Attitude of persons with suspended sentence to the punishment and its consequences

ntroduction. By receiving conditional release from actual sentence serving in places of deprivation of liberty, individuals can remain free and demonstrate through their lawabiding behavior that they do not need to be isolated from society. The persons with suspended sentence are not always fully aware of the need to change their lifestyles, assess the results of their unlawful conduct adequately, that makes research and development of how they perceive and evaluate the punishment and its consequences very actual. Research methods. The nonstandard interview method and the free association method were chosen to study emotionally charged perceptions and assessments of punishment and its consequences. Research results. The persons with suspended sentence consider the sentence imposed to them by the court to be just and understand that its main purpose is to give them the opportunity to correct and change their life. Those who have previously served a sentence of deprivation of liberty, in comparison with firsttime convicts, accept positively the fact that they have been given a suspended sentence, but they are more critical to the responsibilities imposed by the court, without no regard to their necessity and reasoning. The emotional component of the attitude towards punishment and its consequences in the case of first-time convicts is connected with the feeling of repentance and shame, but in the case of multiple convicts it is associated primarily with unpleasant legal consequences of the very fact of punishment. Previously convicted persons with suspended sentences are a vulnerable group from the point of view of their internal responsibility rejection for their offences, including such consequences as the performance of duties, restrictions and prohibitions, imposed by the court, which may create favorable conditions for repeat offences during the probation period.