6533b7cefe1ef96bd1257743

RESEARCH PRODUCT

La rétention de sûreté : la première mesure de sûreté privative de liberté depuis le nouveau Code pénal‎

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The French criminal law is characterised by a willingness to prevent recidivism. To give concrete expression to this will, security measures are implemented among which the secure detention. However, the secure detention is not an ordinary measure and gives rises to many debates which, in fact, take up old and recurrent controversies. This measure is based on the assumption that sexual and/or violent criminals show a disease which may suggest a risk of a second offence. As a result, by considering them as sick persons, the legislator asserts that they can be treated. Accordingly, medical care is advised as the only solution to prevent a second offence. However, this disease itself often induces the patient to refuse cares even if it is required for this disease. Under these circumstances, care is constrained by law but not imposed by threat. Yet, if the attempt fails, a measure which deprives of liberties will be effective, such as the secure detention, what threatens individual freedoms. The secure detention process raises many criminological, psychological, constitutional and conventional problems than the French law can’t ignore. It’s necessary to take them into account to prevent the secure detention turning into a phase-out measure to the detriment of its mains objective, which reflects the cause itself of the criminal French law, i. e. to prevent the second offence while helping criminals in the long run to become reintegrated in society.