Simonas Nikartas

Vilnius university/The Law Institute of Lithuania

This article aims to explore the roles that Lithuanian probation officers associate with their profession, the differences between their ideal and actual roles, and the conflicts they encounter in their daily work with probation clients. The research was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey of 129 individual...

This chapter discusses the existing challenges in securing the rights of prisoners in Lithuania. In the European context, Lithuania is known for its large number of prisoners, strict criminal policy and difficulties in ensuring the rights of vulnerable groups. The authors of this chapter discuss cultural, legal and organisational obstacles that hin...

Based on an empirical quantitative study, the paper examines the sentencing trends and individualisation of probation conditions in domestic violence cases. The study sample included 577 Lithuanian court verdicts for moderate bodily injury in a domestic setting between 2015 and 2019. The study results suggest that the length of the probation period...

Using the concept of ‘pains of punishment’, the article analyses the experiences of Lithuanian women serving community sentences. Our study demonstrates that women experience the universal pains of punishment associated with stigmatisation, shame, and the inconveniences caused by punishment, as well as constraints and anxieties about impending impr...

The book conceptualises gender-differentiated trends and practices of criminal behaviour and punishment. It examines the general features of punishment and the peculiarities and experiences of imprisoned women and women serving community sentences in Lithuania. We follow the assumption that when analysing women’s criminal behaviour and their person...

The article discusses the results of the quantitative survey of Lithuanian probation of­ficers. We attempt to answer the question of what roles officers choose in their pro­fessional service. Taking into account the specificity of probation officers’ duties and internationally accepted classifications, we use, in the article, the categories of the...

The article discusses the results of the quantitative survey of Lithuanian probation officers. We attempt to answer the question of what roles officers choose in their professional service. Taking into account the specificity of probation officers’ duties and internationally accepted classifications, we use, in the article, the categories of the pr...

This paper investigates Lithuanian probation officers’ discretionary decisions on probation violations under strict legal regulation. Based on a quantitative survey, this paper analyses hypothetical discretionary decisions according to the type of violation committed by the probationer. The relationship between discretionary decisions and variables...

The chapter discusses the practice of applying community sanctions in Lithuania. Numbers of people serving community sanctions raised during the last ten years. It is officially stated that the development of community sanctions should reduce the number of prisoners. The chapter reveals that such an expansion of community sanctions reflects a “net...

Based on the results of the empirical research (probation officers’ questionnaire survey), the article examines how probation officers evaluate their individual work in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the probation. The article relies on the results of a survey of 129 Lithuanian probation service officers. The study revealed that most...

The book is focused on aspects of legal aid quality assessment. It discusses the assumptions and principles of legal aid quality, forms and tools of quality assessment, reveals their advantages and disadvantages, and provides recommendations for the assessment of relevant legal aid quality measures.

The article examines the question of whether the development of probation measures is related to the decrease in the number of prisoners or, in other words, whether probation measures are used as an alternative to imprisonment. The probation measures in international and national policy documents, in the statements of politicians and in research pu...

The article consists of two parts. The first part reveals essential characteristics of life imprisonment based on the most recent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (major attention being given to the case of Vinter and Others v. the United Kingdom). Firstly, the authors state that life imprisonment per se is not prohibited by the...