A new Concept on Penal Policy

The project is aimed at development of a new Concept on penal policy (CPP), basing on analyses of the criminogenic environment and trends, and the application of the Penal Code. Over the past decades the criminological environment was poorly explored and limitedly focused, while the criminological factors and the corpus delicti of some crimes have changed significantly. The numerous amendments to the Penal Code during the past six years, totally 19 in number, were not based on thorough analyses, and were rather sporadic or related to introduction of the provisions of EU law. The changed socio-political and socio-economic conditions, including worldwide, pose new challenges to the fight against crime, such as terrorism, radicalization, illegal migration, etc. Some of the amendments to the Special Part of the Penal Code led to a waived public threat of certain offenses. Similarly, at European level there is a tendency toward waiving the public threat of certain offenses thus excluding these from the crime nomenclature, as well as increased use of probation as a punitive measure in case of minor offenses. All these reasons require more comprehensive analysis of the criminological environment by using the data available in the Unified Information System for Combating Crime for the period 2014-2018,as well other accessible data, so as to define an overall and up-to-date picture of the criminality. It is also necessary to assess the application of the current Penal Code in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses and its conformity with the tendencies at European level. Also the reports of the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism from 2008 to now recommend adoption of a new Penal Code. The new CPP shall be drawn up as per the conclusions of the Penal Code assessment, as well as of the analysis of the implementation of the current CPP of the Republic of Bulgaria (2010-2014), adopted by Council of Ministers` Decree № 469/08.07.2010.

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