PERCEPCIJA GRAĐANA O UHIĆENJU KAO MJERI ZA OSIGURANJE PRISUTNOSTI OKRIVLJENIKA

PERCEPTION OF CITIZENS ON ARREST AS A MEASURE TO ENSURE THE DEFENDANT’S PRESENCE ABSTRACT Arrest is a specific and necessary measure to ensure the defendant’s presence which is made by the police before the beginning of a criminal procedure. Arrest is an “institute” determined by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the most important supranational sources on human rights and freedoms, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and other sources because it restricts the right to movement as a fundamental right of citizens. Considering the importance of the institutes such as arrest, a research dealing with attitudes on and knowledge of citizens about arrest was conducted. 114 respondents (N = 114) participated in the research and a pure factor structure was given for four factors overall, and the results obtained by testing the hypotheses indicate the existence of a statistically significant correlation between general attitudes on arrest and the attitudes on the arrest of a person that the respondents know. In other words, the respondents who know an arrested person and who have a positive attitude on that concrete arrest will also have a positive attitude on arrests in general. Key words: arrest; attitudes on arrest; perception of citizens