Compulsory Medical Measures: Concept, Types, Purpose and Meaning

This graduate paper is aimed at considering compulsory medical measures, the appropriateness of their use in modern reality. The main objectives of the paper are: 1) developing a definition of compulsory medical measures in order to disclose their legal nature and to justify the meaning; 2) consideration of the grounds and purposes of applying these measures; 3) analysis of the categories of persons to whom these measures may be prescribed; 4) study of types of these measures and identification of their characteristics; 5) studying the procedure for the extension, modification and termination of these measures; 6) disclosure of the essence of compulsory medical measures, connected with execution of punishment. On the basis of the analysis, the following conclusions are formulated: 1) compulsory medical measures have a dual nature; 2) the sole goal of applying measures is to achieve a state of the human psyche in which the possibility of crimes is excluded or significantly reduced and the possibility of their causing substantial harm to themselves and to other persons is significantly reduced; 3) when imposing measures in each specific case, the court must take into account all the circumstances of the case, not only the mental illness of the person, but also the social factors that somehow affected crimes committed by him; 4) the practice of appointing and executing these measures requires constant timely improvement of its regulatory and legal framework and organizational support to eliminate existing shortcomings and improve efficiency; 5) the extension, modification or termination of these measures is due solely to the mental state of a person who may both improve and deteriorate; 6) compulsory medical measures combined with the execution of punishment have the goals of both punishment and coercive measures, which optimally contribute to the creation of favorable conditions for both correcting the convict and for improving his condition or complete cure.