A fine in the contemporary criminal law

Since times immemorial, crimes against property have always been the most frequent offences, both in the national and comparative law systems. For this reason, all criminal legislations prescribe different types of punishment and property-related criminal measures as an efficient social response to crimes against property. In the criminal law of the Republic of Serbia, the property-related penalties and measures that affect the perpetrator's property include: 1) a fine and confiscation of property (as envisaged penalties); 2) a safety measure involving the confiscation of objects, 3) the measure of confiscation of financial benefit derived from the commission of a criminal offence; and 4) the measure of confiscation of property derived from the commission of a criminal offence. A fine is one of the oldest forms of punishment, which has been envisaged in all modern criminal legislations (including the Serbian legislation) and in some international documents as the adequate sanction (penalty) against the perpetrators of property-related crimes. In this paper, the author discusses the concept, characteristics, content, types, legal nature, effects, and the process of imposing and execution of this criminal penalty. All contemporary criminal laws provide various penalties and measures for suppression and prevention of crime in general, and crimes against property in particular. Nowadays, property-related crimes are prevalent in the structure of modern criminality. Criminal sanctions depend on the specific nature and distinctive characteristics of crimes against property and their perpetrators. A fine is a specific kind of sanction that may be prescribed as a principal and/or accessory property -related penalty, which has a repressive but also highly preventive impact. In all contemporary states, crimes against property prevail in terms of the total number of committed acts, their perpetrators, consequences, the scope and intensity of social danger, recidivism, and other features. In order to suppress crime in general, and crimes against property in particular, various social (primarily state) agencies at all social levels have applied different measures, instruments and procedures. All of them may be divided into preventive and repressive ones. The Serbian criminal legislation envisages two forms of fine: a) a fine in daily amounts, and b) a fine in fixed/specified amount (the Criminal Code 2005), which may be awarded to the perpetrators of property-related crimes depending on the nature, characteristics, significance and effects of the committed criminal act.