The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Croatia submitted for public discussion the announcement of changes to the Law on Offenses Against Public Order and Peace, so instead of decriminalization, prostitution will be punished more severely, Jutarnji list announced.
Fines for offenses against public order and peace, including engaging in prostitution, displaying symbols that disturb public order and peace, vagrancy or giving alcohol to persons under 16 years of age - which now range from 20 to 170 euros - will increase several times, Hina reports. .
The Croatian Ministry of Interior has not yet announced how much they will amount to, but they emphasize that the currently prescribed penalties do not have a deterrent effect on the perpetrators, they are not harmonized with the penalties for other types of violations, such as traffic offenses. Violations (fines for speeding go up to 2.650 euros) and are not in line with the prison sentences prescribed by the existing law for the same criminal acts.
So, for example, it is now prescribed that anyone who behaves in a public place in a particularly impudent and indecent manner will be punished with a fine of 20 to 170 euros or a prison sentence of up to 30 days.
"There is a big disproportion between the prescribed amount of the fine and the possibility of imprisonment. Namely, the prison sentence is in itself a more severe type of sanction and is intended for 'serious' misdemeanors, so for that reason, the penalties for those misdemeanors should be prescribed in larger amounts," explained the Croatian Ministry of Interior, which sent the statement. to a public hearing that will amend the Law on Offenses Against Public Order and Peace.
Other penalties were also extremely high: in a year when the average salary was HRK 5.500, fines for, for example, brazen begging ranged from HRK 2.000 to HRK 5.000 (EUR 266 to EUR 665) or 20 days in prison, and for "insulting moral feelings ” citizens or appearing in public without clothes, from 2.000 to 4.000 kunas (266 to 532 euros) or 20 days in prison.
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