in others they were undertaken only after 2000. Development of alternative sanctions is closely connected with legal and cultural traditions of the country, where those can be either a supportive factor or a challenge. In this article I will analyse the difference between criminal justice and sentencing traditions in Western and Eastern countries, and try to explain challenges meeting the current legal reforms in CEE. (excerpt)
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