The concept of organized crime has been part of Czech criminal law since the mid-1990s. The notion of criminal conspiracy, later replaced by the notion of organized criminal group, has become the legal embodiment of organized crime. How these terms and the related criminal acts should be defined, as well as the procedural tools adopted to investigate such acts, have been debated by Czech lawyers and criminologists. However, only limited attention has been paid to the perpetrators and practices judged as organized crime in a Czech court of law, with the notable exception of the 2010 paper “Czech organised crime in an international context” by Miroslav Scheinost and Karel Netík, which analyzes the final judgments for the criminal act of participation in criminal conspiracy in the period of 1999 to 2008. We elaborate on this study by analyzing the final judgments for the criminal acts of participation in criminal organized group or criminal conspiracy over the 2010-2020 period. In the study, we address the main features of criminal activity, offenders, criminal groups and imposed penalties and integrate these findings with previous research. Finally, possibilities for further research in the area are outlined.
This paper presents findings from a qualitative research targeted at the prosecution of hate crimes in the Czech Republic. Based on interviews with judges, prosecutors, attorneys, offenders and victims, three scenarios of the lifecycle of a hate crime are formulated – ideal, inauspicious and plausible. The scenarios consist of model situations that reflect criminal proceedings from police investigation to conviction and that allow to demonstrate six factors which influence the qualification and prosecution of an offence as a hate crime. The main objective of this paper is to identify key moments of criminal proceedings concerning hate crimes in the Czech context. This can help to detect the problematic aspects of criminal justice system that hinder the effective solving of hate crimes.
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