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Kryteria nieprzystosowania społecznego dzieci i młodzieży

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Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1972

issue V

15-31

Rozmiary nieprzystosowania społecznego uczniów warszawskich szkół podstawowych

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Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

191-231

In the school year 1976/77 the Department of Criminology, Institute of State and Law, Polish Academy of Sciences, began research whose object was - among others - to ascertain the extent of social maladjustment among children from Warsaw elementary schools. As socially maladjusted were recognized children, whose behavior was characterized by a complex of comparatively persistent symptoms pointing to inobservance by those children of fundamental rules of behavior obligatory for the youth of this age (that is, truancy, hour-long gallivating round the streets without control, keeping company of demoralized colleagues, thefts, running away from home, drinking, taking drugs, sexual demoralization, vandalism, aggression). In the study were included all children of 3rd- 8th grades of 50 elementary schools in Warsaw: it was a random sample from all schools of this type in the city. There were over 600 classes included in the study, with the total of 17,662 children aged 9- 15. The main object of the study was to find out how many children with the symptoms of social maladjustment there are among the pupils of grades 3- 8. It was to be achieved by obtaining information from the teachers about those among their pupils whose behavior covered by the definition of social maladjustment as presented above. The extent of social maladjustment among the children of Warsaw elementary schools was found to be substantial, as there were 6.5% of socially maladjusted children in the classes examined (10% of the boys and 2.7% of the girls). The extent is greater in the higher grades (there were as many as 15.4% of socially maladjusted boys and 4.4% of such girls in the 8th grade), and lower in the lower grades (respectively 7.4% of boys and 1.4% of girls in the 3rd grade). From the 7th grade an exceptionally distinct increase is pronounced. The percentage of boys revealing symptoms of social maladjustment is 3,7 times higher than that of girls. Among girls, there is a more pronounced increase in the extent of social maladjustment in higher grades as compared with lower grades, than it is the case among boys. Among the eldest girls the symptoms of social maladjustment intensified than among the eldest boys. The study revealed also large differences in the extent of social maladjustment among different schools. The percentage of socially maladjusted children ranged from 2.3% in the ’’best” school to 17% in the "worst" one. The classes in the "worsts" schools were found to be smaller than those in the “best” ones where the disclosure of a smaller number of socially maladjustment children could have been connected with the poorer acquaintance of the teachers with their pupils in larger classes. The districts of the “worst” schools were also often defined by the head-masters as "difficult”, that is inhabited by families estimated by them as unfavorable educational environment. The definition of social maladjustment assumed in the study revealed first of all the children who: gallivanted (77% of socially maladjusted boys and 75% of girls), played truant (70% of boys and 79% of girls), kept company of demoralized colleagues (55 and 44% respectively). The next most frequently occurring type of behavior was stealing (1/3 of boys and 1/5 of girls), while it was seldom that the children with the symptoms of social maladjustment were considered as drinking alcohol (merely 16% of boys and 14% of girls), which result not only from the fact that the children start drinking in the higher grades, but also from the teachers being only poorly informed as to the extent of drinking among their pupils. Running away from home occurs seldom among the socially maladjusted children (13% of boys and 15% of girls), as well as the symptoms of sexual demoralization (which were, however, found in as many as 20% of socially maladjusted girls from the highest grade, and in only 5% of boys from this grade); the teachers gave no information whatever as to the taking of drugs by socially maladjusted children. In the obtained picture of social maladjustment among school children there was a variety of the types of behavior regarded as symptoms of maladjustment; the intercorrelations between separate symptoms were not strong. Connections between these symptoms are more frequent and stronger in the case of children from higher grades, in whom the process of social maladjustment is more intense. The child from the 3rd grade defined as socially maladjusted is first of all a neglected child: gallivanting, playing truant, keeping company of demoralized colleagues, often behaving aggressively. Among the 8th grade children a larger cumulation of various types of behavior was found and also other symptoms were noted much more frequently. In the lower grades, truancy is the behavior which initiates and intensifies the process of social maladjustment: among those playing truant the cumulation of other symptoms can be found much more often than among other children. In the case of older boys, it is the company of demoralized colleagues that acquires the initiating and intensifying role in the process of social maladjustment.. It increases and shapes aggressive attitudes, provides patterns and encouragement to drinking alcohol, and is also conducive to gallivanting, stealing and sexual demoralization. According to the teachers, the majority (over 2/3) of the socially maladjusted children had severe learning problems, which had distinct repercussion on their unsatisfactory school progress. Such children were termed maladjusted to school education. Apart from the socially maladjusted children, the teachers also named 6,2% of boys and 3,5% of girls from the examined classes as revealing symptoms of school maladjustment. Every sixth boy from the classes included in the study was socially maladjusted or maladjusted to school, and every sixteenth girl. As the children grew up, there was a trend to cumulation of the symptoms of social and school maladjustment in them. Among the socially maladjusted boys from the lowest grades, an essential dependence was found between their reading and writing problems and their truancy, which - as stated above - initiates the process of social maladjustment in these grades. When asked about the causes of the child’s learning problems, which occur among the half of socially maladjusted children, the teachers indicated the insufficient care at home and bad family situation as the cause. Among boys, this cause is particularly important in the case of socially maladjusted children from lower grades (2/3 of all cases), and diminishes in the higher grades when - according to the teachers - it is the child himself who is to blame, particularly for his laziness. According to the teachers, among the families of socially maladjusted children those are prevailing who - for various reasons - are incapable of coping with their protective and educational tasks. Among the socially maladjusted children, the contribution of those from incomplete families (approximately 1/3 of the families of socially maladjusted boys and as many as 42.2% of the families of girls) and those brought up by mothers alone (approximately 1/4 of boys and 1/3 of girls) is much greater than in the average population. The degree of education of the parents is usually low with physical workers prevailing, and while the fathers usually have some professional training, the majority of mothers have no profession at all. In the families examined both parents usually work out of home (which is typical of a Polish urban family). In the families of over 1/3 of maladjusted boys and nearly 1/2 of girls, there are conditions that decided about their distinct socially deprived character as educational environment. According to the teachers, alcoholism or excessive drinking of one of the parent accurs in over 1/3 of these families. The family background of socially maladjusted girls is more socially negative than this of boys. The intensity of negative characteristics of the environment was particularly explicit among the children whose social and school maladjustment symptoms were cumulated. The majority of socially maladjusted children had learning problems concerning at least two school subjects. The majority had also problems in learning to read and write and were still below the level of their grade at the time of the study as regards their command of these skills which are essential for school education. Protective and educational activities undertaken by schools in respect of socially maladjusted children are minimal as compared with the needs. Only 10% of boys and 15% of girls visit day-rooms or day stay-in schools. As few as 11% of boys and 8% of girls attend youth clubs in the culture clubs. While the day-rooms and day stay-in schools are visited by children from worse family environment, usually those taken better care of in their families attend youth clubs. A large part (approximately 2/3) of socially maladjusted children were included in the "summer holiday action” and participated in holiday camps. Also, regarding a large part of them psychologists and educators were consulted; however, the teachers await assistance of guidance centre not only in the form of diagnosis but also of a long-term treatment of maladjusted child and his family.

Profesor Stanisław Batawia

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Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

7-24

The editor-in-chief of „Archiwum Kryminologii”, professor Stanisław Batawia, full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Professor of Warsaw University and of the Institute of State and Law of the Polish Academy of Sciences, died on April 21, 1980. His personality, publications and activities exerted great influence on criminology and the fight against crime in our country, and were of consequence in our attitudes towards different categories of people exhibiting deviant behavior, particularly offenders and alcoholics. Professor Batawia was born in 1898 in Łódź. He received the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences in 1929, and the degree of Doctor of Law in 1931. From 1929 until the outbreak of the war in 1939 he worked at Warsaw University as senior assistant of the Department of Criminology. At the same time, he worked as a physician, first in the Nervous Diseases Clinic of Warsaw University, then on Psychiatric Ward of the Hospital of the Centre for Sanitary Training, and on the Children’s Neuropsychiatry Ward of the Institute for Mental Hygiene in Warsaw. He also worked as physician-psychologist in the Stefan Batory Grammar School in Warsaw. From 1935 he was an expert in forensic psychiatry. He took part in the military operations in 1939 as a doctor; during the German occupation of Poland, in the years 1940-44, he worked in a health service centre in a village near Warsaw. In August 1945 he was qualified as assistant professor in criminology on the basis of his thesis Niepoprawność przestępców w świetle badań nad bliźniętami kryminalnymi (Incorrigibility of Offenders in the Light of Studies of Delinquent Twins), which he had presented to the Board of the Faculty of Law, Warsaw University, as early as in 1939. In 1946 he was made associate professor at Lódź University where he was also the Head of the newly-organized Department of Criminology. At the same time he lectured on criminology and forensic psychiatry at Warsaw University. In 1949 he was transferred to the Department of Criminology of Warsaw University. In 1958 he received the degree of Professor. From 1953 he also conducted (apart from his activities at the University) criminological studies in the Department of Criminology of the Institute of Legal Sciences at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was also closely connected with the Department and its works after his retirement in 1969, acting as consultant of its proceedings up until the last days of his life. In 1965 he was appointed correspondent member, and in 1969 full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Apart from his work in the field of criminology, Professor Batawia was also active in the field of psychiatry and studies on alcoholism. In the years 1951-54 he was national specialist of the Ministry of Health in the field of forensic psychiatry, and in the years 1954-62 a consultant of the Forensic Psychiatry Ward at the Psychoneurological Institute; he also collaborated with the Scientific Research Centre of Social Anti-alcoholism Committee from the beginning of its existence. He was a member of the Team of Specialists of the Permanent Commission of the Council of Ministers for Fighting Alcoholism. He participated as an expert in the work of Parliamentary Commissions on the Law against Alcoholism and the draft of the law on the prevention and combating of juvenile delinquency, and in other legislative works connected with the subject of criminology and psychiatry. The International Criminological Society appointed Stanisław Batawia its representative in Poland. He was also the Polish correspondent of the Committee in Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders of the United Nations Secretariate. The entire scientific activity of Professor Batawia was influenced by his medical and legal education. His research work was closely connected with his educational and medical practice, and also his extensive social work. Professor Batawia was the founder of Polish criminology. His ideas and methods exerted a great influence on the present shape of criminology in our country. He tended to practise empirical criminology where generalized statements were supported by profound evidence and hypotheses were always subject to empirical verification. He was of the opinion that the results of criminological research, enabling a thorough understanding of criminological problems in Poland, should be the basis for legislative work. He tried to make the range of empirical studies undertaken by the Department of Criminology broad enough to include systematic gathering of statistical data on crime in Poland, macrosocial determinants of crime, prediction studies, and sociological analyses of the ecology of crime. He himself, however, concentrated his interest mostly on the problems of clinical criminology, on the etiology of crime as seen in individual cases. He thus concentrated on individual case studies, on the problems of the careers, environment and biopsychic attributes of individual offenders and persons manifesting grave behavior disturbances. However, while tackling the problems from the, point of view of clinical criminology, he by no means lost .sight of their broad social background. He emphasized even in his pre-war works the importance of the fact that offenders were mainly recruited from the least priviledged social classes. In his book Wstęp do nauki o przestępcy (An Introduction to the Study of the Offender), he carried out a keen analysis of the process of demoralization of children from such classes. „The typical theft perpetrated by a poor child is the result of all the circumstances of his upbringing and of the environmental influences which affected him from his earliest days of childhood. The divergence between the status of a young manual worker and the living conditions of these socially priviledged, of which the poor child is acutely conscious, constitutes a serious factor in the etiology of juvenile delinquency. The children are also frequently led into delinquency by peers who have repeatedly managed to steal without being apprehended and who thanks to this can afford various entertainments. The youth learn how to acquire money by illegal means from newspapers and the cinema which show offenders with a great deal of tolerance, even sympathetically, and where the victims of criminal activities are often significantly morally inferior to the offenders (...). The fact of theft alone does not in the least indicate an antisocial attitude. Had the needs of the child been adequately understood at home, had the society enabled him to enjoy the values which is almost impossible to do without at a certain stage of development, we would not have witnessed a significant majority of the thefts committed by children (...). It is only in prison and in a typical corrective institution where the individual who has infringed certain rules of the law develops criminal attitudes through remaining in a criminal environment”. Professor Batawia declared himself against those criminologists who concentrated on sociological or psychological problems only, as this could lead to one-sided conclusions. Although he was a psychiatrist himself, he criticized the one-sidedness of research work caused before the war by the monopolization of criminological studies by psychiatrists. Criminology is an interdisciplinary science; what is therefore necessary is a comprehensive approach to the studies of crime and offenders. A research group engaged in such studies should include a lawyer as well as a sociologist, psychiatrist and psychologist; (this view is well illustrated by the choice of staff at the Department of Criminology, amongst which representatives of all the branches mentioned above are to be found). The notion of interdisciplinary character of criminology is also evident in the themes and concepts of Professor Batawia’s researches, in the methods applied by him, in the elaboration of the results and in the consequent conclusions which take into account the entire complexity of the problems discussed. In his book published in 1939, Professor Batawia severly criticised the one-sidedness of theoretical approach. He radically disposed of the arguments of the anthropological school in criminology. The book ended with, the following words: „The problem of chronic criminality can only be solved by means of social reform and reforms of criminal policy. Don’t let us make biology responsible for sociological phenomena”. He also stated before that crime was a social phenomenon par excellence, and thus an offender could not be considered apart from his social background. He expressed his „criticism towards the authors who wanted to reduce various attributes of an offender to the common denominator of pathology”. He particularly criticised the notion of psychopathy as vague and very unprecise, falsely identified in certain works with social harmfulness and asocial or antisocial behavior. At the same time he attached great importance to the problems of psychopathology, which allow to understand deviant behavior of offenders with personality disorders. He considered it necessary to take into account the psychiatric perspective to assume a proper attitude towards a number of essential criminological problems, in particular to that of recidivism. Professor Batawia considered it inappropriate to base criminological studies on very general concept of „offender”, which denotes different individuals „who were given the common name only because ' they had been united by the most general qualification of the Penal Code”. The offenders are by no means an homogenous category of persons whose behavior could be explained by one adequate theory. Criminology should seek etiological explanations concerning different categories of offenders. This principle was strictly observed in his studies. It resulted not only from his scientific experience and opinions, but also from his entire attitude towards man, in particular towards the offender: he assumed the need for an individual approach and treatment, for considering various individual problems of the examined persons, as those problems never repeated themselves „in the whole of their pattern in other cases, even in the most similar ones”. In clinical research, according to Professor Batawia, the problems under examinations should be approached genetically and not statically; one should go back in one’s studies, not confining oneself to the facts revealed during the investigation, „Only a genetic point of view can reveal a real face of an offender and show the actual background of thousand of common offences, committed most frequently by people whose life conditions have led them to crime and then connected them with it strongly, and who, offenders as they were, did not cease to be individuals similar to others from the same social environment”. The studies conducted by Professor Batawia tended not only to reveal the determinants of antisocial attitudes of the examined persons which had occured since their childhood. Also their subsequent social development and further fate were followed covering the period of many years (10 and more). Such longitudinal studies, introduced by Professor Batawia into Polish criminology, enabled the proper estimation of the persistence of criminal careers and of the efficiency of the measures taken against the offenders. The methodological attitude of Professor Batawia was characterized by great criticism. He himself formulated the conclusions of his studies with extreme caution, criticising severly inconsiderate generalizations in some criminological studies as well as improper methods employed in others. He was of the opinion that „when beginning an investigation, one should forget in a way that it is an offender who is to be examined, and try to study him quite apart from the delinquent act itself, and thus to prevent the crime from influencing one’s judgment”. He considered it wrong to restrict the studies to offenders in prisons and corrective institutions only (as it was often the case in the early criminological studies), and postulated the examination of an offender in his own natural environment; in the case of prisoners, he advised particular prudence in generalization of the results on other categories of offenders. In criminological research, Professor Batawia attached great importance to the method of obtaining information and to its critical appraisal. He pointed out the great - and often underestimated - importance of the reliability and validity of information from which the results are to be obtained. It is of particular importance in the case of information gathered through the interviews. Professor Batawia considered it advisable to verify the data as far as possible by the means of information obtained from various sources. The studies he conducted were never restricted to interviewing the offenders alone: also interviews with their families were carried on, as well as the use was made of data from their criminal records, from court and prison files, and, if necessary, opinions were obtained from schools and employers, as well as data from sobering-up stations and medical and psychological records. In the case of any discrepancies of information from various sources, it rested with the researcher to decide which to consider valid, as it was he who took care of the whole of the study and was in personal contact with the examined person. In criminological studies, according, to Professor Batawia, the data should be gathered by persons properly prepared to the task, that is those who know the problem to be investigated, have been instructed as to the actual study (that is, as to its object, methods and the notional apparatus), who have the easiness of coming into contact with the examined persons and of interviewing them. He himself gave an example of such skills, experience and infallible intuition which allow one to perceive the problems most vital for the given individual; he also gave an example of an attitude of kindness and confidence in man which induces even social outcasts and rebels to frank statements. The scientific worker who is to conduct an empirical research study in the field of criminology, should - according to Professor Batawia - not only be the author of the project of the study, its manager and organizer, but should also participate in it personally. It is only an active personal participation that lets one perceive the whole of the vital problems connected with the given issue. He himself acted in this way, taking part personally in the majority of the studies conducted by the Department of Criminology, going, sometimes in spite of his bad state of health, to juvenile delinquent institutions or to prisons and carrying on personally the psychiatric examination of offenders. Besides, personal participation, the contact with the person under observation, and interest in his problems were indispensable to the Professor himself, too, as his outlook on life was first of all that of a clinician. The research was for him never the collecting of scientific data alone: he induced in it the elements of psychotherapy and, if necessary, of actual assistance. One could learn a great deal assisting the psychiatric examination conducted by him. Personal participation in the study served still another purpose: that of training of scientific researchers in the field of criminology. The conception of training of scientific staff, as realized by Professor Batawia, assumed the teaching of methods of research through active participation in the study, through attendance to examinations carried out by the Professor himself, through group discussions on the results of individual investigations and on the theoretical problems related to them. In instructing his personnel, Professor Batawia was exacting, conscientious as to the reliability, precision and detailed recording of the data they gathered, as well as to the exact formulation of results. It was a hard school, and yet the students were always cheered up by the Professor’s great kindness towards them, his warm interest in their problems, and his readiness to assist them. Professor Batawia was connected with „Archiwum Kryminologii” in a singular way: as the editor, back in the pre-war period (since 1933) of „Archiwum Kryminologiczne”, a publication of the Department of Criminology of Warsaw University, and as the founder and editor-in-chief of „Archiwum Kryminologii” from the very beginning of its existence after the war (the first volume was published in 1960) until the present volume, appearing after his death, and yet prepared by him personally. Professor Batawia created the editorial of „Archiwum Kryminologii”, a publication to present the results of empirical studies initiated by the Department of Criminology. He also prompted the subject matter of works published in „Archiwum Kryminologii”. In the volumes published so far, the total of 41 works have been inserted. The subject matter of the research studies conducted by Professor Batawia was broad. It included the problems of juvenile and young adult delinquency as well as that of socially maladjusted children. It also included the problem of recidivism which had not been previously much studied in Poland, the problem of mentally abnormal offenders and the question of alcoholism, as well as the phenomenon of hooligan offences which is closely related to that of alcoholism. Professor Batawia dealt also with drug addiction and toxicomania among the youth, and with the problems of forensic-psychiatric expertise. In the years 1946-48 he examined in prisons the German war criminals convicted in Poland for crimes committed during the Nazi occupation, among them he examined Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. The results of these studies supplied sociological and psychological material of great importance, which enabled to understand how a socially harmless individual became one of the major war criminals under the influence of historical events, social environment and the ideology of national socialism. The discussed results are an important document, a serious warning against the dangers of the Fascist ideology. Until 1951 Professor Batawia was member of the Praesidium of the Main Commission for Studies of Nazi Crimes in Poland and the editor of 7 volumes of „Bulletin” published by the Commission, which contained records on the crimes committed by the Nazi occupants. Many of his studies - both conducted before and after the war - were devoted to social maladjustment and delinquency of juveniles, which is a serious social problem, playing often an important part in the genesis of adult delinquency and recidivism. The social destructiveness of juvenile delinquency does not lie in the damage caused by the offences commited by the juveniles but in their social maladjustment and demoralization often accompanying their offences. A lot of children steal because their various needs have not been satisfied. When considering their thefts, one should also take into account the phase of their mental development. As it is the case with many juveniles brought before the court, they are in the period of puberty when the child’s mental balance is upset, and the lack of experience and critical judgement accompanied by openness to various influences, exuberance of impulses and birth of new needs can together - in a particular complex of social relations - contribute to the child’s committing of an offence. It is the period of entering new wider social circles: peer groups, school and even professional circles, the period of confrontation of the hitherto existing outlook on life with what one sees around. It is thus the period of arising conflicts which are usually met without understanding by the closest environment. All of this points to the importance of the keen analysis of the situation and features of a juvenile delinquent and of the educational and not penal character of the measures adopted towards him. „One must not attach any particular importance to the mere fact of occasional theft committed by a child (...). The essential problem is if and how is that theft accompanied by other symptoms of disorders in the entire behavior of that juvenile”. Those disturbances in the whole of the juvenile’s behavior (also defined as social maladjustment) require as early as possible a social interference of a protective, educational and also - if necessary – therapeutical nature. The need for early interference in the case of the category of socially deprived children, and also in the case of children brought up in the conditions which endanger their normal development, was an important conclusion of the studies of juvenile delinquency conducted by Professor Batawia. The studies pointed to the fact that juvenile delinquents were frequently brought up in socially deprived families, and that the process of their demoralization, going on for a long time before the action in court, had not met with any sensible counteraction. Particularly grave is the problem of delinquency of younger juveniles, as it has repercussions on recidivism, and as such calls for a keen investigation. In the prevention of the process of demoralization, the school should play an important role, with the methods of work so modified that „the care of this category of children were regarded not only as a particular duty, but also as a matter of special social importance”. The school should co-operate in this field with the sufficiently extended net of psychological and educational centres which would make inquiries into the conditions of life and the personality of the child before the proper measures were adopted towards it. It is also essential to organize a large enough number of part-time boarding; schools. In the discussion on the draft of the act on fighting juvenile delinquency which was to supplement the regulations of the new Penal Code, Professor Batawia took a strong line in the question: since in our conditions juvenile courts should be the authorities having jurisdiction over juvenile delinquents, they would be protective and educational of character, and they had already gained a large output and a qualified staff in our country. He argued that the matters of so important social effects must not be transferred to social commissions, institutions yet to be organized, lacking any tradition whatever in our country, the members of which - willing as they might be - would have limited power and authority. According to Professor Batawia, the demand for adopting educational measures and correctional treatment only should be valid regarding young adult offenders. Young adults are not as yet mature and are in the period of settling out of an outlook on life and a moral sense, as well as that of a large susceptibility to environmental influences. The sanctions adjudicated towards young adults should not be connected with the deprivation of liberty; a small category of young adults, socially demoralized to a large extent and revealing tendencies to rapid recidivism, should be treated in special institutions of rehabilitative and correctional character only. When Professor Batawia stipulated for such treatment of young adults, the Polish Penal Code did not provide for any separate measures for this category of offenders. „Until we change thoroughly our system of sanctions towards young adult offenders, our struggle against the chronic delinquency will be fated to fail” – he wrote as early as in 1937. Professor Batawia also pointed to the fact that the work of approved schools, a weak point in the whole of the problem of juvenile delinquency, should be based on the idea that „delinquent acts should be regarded as symptoms of inability to social adaptation and deficiencies of character, and these very features should constitute the matter of interest of the tutor”. The problems caused by the youth in an approved corrective school shoul not be regarded as a mere lack of discipline or mischievous insubordination and treated as such by means of frequent punishment as the only remedial measure. From the pre-war period, the problem of recidivism was also the subject of the Professor’s studies: juvenile, adolescent and young adult recidivists, those revealing pathological mental characteristics, and the so-called incorrigible criminals, which was a notion included in the Penal Code of 1932. Professor Batawia criticised it in his pre-war works, considering no one entitled to use the term „incorrigible offender”. In spite of the appearances of incorrigibility, the chronic offenders can - as the studies prove - cease to commit offences. Also, independently of the genesis of their first thefts and of the process of demoralization, „the subsequent delinquency and incorrigibility of such an offender is closely related to our attiude towards the phenomenon and to the faults of the criminal and penal policy. Professor pointed also to the fact that from the criminological point of view the notions „recidivism” and „recidivists” had a very broad denotation: an individual qualified as recidivist on the grounds of the law may prove a casual offender, and even among multiple recidivists a variety of criminal types are to be found whose tendencies are asocial rather than antisocial. Most recidivists have been socially maladjusted to a considerable degree since their childhood, have been regularly drinking excessively from their early age, often with symptoms of alcoholism already, and many of them reveal personality disorders. Thus the problem of juvenile and young adult delinquency and recidivism and an early proper intervention are essential, if still underestimated. As a prolonged isolation of recidivists proves ineffective, freedom or semi-freedom measures should be more often applied, as well as release on probation with the subsequent aftercare which would make the later readaptation easier. On account of personality of some young adult recidivists, and of their alcoholism, one should be prepared for the fact that the sanctions adjudicated may often not produce an entire change of their social attitude. An obligatory automatic increase of penalty for committing a new offence is groundless. The Code should provide for the possibility of substantial and not only formal estimation of the recidivist’s improvement. Those postulates were reflected by the introduction of Art. 61 into the new Penal Code. Professor Batawia also gave attention in his works to the problem of alcoholism and regular excessive drinking, and their relation to delinquency. The relation is twofold: on the one hand, it consists in the negative role of the alcoholic’s family and the psychological problems it creates in the genesis of the process of his social maladjustment; on the other hand, it lies in the significance of excessive drinking in the etiology of some kinds of offences and in the increase of the proces of demoralization. At the same time, the most important effects of regular excessive drinking lie not in delinquency but in all the problems caused by alcoholism in everyday life and in the life of families. Studies of juvenile delinquency, often revealing alcoholism in the families of the examined juveniles, tended to put foreward the demands metioned above. They called for an early intervention in the case of such children and their families and of extension of the protective and educational possibilities hitherto existing in our country. The work by Professor Batawia Społeczne skutki nałogowego alkoholizmu (Social Effects of Alcoholism), published in 1951, initiated this kind of research in Polish alcohology, revealing the social aspects of alcoholics’ personality. It also exhibited the tragic situation of the families of those alkoholics who had not yet been put in hospital, though they should have been sent there long before, and who still had a clean record in spite of the fact that they kept ill-treating their wives and children and depriving their families of various goods and money in order to buy themselves alcohol. The postulate enclosed in this work aimed in two directions. One was the fight against the „common phenomenon of regular excessive drinking among hundreds of thousand of citizens, many of whom gradually turn into alcoholics”. This fight should assume the range of a broad social action, well-planned, energetic and supported by the law. It was the Professor’s persistent reasoning and his art of gaining over others to this cause, that led to the involvement of various people in social organizations and institutions, and subsequently to the resolution by the Seym of one of the best laws on combating alcoholism in the world. The second line of the Professor’s postulates (also reflected in the purview of the law) concerned alcoholics who should be treated therapeutically, and the diagnosis of alcoholism should result in compulsory treatment; thus the development of specialists health service is necessary, in particular, the establishment of a proper- number of clinics for alcoholics. In his later works, Professor Batawia fixed his attention on the problem of particular social importance, that of excessive drinking among the youth and the need for early recognition of the outset of alcoholism which now occurs much earlier than it was the case years ago; what is more, among a certain category of young adults who early became heavy drinkers, the course of alcoholism is often rapid and severe. Professor Batawia devoted his last study to the problem of young adult alcoholics subjected to compulsory treatment, whose intensity of drinking and deviant behavior had been particularly high, both processes having begun in their early youth. The study is unique of character, as it concerns the age (up to 25) when alcoholism is extremely rarely revealed. The treatment of this category of alcoholics should also be therapeutical. Also prevention is of a special importance here, the activation of teachers and tutors of all schools in the field of identification, protection and proper guidance of the large category of children with initial symptoms of social maladjustment and those from alcoholic families. Even if regular excessive drinking is first of all determined by the social cultural factors, therapeutic medical intervention should be undertaken towards the young people who drink repeatedly and often get intoxicated (that is those who repeatedly visit detoxification centres, are apprehended as drunk by the police, have been several times convicted by the Penal Administrative Commission for offences committed in the state of intoxication). It is important to increase the number of detoxification centres where drunk people would be treated as patients in hospital; such centres would also diagnose their patients. It is also important to enlarge the number of institutions for withdrawal treatment and guidance centres for the youth, as well as to introduce the industrial health service into the system of withdrawal treatment and to synchronize the activities of various institutions dealing with alcoholics in their everyday practice. When planning such a system, one should, however, take into account the entire complexity of problems connected with alcoholism and regular excessive drinking as well as the fact that the phenomenon of regular excessive drinking, causing negative effects in those drinking themselves and in their environment, is not in the least irreversible. It is, a complicated problem, requiring prolonged research, the results of which may allow a proper evaluation of this phenomenon. It was first of all the social consequences, and the practical importance of the problems, that constituted the criterion for the choice of the subjects in the studies conducted by Professor Batawia. Among them there was also the problem of „social parasitism”, much absorbing the social opinion, and the draft of the possible act to control it. Professor Batawia confronted the motion of „social parasitism”, vague and susceptible of various interpretations as it is, with the empirical data which indicate that the majority of those „shirking work” are heavy drinkers or alcoholics. Young adults less than 21 years of age shirking work but not drinking excessively often lack elementary education and professional training and are socially maladjusted; however, they must not be identified with those demoralized and committing offences. The change of their social attitudes cannot be achieved by repressive measures only. „It is indispensable to separate distinctly the tasks of socialization of such individuals from the functions of the common penalties inflicted on them for committing offences or contraventions”. The yet another problem studied by Professor Batawia was that of drug addiction among the youth, which he considered – refering to the results of various Polish studies - a minor problem in our country. In a very heterogenous population of young people taking drugs, two categories can be distinguished: that of young adults who take drugs only once or twice, which is a majority, and that of those taking drugs regularly, who are very few. Regarding this last category of individuals who narcotize themselves regularly and thus become drug addicts, the priority of medical treatment should be obligatory. The Professor’s works are also of great importance to forensic psychiatry. Among other things, he called attention to the necessity of including into medico-legal certification, apart from the normal state of inebriation and the state of pathological inebriation, also the motion of the so-called state of inebriation on pathological grounds, where certain features of the defendant’s personality could have significantly increased the effects of inebriation. He also studied the problem of reactive disorders often wrongly recognized by the prison staff as simulation, which actually require early diagnosis and treatment. He postulated the increase of psychiatrists’ participation in the works connected with the problems of readaptation of offenders, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment in the penitentiaries. The results of studies and their practical conclusions presented above reveal the essential trends of the Professor’s attitude towards the measures that should be adopted to the different categories of offenders and individuals with severe deviant behavior. It resulted from his profound humanism in his attitude towards man. He pointed to the need for individualization and adoption of measures which carry no discrimination nor the isolation from the normal social group, but which tend towards the readaptation (and, if necessary, medical treatment) of the individual exposed to them. He criticised the principle of general prevention. He pointed to the inefficacy and harmfulness of imprisonment which, if possible, should be restricted. He postulated a radical revision of the assumption which constitute the base of criminal and penitentiary policy towards a considerable number of recidivists. Without such a revision, the imprisonment would only contribute to the increase of antisocial attitudes. In the works concerning various criminological problems, Professor Batawia emphasized the importance of prevention and early intervention in the case of children and young people from socially deprived environment or revealing personality disorders. He declared himself against the therapeutical nihilism as regard both alcoholics and those offenders who were recognized as incorrigible. He was of the opinion that „the beliefs about the inefficacy of any treatment of alcoholics are wrong (...), it is groundless to abandon the treatment of young adults after the first therapeutical defeats”. He considered that the negative results of the measures adopted towards the offenders „should induce one to intense activities in the field of criminal policy reform”. He realized the difficulties connected with implementing those demands, as well as the need for the education and training of those who would properly conduct the readapting and therapeutical activities. He also realized that the problems of criminology were very complicated, and that our knowledge of various items, still insufficient, called for further laborious scientific research. And yet, seeing the entire complexity of the problems and the sometimes distant prospects of realization of some demands, Professor Batawia was not deterred from aiming at their introduction into practice with exceptional persistence, commitment and passion; at the same time, he took into account the instructions of practical realism, reckoning with the possibilities created by present circumstances. To the last days of his life, he considered it his duty as an educator to hand down to the others his opinions of the reforms and of practical solutions of criminological problems, which he did on various occasions: at conferences, during discussions on doctors theses and examinations qualifying for associate professor. It was alien to him to remain indifferent to the opinions, demands and activities which he considered wrong. The theoretical views which he enclosed in his works half a century ago now strike with their progressiveness, accuracy and immediate interest. Professor Batawia maintained an astounding unity of his opinions. He announced them with exceptional courage also when he was alone in his views - that is, on the turn of the 40’s and the 50’s, when Polish criminology was to suffer eradication, unjustly attacked from ideological positions. He was distinguished by his inflexibility, intransigence and his moral and civic attitude which constitute the example for all of us.

Sprawca przestępstwa (zarys problematyki)

100%

Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1991

issue XVII

41-74

The paper shows various approaches to the perpetrator of crime, and practical consequences of the specific point of view adopted. The object is not to point to ready solutions or to declare for or against the discussed views, but to give an outline of the variety of problems that concern the person of offender, and to mention the related questions and issues. Discussed have been the general theoretical problems related to the person of offender; psychological problems; those arising from the fact that the offender has been made subject of criminological research; and the problems of the image of offender functioning in public opinion. Whether we formulate criminological theories or adopt definite practical solutions, questions cannot be avoided about the offender as a human being, about his rights, the extent of his freedom and responsibility, his relationship with society, and the limits of a just and permissible intervention in those rights and liberties. The problems mentioned in this relation point to the need for the problems of offender to be considered in a broad philosophical perspective based on a moral reflection. The discussion of psychological problems is focused on two issues. The first of them are the psychological conceptions of man which provide explanations of the offender’s criminal behaviour and lead to conclusions as to the treatment of offenders. Those problems have been exemplified by behaviourist and psychoanalytical ideas and the conception of humanistic psychology. Another important psychological problem is whether the offender’s behaviour that violates the legal norms results from his personality traits or has been conditioned by the situation in which he found himself. Studies point to complexity of this problem and to the fact that both personality and situation influence criminal behaviour. At the same time, some individuals are particularly resistant and others particularly susceptible to situations conducive to that behaviour. There are also situations in which an offence is particularly easily committed. Among them, there are the rapid changes found during great historic events and social transformations, as well as the situations, most and sotimes even extremely difficult, created by socio-political systems. In some offences, situation is a most important factor; in others the offender’s personality plays a greater part. This complexity of the problem should be taken into account when deciding about a given offender in the practical operation of criminal justice. The image of offender obtained in criminological studies of convicted persons is connected with a variety of problems. Some of tchem arise from the very definition of offender. It is a most general notion, related to the legislation in force in a given country at a given moment, and designating perpetrators of a great variety of acts which may result from different situations and psychological mechanisms. A question arises whether a single act, possibly jus an episode, may really constitute a good criterion to distinguish a given individual from others who have not committed such an act: whether that act is an isolated event only or results from the given person’s way of living. What also matters for the picture of a convicted offender obtained in studies is the process of selection to which he had been subjected before the offence was revealed, criminal proceedings instituted, and the offender convicted. A factor essential for that selection, for decisions concerning the offender, and for his readaptation to life in society after release is the stereotype of offender which functions in public opinion. As shown by studies, that stereotype is shaped by fear and the thirst for revenge on a person who is perceived as a threat but at the same time treated as a distant stranger. A condemnation of certain acts makes the Public realize the noxiousness of those acts and shapes moral attitudes. But the condemnation of acts does not have to lead to a similar disapproval of their perpetrators. It is most necessary to conduct criminological research and to provide society with straightforward information about the findings.

Wielokrotni recydywiści w świetle badań kryminologicznych i psychologicznych

100%

Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1976

issue VII

7-139

This work presents the findings of studies of offenders, whose offences were time and again revealed, who had been frequently tried and many times been imprisoned. Studies were made of prisoners, convicted at least four times and who found themselves in prison at least for the fourth time, being of the age between 26-35 (the average age being 31). Studies were conducted in 1965-1966 in the Warsaw Central Prison. Selected from among the 440 prisoners there at that time, whose age and recidivism was in accordance with the above mentioned criteria, were those, who had domiciles in Warsaw or the voivodship of Warsaw and who possessed closest family members (as a rule father or mother), who could supply information about them. Making the successsive selection for studies, efforts were nevertheless made to take into account in the studied group those persistent recidivists who were convicted of robbery; this was due to the intention to take into account all the cases of recidivism, involving more serious offences. In connection with this departure from the principle of random samples, this group contained considerably more offenders convicted of robbery than was the case in the remaining group of persistent recidivists which was not subject to thorough investigation. The subject of thorough studies were half of the persistent recidivists, which at the time under discussion, were inmates of the Warsaw Central Prison, namely 220 prisoners. Studies concentrated on: collection of data about the convictions of the offenders, checking at the juvenile court records, whether they had been brought before a court while they were minors, collection of extracts from court records (regarding the most recent as well as prior convictions), efforts to obtain, by means of interviews and questionnaires, information about the work of the studied persons in various enterprises, where they had been employed, the drawing up of extracts from prison records, collection of medical documents of those prisoners who had received treatment in psychiatric outpatient clinics, in anti-alcoholic outpatient clinics or who had been in psychiatric hospitals; interviews conducted with the closest family members of the offenders, psychological examinations conducted with the prisoners of the group selected for studies (psychological interviews, the Wechsler-Bellevue scale, Sachs’s and Levy’s Sentence Completion Test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Buss-Durkee inventory). In addition to this 60 recidivists underwent psychiatric examinations. The studies were conducted by a team with the participation of Professor S. Batawia, who also headed the entire research; in the work of the team participated in addition to the author of this article: M. Kiezun- Majewska, S. Szelhaus and D. Wojcik. ; The average number of convictions per recidivist amounted to 6.5; the average number of stays in prison to 6.0. A persistent recidivist committed on an average 10.1 offences for which he was convicted, of these: 6.8 offences against property, 3.0 offences against the health or public authorities and offices as well as 1.3 other offences. One of the striking features of the offences committed by multiple recidivists was the variety of their offences: as many as two-thirds were convicted of offences of various types, only 27% were convicted exclusively of offences against property and a mere 9% were convicted exclusively of offences against the health as well as against the authorities and public offices. What is striking even in the case of those who were convicted exclusively of offences against property, is the heterogeneous nature of their offences and the lack of specialization in this respect. Violent offences (against the health or public authorities and offices) were committed by the overwhelming majority of those studied (71%). Almost all of the offences, and also the majority of the robberies were committed while they were intoxicated. Persistent recidivists are relatively rarely convicted of serious offences. Only 12.5% of those investigated could be considered dangerous because of frequent serious violent offences (including also robbery) and besides this only 12% could be qualified as people causing serious material damage. According to statistics concerning the whole of Poland every twenty-fifth persistent recidivist only was in 1973 convicted of an offence qualified according to the penal code as a felony (statutory minimum of punishment - 3 years). According to this study, a typical persistent recidivist is a person whose offences have caused not only social damage, but also serious damage to the perpetrators themselves, because the offences committed as a rule did not bring him any greater material advantages, but gave rise to consequences, due to which he spent a considerable part of his life in prison: 69% spent after the age of 17 more time in prison than out of prison. Almost half of them were less than a year at liberty between two successive convictions. These studies aimed at obtaining the possibly most allround information about the persistent recidivists and about their life histories. Special stress was laid on the problem of the early maladjustment of these people and the age when their first offences were committed, their professional work and attitude to their family, on the very essential problem of habital excessive drinking on their part, and also on personality disorders. Information on the family milieu from which the prisoners indicates that the majority of their fathers (77%) worked systematically (mainly as unskilled workers) and a mere convicted. However, fathers drinking to excess were a serious problem in the families of the sampled prisoners. When the prisoners were children approximately 27% of the fathers were heavy drinkers, in addition 25% were alcoholics. It is also interesting that alcoholism was found with almost half of the families of the parents of the investigated prisoners, involving their fathers or brothers. The social behaviour of the mothers of the sampled group was more positive. While half of the fathers were considered socially negative (due to excessive drinking, frequent convictions or unsystematic work), only 16% of the mothers deserved such an opinion. About 10% of the mothers drank systematically to excess, 6% had been convicted and 3% were suspected of being prostitutes. Only 41% of the recidivists lived, while being minors, within a complete family, in the cases of 48% of the families one of the parents had died (most frequently the father); in half of the cases the family was broken up when the studied prisoners were below 15 years. Connected with a disturbed family structure were changes regarding the educational milieu. 40% of the group changed their homes in their childhood, in the case of about one-fourth of them many changes were found: they brought up at least in three different homes. The marital relations of the prisoners’ parents were often (50%) very bad. The frequent breaking up of the family and work of the mothers to earn a living was often combined with the neglect of the children, found in as many as two-thirds of the families of the recidivists. On the basis of statements made by the studied group and their mothers the material conditions during their childhood were in 55% of the families very difficult, preventing the satisfaction of the most basic needs. The sampled recidivists relatively frequently came from families with many children: in 38% of the cases these were families with at least four children, in 21% these were families with three children. The brothers and sisters of the recidivists often, just as the latter themselves, had gaps in their primary school education (in 39% of the families there are found among the brothers and sisters persons who have not finished primary school education) and also had similar shortcomings regarding professional skills (over half the brothers had no vocational training at all). But the recidivists who were studied also had (though only in few cases) brothers and sisters by far outdistancing them as regards education. In as many as two-thirds of the families it was found that there were socially maladjusted brothers; in 44.5% of the families somebody from among the siblings had committed theft, had been brought before a court, while still being a minor, or had been convicted after having reached the age of 17; in as many as one-third of the families brothers were recidivists. The negative educational ditions in the families of the recidivists thus found their reflection in substantial social maladjustment of their brothers and sisters. The intensification of this maladjustment was, however, with the sampled group higher than was the case with their brothers, only one-fifth were families where all the brothers were recidivists. Studying the extent to which the sampled individuals were socially maladjusted While being juveniles, questions were asked during interviews regarding their early childhood. According to data obtained from mothers, neurotic symptoms could be noticed in many of the sampled recidivists (two-thirds). Though the percentage of those who showed such symptoms during the school period was slightly smaller (58%), there nevertheless were still many with such symptoms as bed-wetting (13%) and stuttering (17%). Half of the studied group of recidivists, who showed neurotic symptoms in school, displayed a number of such symptoms. During the investigation in prison 58% of the respondents admitted some neurotic symptoms, mainly disturbances of sleep and special fears. Striking was the frequent fact of stuttering (16.5%), found during inations in prison (on the basis of observation). A large group of persistent recidivists revealed a striking durability of neurotic symptoms from their childhood on till adulthood. Half of the recidivists of this group were defined by their mothers as ‘’difficult to bring up” during childhood (very disobedient and stubborn), while 44% were much more aggressive than the other children in the family. The childhood of the recidivists was marked by considerable disturbances at school: 16% of them finished no more than 3 grades of primary school, 25% -4-5 grades and 15% - 6 grades. A total of as many 56% did not finish primary school education. These shortcomings in primary school education were found especially often with those individuals among the group who had a lower IQ (IQ below 91), and those who had been brought up in negative family milieux, as well as those whose school years were during the war period and those who had revealed early social maladjustment. Two-thirds of this group of recidivists repeated the same class in school, 44% systematically played truant, in many cases (60%) it was found that the teachers had complained about their behaviour in school. While still being minors 41% of them had run away from home. Two-thirds maintained that during their childhood they spent much time outside their home, running the streets in the company of colleagues, who were stealing and drinking alcohol. Worth special attention is the fact, that close to half of the sampled group (46.8%) began already as minors to drink alcohol to excess, and there is information regarding 22%, indicating that when being barely 13-14 years old, they already were drinking wine or vodka at least once a week. On the basis of interviews and information obtained from juvenile court records, it was found that at least 36.2% of the recidivists from this group faced courts at an age below 17, while 21.3% were sent to approved schools. Taking into account also additional information regarding theft that was not found out, it has appeared that as many as at least 57% of the persistent recidivists were stealing or brought before a court while they were still under age. They belong to the category of former juvenile delinquents who are recidivists and whose offences are of a most persistent nature. Those recidivists whose delinquency started while they were still adolescents, more frequently than the remaining ones, came from negative family milieux. In interviews and tests results more frequently data found among them testifying to personality maladjustment: aggressiveness during school attendence and aggressiveness during the period when these studies were conducted (found on the basis of the opinions of psychologists and questionnaires according to the Buss-Durkee inventory, MMPI profiles with a markedly raised F scale). In addition to those of the group who committed offences while minors, there were still 53 (25%) of them who, though they had, as it was found, not committed offences at that time, nevertheless revealed considerable social maladjustment. Only in the case of 17% of the recidivists studied, no such symptoms were found. These recidivists were during the period when the studies were conducted in many respects better than the remaining ones: they more often possessed professional skills, had worked more systematically, more rarely been in prison and had longer intervals between the successive convictions. The first convictions of these individuals after the age of 17 started later, more among them had their first trials only after the age of 21. But as regards alcohol drinking they did not differ from the other recidivists. This is a very important fact, since in the genesis of offences committed by recidivists who as minors had not shown symptoms of social maladjustment, drinking of alcohol in excess played a larger role than was the case with the remaining recidivists and the entire character of the offences committed by them later was connected with habitual drinking of alcohol. Recidivists in whom no symptoms of social maladjustment were found while they were adolescents, nevertheless came, just like the remaining recidivists, relatively frequently from negative family milieux and often data were found concerning them, which pointed to early personality disorders; thus they were especially susceptible to unfavourable social conditions. In the life histories of these recidivists can be clearly noticed the significance of unfavourable situations for the genesis of their delinquency; the lasting aspect of this delinquency is later combined with alcoholism and difficulties encountered in the social functioning of individuals, who have already been in prison. Data from the juvenile period of persistent recidivists indicate that they entered adult society already with substantial gaps in their education, without the habit of systematic work and without any vocational training. Only three from among the studied group had finished vocational school, and at the time the study took place 55% had no professional qualifications whatsoever. This lack of vocational skill was especially often typical of those, who in connection with their lower intelligence quotient had objective difficulties at school, were lacking sufficient motivation to learn a trade and those, who had stayed at liberty only for a very short period. The studied group started to work at an early age (41% already below 16), which was connected with their difficult material conditions and the early dropping out from school. When being young adults half of the sampled group had worked relatively systematically (at least during half the period they stayed at liberty and were able to work). Later in their life can be noticed a distinct decline in systematic work. During their last stay at liberty 43% did not work at all; among the remaining individuals, 40% of those who started to work, were longer without work than with work. During the entire period since they reached the age of 17 only one-third of them worked more than half the time they actually could have worked, while the majority worked very little, of these 35% less than 25% of the time they would have worked. Unsystematic work was often combined with certain* personality traits of these individuals, such as agressiveness and inability to submit to discipline combined with a lack of professional qualifications and also with social derailment. In 30% of the recidivists degradation in the performance of their professional work found expression not only in the decrease of systematic work, but also in the shifting from work, requiring certain professional skill, to unskilled labour. This was partly connected with a complete lack of interest in the trade they had learned and above all with degradation due to alcoholism. Not without significance were undoubtedly also difficulties in obtaining a job, connected with prior stays in prison. Those recidivists to whom offences were almost the only source of maintenance, accounted for 17.7%. As many as 19% earned their living partly by committing offences and partly by getting help from their families. Thus, a 'total of over one-third were recidivists who lived above all from offences and work was not their source of income. 29% of the recidivists got the means to cover their expenses through work and by committing offences against property. For 34% of the studied individuals delinquency was most probably not the main source of their income: either they earned their living only through work (16%) or through work and by partly being kept by the family (10%) or they were exclusively maintained by the family (8%). The data gathered indicate that the recidivists studied here were frequently a burden for their families, that many of them had not established a family of their own, those who were married frequently did not perform their duties in regard to their families, and many of the marriages broke up. Their behaviour and relations with the family were characterized by substantial maladjustment to the requirements of family life. The percentage of bachelors among the sampled group was twice as high as is the case with their age group in the whole of Poland’s population of men and amounted to 40%. As many as 20% were divorced and 40% married. But only 20% lived during the period before their last arrest together with their wives; as many as 44% lived with their parents (mainly with their mothers). More than half of the married couples were marked by marital discord. Very bad relations with the wife were often connected with frequent imprisonment of the recidivists, with alcoholism and also the fact that their wives often were women whose personality and mode of life could contribute to the unstability of their married life. The majority of the recidivists completely neglected their children, one-third carried various objects out of the house and afterwards sold them to buy vodka. 18% were convicted of offences harmful to the family. Almost half of them received material help from their families. After release from prison only one-fourths of the studied group can live with their wives. Over half counted on living with their parents and on material help from them, the remaining 25% could not count on anybody's material help, 17% of them even had nowhere to live after their release. While they were at liberty the recidivists studied here drank alcohol as a rule to excess, much more than the average of men does in the towns of Poland. Almost 88% drank at least a quarter of a litre of vodka three times and more a week. The systematic drinking of alcohol to excess was typical not only of the persistent recidivists, of the studied sample, but also of other populations of recidivists studied in Poland. It was found that among this group of recidivists there were many individuals, who were alcoholics already at an advanced stage. In the case of 117 of them (53%) a syndrome of symptoms was found, typical of alcoholism. With the majority of them the abstinence syndrome could be established, 21% had gone through an alcohol psychosis. The recidivists started to drink alcohol to excess very early, half of them already before they were 17 years old, 20% at the age of 17-18, 10% from 19-20 years and only 15% - at the age of 21 or later. Combined with the early drinking of alcohol to excess, were distinct symptoms of alcoholism appearing at an early age. They could be noticed with the majority of the alcoholics after at least eight years from the time they had started systematically to drink alcohol to excess. However, this period would be shorter, if one took into consideration the periods of imprisonment, which were for the recidivists enforced breaks in their systematic drinking. In 25% of the recidivists, who were alcoholics, distinct symptoms of alcoholism appeared already at an age below 25 years, 36% - it started between 25 and 27. Symptoms testifying to an advanced stage decreased tolerance and abstinence syndrome appeared according to the recidivists around the age of 27. Systematic drinking of alcohol to excess already at a very early age thus led to early appearance of symptoms of alcoholism. The genesis of the progressive process of demoralization and delinquency, as a rule, had its source not in the abuse of alcohol. Drinking of alcohol to excess usually began already when people started to go astray or to commit offences. Those of the recidivists who drank alcohol to excess from the -time they were still under age, were already at such an early period more socially maladjusted than the remaining recidivists and 'drinking alcohol to excess was at that time one of the elements of their mode of life within a group of demoralized adolescents. For those who started to drink alcohol to excess as young adults (as a rule being also socially maladjusted while still under age), the beginning of abuse of alcohol was often combined with work to earn a living and opportunities to drink at work. Though abuse of alcohol did not play an essential role in the genesis of the process of social maladjustment in the case of this group of persistent recidivists and in the genesis of their delinquency, it nevertheless exerted a distinct influence on the intensification and nature of their further offences. This influence can be noticed in the heterogenity of the offences committed by them and also in the fact that there are only few among the persistent recidivists who have committed offences exclusively against property; connected with the abuse of alcohol is the considerable percentage among the recidivists of those who have committed violent offences. Connected with drinking alcohol to excess are also short periods of being at liberty between the successive convictions. Two categories can be distinguished among the persistent recidivists, where systematic drinking alcohol to excess played a major role regarding their delinquency; this was the group of 41 recidivists, convicted almost exclusively for violent offences in a state of drunkenness and a group of 33 individuals who committed theft while drunk, the motive being as a rule to obtain in this way money to buy alcohol. In the case of the investigated from these two groups, as a rule abuse of alcohol precedes substantially the beginning of delinquency; there are more skilled workers among them, who first used , to work systematically, but later degradation in professional work sets in; among these groups are more recidivists who were first convicted at a later age (above 20 years). Among those who committed petty theft connected with alcoholism, a type of alcoholic already in an advanced stage of alcoholism can be often noticed. He is passive, with a low educational level and a lowered intelligence quotient. Those who commit assaultive offences while drunk, are especially often characterized by bad tolerance of alcohol; an analysis of the individual cases reveals that the patterns of demoralization of these offenders are most varied. Though 40% of the recidivists who are alcoholics started treatment against alcoholism, while at liberty, they usually gave it up again after a few visits at the outpatient clinics. Only 10% of the alcoholics were treated in psychiatric hospitals in connection with alcoholism; they were sent there because of symptoms of alcoholic psychosis. Dealing with the problem of personality disorders of this group of recidivists the research concentrated on finding answers to the following problems: - whether and in what respect results of the psychological examinations of persistent recidivists differ from the results obtained through studies of the average population and studies of prisoners who are not persistent recidivists. Differences were taken into account in the intelligence level tested with the Wechsler-Bellevue scale and in the personality measured by the MMPI; - what the findings of psychiatric examinations were (examinations to which 59% of the recidivists were subjected); - the setting apart and analysis, on the basis of the entire material, of some of the personality determinants in behavioural deviations of these individuals. The Wechsler-Bellevue scale was administered to 211 of the persistent recidivists. The results obtained testify to the fact that they markedly differ from 'the average population and the level of their intelligence belongs to the lowest as compared with the results of various other studies of prisoners. As many as 44% of -them had a lower IQ (IQ below 91), 27% were dull (IQ 80-90), 11.8% of boderline intelligence (IQ 66-79) and 5.2% were mentally deficient. The percentage of individuals with the above average intelligence was among those studied here small (9.0%). Though the level of education and the acquired professional qualifications were as a rule very low in the group under investigation, they were particularly low in the case of those recidivists, who had a lowered IQ. The lowered level of intelligence thus made it for many of the recidivists difficult to obtain primary education and to learn a trade. The majority of those with a low level of intelligence were individuals who had not even graduated from primary school, who had learned no trade and revealed substantial shortcomings in reading and writing. (As many as 44.5% of those investigated were rather bad in reading and writing). The results obtained through intelligence tests also make one reach the conclusion, that most probably the deterioration of certain intellectual functions noticed with the recidivists under investigation were connected with their alcoholism. Though it was not established (which is in accordance with the results of a number of studies) that the recidivists who revealed symptoms of alcoholism and a lower IQ than the remaining prisoners, it nevertheless was found in the case of alcoholics that more frequently the verbal scale outdistanced the performance scale; besides, tests of alcoholics revealed more frequently profiles with symptoms, according to Wechsler, typical of alcoholics in an advanced stage of alcoholism. No significant differences in intelligence level were found between recidivists, depending on the 'type of offences committed by them. But it was found, that recidivists, who were for the first time convicted when already older than 20 years, revealed a lower IQ than recidivists, who had prior convictions at an earlier age. Among recidivists with a later start of convictions is a particularly large number in the genesis of whose delinquency alcoholism played a role and their inability independently to perform the basic tasks in life, which may be connected also with their low IQ. MMPI was administered to 148 recidivists serving according to its authors’ intentions to evaluate the most important personality traits, influencing the personal and social adjustment. The results obtained indicated marked personality disorders in the case of persistent recidivists as compared with other groups of people, studied with the same inventory, who did not commit offences and did not reveal mental disorders, and also in comparison with prisoners with a lesser degree of social degradation. Among the profiles obtained from these recidivists very frequently high-ranging profiles could be found (48%), where at least one scale reached 81-100 points.High profiles were rarely found in other Polish research. The average profile of the recidivists studied here shows a predominance of scale 6 (Pa) and 4 (Pd) and high too are scales 8 (Sc) and 2 (D), pointing to considerable hostility on the part of the sampled individuals, their suspicious attitude to and lack of confidence in their environment, irritability, shallowness of emotional reactions, alienation, lack of positive family ties and defiance of moral norms. Typical of this group is also a considerable moodiness, low self-esteem, lack of belief in one’s own possibilities and mental demobilization. The average profile of this group is similar to a psychopatic profile, but (as is the case in certain other Polish studies of prisoners) with a substantial paranoid and schizoid component. The results obtained point to greater personality disorders in recidivists, revealing symptoms of alcoholism than in those, where such symptoms were not found. Alcoholics obtained higher scores than non-alcoholics in all the clinical scales. There were, however, found no differences in the shape of the mean profile, which in both compared groups is similar and characterized by elevation of the same scales. Alcoholics revealed higher scores in all the scales; the differences noticed reached a level of statistical significance in all the scales with the exception of scales 4 (Pd) and 2 (D). This result is interesting, because in various foreign studies on alcoholics it was found that precisely these two scales differentiated in a statistically significant manner in the case of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. But in the population of persistent recidivists, characterized in general by marked psycho-social maladjustment, dating back to childhood, and alcoholism of some of them has its roots in this maladjustment, it was found, that alcoholics failed to differ significantly from non-alcoholics in scale 4 (Pd). The life situation of all the recidivists studied (within prison walls because of convictions) undoubtedly exerted its influence on the scores in scale 2 (D), in the case of alcoholics as well as non-alcoholics. Expert psychiatric opinions (regarding various periods of the life of the persistent recidivists) and/or results of psychiatric examinations conducted during this survey were collected for 60% of the cases. These data show that only in 10% of the examined recidivists neither personality disorders nor any other mental disorders were found. In as many as 70% of the recidivists, subjected to psychiatric expert examination, personality disorders of various etiology were discovered: psychopathy in 48%, encephalopathy in 22%; in 40% alcoholism was found, appearing as such or jointly with other disorders. Data regarding the remaining recidivists, not embraced by psychiatric examinations, indicate, that the majority (as many as 63%) of them were marked by advanced alcoholism, or had suffered from brain damage or psychological examinations revealed mental deficiency. After having studied data related to the remaining 37% of cases not subjected to psychiatric examination, it turned out, that though the above mentioned disorders were not found, nevertheless the majority of them were people, whose behaviour was marked by considerable agressiveness as well as self-aggression and only in 9% of the recidivists, not subjected to psychiatric examinations, no such behaviour patterns were found. The entire information about all the prisoners who were persistent recidivists - those who underwent psychiatric examinations as well as those who did not - indicates that individuals who revealed no distinct psychopathological symptoms are rare among them, amounting according to estimates to around 10% (taking into account the established percentage among those who underwent psychiatric examinations), and to 20%, if one would take into consideration also data about recidivists who underwent no psychiatric examinations, taking into account their mental deficiency, alcoholism and brain damage. The last mentioned percentage (20%) would, however, decrease markedly, if one would take into account data about certain behavioural disturbances of the recidivists, above all about their aggressiveness and self-aggression. When discussing the entire material special attention should be drawn to the fact that in one-fifth of the group encephalopathy (disturbances connected with brain damage) was diagnosed and in another 9% encephalopathy was suspected, since it was 'to a considerable degree justified by the entire aspect of the data stemming from the interview. In additional 25% it was found during interviews that they had suffered from concussions of the skull, combined with loss of consciousness. But in these cases (there nevertheless, was a lack of sufficient data, confirming this information. Data regarding the age at which the recidivists suffered from brain damage or diseases of the central nervous system indicate, that in the case of 40% of them such diseases took place during the earlier period of their - life (complications of delivery, traumas or meningitis at preschool age), with only one-third it occurred when they were already young adults or adults. Those recidivists who suffered from brain damage, frequently distinguished themselves by substantial impulsiveness, they were aggressive, committed acts of self-aggression and badly adjusted to prison conditions. Thus, those who had suffered from brain damage obviously had difficulties in social adjustment. However, with approximately half of those who had suffered such damage, the process of social maladjustment had already begun before they had suffered such damage. On the basis of the entire aspect of data about the behaviour of the recidivists during various periods of their life - in prison as well as at liberty - a psychopathological characteristic outline was drawn up for each one of them. Included in this characteristic outline were those personality traits appearing with special intensity, which according to the psychologists, conducting the survey in prison, were of special significance for social maladjustment in each case. A comparison of the above-mentioned characteristic traits yielded a picture, similar to that obtained in surveys conducted with MMPI. The majority of the recidivists were defined as touchy, quick-tempered, incapable to make systematic efforts, with insufficient resistance to cope with the difficulties of life. They often revealed a deep conviction of having been wronged and in connection with this strong resentment, directed against their environment. As many as 45% of the recidivists were defined as showing substantial disturbances in their emotional attitude towards their surroundings: of these 29% - as being unable to establish lasting, positive emotional ties with their milieu, 16% had completely broken all ties with their nearest family, due to intensified conflicts with them. Relatively frequently (52%) could be isolated a type of a passive recidivist whose passivity was partly being explained by his constant lack of achievements, not only in the sphere of approved social activity, but also in the sphere of delinquency. 59% revealed marked impulsiveness; these were individuals, whose behaviour was characterized by shortrange activity, without any more distant goals, lack of giving any thought to the consequences of their own conduct, an attitude aimed at getting temporary, immediate pleasure out of it. The impulsiveness was particulary striking in two types of behaviour patterns: in aggression and self -aggression. Three-fourths of the recidivists were defined as aggressive (such who time and again, in various situations and in regard to various individuals had behaved aggressively and those who revealed generalized, great hostility). Among the aggressive ones one-third were those, who behaved aggressively only when /not sober. In the case of a considerable part of the aggressive individuals information about their aggressiveness was from a period, when they were still of school age. More frequently aggressive were those who showed symptoms of alcoholism than those who did not. Frequently, acts of self-aggression were sombined with aggressiveness. Acts of self-aggression were committed by 56%. Many of such acts were not some specific reaction to prison situations, the majority of the perpetrators had committed acts of self-aggression while at liberty (28% of them committed self-aggression only when at liberty, 41% - while at liberty and in prison, too). More frequently alcoholics committed acts of self -aggression than those who showed no symptoms of alcoholism. The biographies of recidivists indicate that significant for the genesis and the deepening of their social maladjustment was a negative family milieu, during their childhood as well as personality disorders revealed by them, which grew in intensity in connection with later experiences in life and also with their alcoholism. A comparison of persistent recidivists, coming from families, evaluated as negative, with the remaining persistent recidivists, revealed a number of essential differences among them. Recidivists from negative family milieux began more frequently to commit theft while still under age, more frequently revealed aggressiveness during their school period, more often did not graduate primary school, began at an especially early age to drink alcohol to excess. In individuals brought up in a negative atmosphere and deprived of care, the early symptoms of maladjustment revealed considerable durability. Alcoholism - having its roots in the social maladjustment of the recidivists studied here - deepened existing disorders, proof of which are the results, presented above, pointing to lowering of certain intellectual functions with some of them and personality disorders in the case of those recidivists who showed symptoms of alcoholism. This testifies to the fact that alcoholics were more frequently marked by passivity, impulsiveness in action, aggressiveness and self-aggression. The data collected indicate that multiple stays in prison intensified the alienation of the recidivists and hampered their attempts at social readjustment. Imprisonment weakened the anyhow already weak ties with the family and limited their social contacts to other prisoners only. In regard to the prison officers the recidivists revealed considerable hostility, which, as it seems, could not remain without an influence on their attitude towards other people representing the authorities. Though terms meant for 'the persistent recidivists a compulsory break in prison drinking, this, however, did not prevent, as results from their statements, the further drinking of alcohol to excess immediately after their release from prison. These studies reveal that persistent recidivists are not a homogeneous population. There could be noticed distinct differences between those among them (who account for 70.4%) who had early convictions after the age of 17, when still being young adults and those (29.6%) who had their first conviction at a later age, when 21 years old and more. Those “late” recidivists are less socially degraded, they committed rather petty offences, most frequently connected with drinking alcohol to excess.Though the “late” recidivists do not suffer substantially from the “early” recidivists as regards the number of those showing symptoms of alcoholism and though they started later th&n the “early” offenders to drink too much alcohol, there nevertheless are more individuals among them, whose delinquency is already of a secondary nature, making its appearance in their life later than systematic abuse of alcohol. In the case of “late” recidivists it was found more often than in that of “early” ones that they had a lower IQ, but there were among them fewer individuals considered aggressive and more rarely individuals guilty of self-aggresion. The data presented before, point to the heterogeneity of the offences committed by persistent recidivists. First of all there should be set apart among the recidivists those (approximately one-fourth of the total) who, on the basis of the offences committed by them may be listed as “serious” and the remaining ones who should rather be considered perpetrators of petty offences. In addition to this there can be set apart 27% of the perpetrators of offences exclusively against property and 9% of recidivists who were exclusively guilty of offences against the person. The majority of the recidivists were, however, the perpetrators or a variety of offences, which was undoubtedly due to drinking alcohol to excess. Those who committed theft, under 'the influence of alcohol committed assaults, some of those who committed offences against the person started in connection with their growing habit of drinking alcohol to excess, to steal, in order to obtain the money needed for alcohol. Though the abuse of alcohol effaced the differences of delinquency of the various categories of recidivists, it was possible to establish that those among them, who committed exclusively or mainly offences against the person (27.6%) more frequently had in the past suffered from brain damage. Those individuals studied, who were almost exclusively perpetrators of offences of an assaultive nature (18.7%), differed from the remaining ones by an essentially smaller degree of social maladjustment, the later start of delinquency (more often only above the age of 20), by more systematic work at 'the time they were still adolescents, and the fact that more often they had learned a trade and spent less time in prison. Often poor alcohol tolerance was found with these individuals. Proof of the heterogeneous nature of the population of persistent recidivists are the results, pointing to the significant differences among those of them, who were convicted for the first time when above twenty years old and those, who were brought before a court and convicted much earlier, between the perpetrators of offences against the person and the remaining persistent recidivists. To the heterogenous features of the examined population point also the previously mentioned results, indicating significant differences among recidivists, revealing symptoms of alcoholism and those where such symptoms were not found.

Prognoza recydywy u nieletnich przestępców oraz wyniki badań prognostycznych 180 recydywistów w wieku 15-16 lat

100%

Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1965

issue III

121-281

Predictions of recidivism may be formulated solely in categories of probability. In predicting human behaviour it is impossible to take account and to control all factors that influence it. Causal relationships and the general laws that explain it are still largely unknown and generally the data available on the subject are incomplete. It is therefore necessary to expect that there may be disagreement between predicted and actual behaviour. Predictions of recidivism may be formulated solely in categories of probability. In predicting human behaviour it is impossible to take account and to control all factors that influence it. Causal relationships and the general laws that explain it are still largely unknown and generally the data available on the subject are incomplete. It is therefore necessary to expect that there may be disagreement between predicted and actual behaviour. Nonetheless, despite these reservations, individual predictions of recidivism of juvenile delinquents are to all practical purposes a constant factor in the decisions of the law courts. The essential problem therefore is not whether it is possible to make individual predictions, where there is always a chance of error, but how to arrive at predictions a large proportion of which will be correct. Literature in the field of criminology devoted to this subject distinguishes the statistical and clinical methodes of prediction. These two methods were studied by the Department of Criminology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The object of the study was to investigate a number of questions that were raised by research conducted in other countries on the Department's own empirical material.Below are given the problems related to the subject of clinical predictions: 1. Since clinical predictions play an important role in present practice it was advisable to learn to what extent the predictions made in our study were correct as regards juvenile recidivism. 2. It was equally important to discover how a given prediction was justified, what factors are considered significant in predictions made in individual cases. 3. It was resolved to make a study of the subjective aspects of clinical predictions: whether persons who received the same education and professional training tend to make the same predictions regarding the same juveniles? Whether predictions made by different persons for two groups of juveniles will prove to be accurate in the same extent? Problems of statistical predictions were related to the following questions: 1. Whether the predictive factors established in the projects carried out in other countries have any bearing in the predictions relating to juvenile delinquents in Poland? 2. It was resolved that predictive factors found in one group would be incorporated into the experimental prediction table and used in making predictions for another group. It was further resolved to check-up on the correctness of the predictions. In constructing the experimental prediction table the goal was not to construct a table designed for practical use but on the basis of our own experiments to identify the problems that arise when using a prediction table. 3. Special importance was attached to a careful analysis of cases where the predictions made with the aid of the table were incorrect. The research planned according to these guidelines was conducted in two stages. In the first stage clinical predictions were made and experimental prediction table was constructed for a representative sample of 15 and 16 year old recidivists of Warsaw. In the second stage data was tested on a new sample of 15 and 16 year old recidivists and instances were analyzed where the statistical predictions proved incorrect. The initial research embraced 100 recidivists of 15 and 16 years of age out of 202 recidivists, of the entife population of juvenile recidivists who in 1954 came before the juvenile court of Warsaw on charges of larceny and who were embraced by earlier research on juvenile recidivism conducted by the Department of Criminology. The earlier research yielded data on the after-conduct of the recidivists studied that covered a span of three years. It was established that 51 per cent of them commited offences in the follow-up period. First of all the clinical predictions on the 100 recidivists were based on the findings of environmental as well as psychological and medical examinations and without knowledge of the findings of the follow-up studies. Two psychologists who had experience in criminological studies made predictions for each of the 100 recidivists. The psychologists were not in touch with each other and did not estabiish joint criteria beforehand. Good behaviour was predicted if it was assumed that the recidivist would not commit any offences in the future, bad predictions were made if the feeling was that he could commit offences and uncertain if no definite decision was reached. If the two psychologists differed in their predictions they would discuss the subject and try to arrive at a consensus. The predictions made in this manner shaped up as follows: 18 per cent were good, 57 per cent bad and 25 per cent uncertain. There was a significant statistical relationship between the predictions and the commission or non-commission of offences in the course of the next three years by the 100 recidivists studied that may be expressed by a level of significance of p < 0.001. The bad predictions were correct in 70 per cent of the cases, the good in 83 per cent. Thus an overwhelming proportion of the predictions was correct and the proportiorr of uncertain predictions (25 per cent) inconsiderable. The problem arises what part do subjective factors play in the clinical predictions made by two different persons? Two separate predictions regarding the same juvenile agreed in 70 per cent of the cases. Greater agreement was found in the bad predictions (77 per cent) than in the uncertain (60 per cent) and the good (61 per cent) predictions. Moreover, there were large differences in the reasons given for the predictions issued to the same individual. The two psychologists frequently listed different factors in arriving at the same decisions. A great many factors were listed as reasons for the predictions which, based on an analysis of data relating to the individual cases, seemed to bear significantly upon the predictions regarding the juveniles studied. Among those mentioned were envinonmental factors, personality traits, demonstration of antisocial behaviour and information about the offences committed. The next step in the first stage of the project focused on statistical predictions. A study was made of the relationship between 23 factors and the behaviour of the 100 recidivists of 15 and 16 years of age under study over a span of three years. Account was taken of factors which were found significant in the prediction of juvenile recidivism by the research conducted in other countries and of factors which were seemed significant to the problem in the study of juvenile recidivism in Poland. It was established that a significant statistical relationship existed between the following factors and the continued antisocial behaviour of the subjects under study: 1) early age (below 11) of the onset of symptoms of demoralization, 2) early age of onset of antisocial behaviour (below 13), 3) persistent stealing, 4) membership in a group of delinquents or keeping bad company, 5) personality disorders, 6) drinking, 7) running away from home, B) Iack of schooling or work. The findings indicate that the early age of the onset of antisocial behaviour and the far-gone demoralization of the juvenile are important factors in predicting recidivism. However, no relationship was found, and this seemed strange and called for explanation, between recidivism and any of the factors that characterized the family environment. This contrasted with the findings of the previous study that embraced all the juvenile recidivists between the ages of 8 and. 16. The oldest of these were included in the present study. In order to find an explanation for the disparity an additional study, one that was not initially planned, was made of the 28 factors and their relationship to recidivism that continued over a period of three years among the youngest of the recidivists studied at an earlier time in the Department of Criminology. Toward this end 68 of the youngest subjects between the ages of 8 and 13 were isolated from the whole population of recidivists ranging from 8 to 16 years of age. It was found that the following factors had a statistically significant relationship with continued recidivism in the younger age group: 1) alcoholism in the family, 2) the home atmosphere, 3) lack of supervision by parents, 4) systematic truancy, b) early age of first symptoms of demoralization, 6) early age of first offences, 7) membership in a delinquent group, B) personaiitv disorders. Consequently, a slighty different set of factors ought to be taken into account when making predictions for younger recidivists. Environmental factors of the home are far more significant in predictions for younger delinquents. In older delinquents it was totally immaterial whether they came from a good or a bad home environment as far as predictions were concerned. A good home which had failed to guard a child of up to 15 and 16 years of age from becoming a delinquent couId handły guard the child against recidivism. In younger delinquents a good lamily atmosphere, excellent supervision, absence of alcoholism all are positive predictive factors. Younger juveniles are still highly responsive to the influence of the home and careful supervision may guard them against further demoralization. Our research substantiated the thesis that research on the prediction of juvenile recidivism ought to be conducted separately for narrow and strictly defined age levels. The age of the subject at the time the prediction is made is an important factor that must be kept in view.

Wielokrotni recydywiści o wczesnym i późnym początku karalności

100%

Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1969

issue IV

59-104

This part of the work presents an analysis of the process of social degradation regarding prisoners, persistent recidivists (convicted not less than four times and imprisoned for at least the fourth time), aged between 26 and 35. The investigations embraced 220 prisoners whose delinquency was closely examined. This work however takes particular note of those, who relatively late (only after 21) had their first trial in the Court of Justice. First of all, it was important to determine whether they were less socially maladjusted in their childhood than the recidivists whose trials began earlier (between 17 and 20), what were the origins of their delinquency and what factors influenced the etiology of their recidivism. Those recidivists whose first trials began at 21 or later constitute a relatively small group of 29,6%, among the 220 recidivists investigated. The remaining recidivists of 26-35 years of age had their first trials earlier. 1. On the basis of the interviews and after a check in Juvenile Courts it has been established that among the late recidivists (convicted for the first time at the age of 21 at least) only about one third (30,7%) were those who committed offences (thefts as a rule) as juveniles (under 17). Among the early recidivists (convicted for the first time at the age of 17-20) such subjects constituted 60,0%. In general, among the late recidivists, those who stole or committed other offences as juveniles constituted 33,8% while among the early recidivists such subjects constituted as many as 65,1%. These figures show that more of the early recidivists than of the latę recidivists committed offences (thefts as a rule) as juveniles. There is a statistically significant correlation between the perpetration of offences by the subjects when they were juveniles and the early beginning of their trials after they were 17 (dependence at the level of significance 0,001). Thefts committed by the late recidivists in their juvenility were in general less frequent and less serious than those committed at that period by the early recidivists. Only 43,8% of the late recidivists of whom it was possible to obtain some data relating to the places of thefts they had committed as juveniles, were stealing outside their homes and schools. Among the early recidivists such persons constitute as many as 80%. 24,5% of the early recidivists were tried at least twice in Juvenile Courts while among the late recidivists such persons constituted merely 6,1%. The division of the subjects into two groups according to the age at which they were first tried after they were 17 is then justified by the ascertainments of the actual beginnings of their delinquency when they were juveniles. Among the late recidivists, the subjects who started committing offences as juveniles and continued to do so until their first trial when they were at least 21, constitute only 13,8%. The remaining late recidivists, who committed offences as juveniles (20%), did so only sporadically or altogether stopped to commit them but recommenced in connection with their later abuse of alcohol. 2. The fact that despite a late, in general, beginning of their actual delinquency the late recidivists were repeatedly convicted and repeatedly imprisoned, may be connected with the circumstance that the subjects who were socially maladjusted already as juveniles constituted two thirds of the total. However, the late recidivists manifested social maladjustment in their juvenility less often than early recidivists, among whom as many as 90,8% were socially maladjusted at that time. (Social maladjustment was established in 83% of cases of the total of the investigated persistent recidivists). These late recidivists who did not display any symptoms of social maladjustment in their juvenility began, in general, to commit offences in connection with their abuse of alcohol, and their entire delinquency as adults is connected with alcoholism: they commit chiefly aggressive offences in the state of inebriety, also thefts, the proceeds of which are immediately spent on alcohol. 3. The childhood of the subjects was characterized by considerable disturbances of their study at school. Only 43,6% of the investigated (47,7% of the late recidivists and 42,5% of the early recidivists) finished the 7-grade elementary school. The education of the investigated recidivists is lower than that of the total of prisoners. 16,5% of the subjects finished three grades, at most. Those who did not reach the sixth grade of the elementary school constitute 41,4% of the total of recidivists (40,0% among the late recidivists and 42,5% among the early recidivists). Similar gaps in elementary education have also been established through investigations on juvenile recidivists, previously conducted by the Department of Criminology. It has been established that the subjects did not finish the elementary school on account of their having been brought up in a negative family environment, lower of their intelligence, social maladjustment in their juvenile years and war-time difficulties of some part of the subjects. About two thirds of the subjects repeated some grades. Truancy was systematically practised by 54,6%, of the investigated (40,4% of the late recidivists and 60,4% of the early recidivists). In 60% of cases the subjects stated that teachers had often complained of their bad behaviour at school. About half of the subjects declared that they had considerable difficulties at school. 50,6% of the subjects drank liquor as juveniles at least once a month or wine at least once a week. (36,5% of the late recidivists and 57,0% of the early recidivists). 41,1% of the subjects ran away from home (21,5% of the late recidivists and 49% of the early recidivists). The subjects (60,0%) often kept company, as adolescents, with friends who committed thefts (38,6% of the late recidivists and as many as 68% of the early recidivists). In this way, the late recidivists less often than the early recidivists displayed as adolescents particular symptoms of social maladjustment. 4. The subjects' family environments revealed in majority of cases a syndrome of factors which were negative from thę educational point of view. Family environments, evaluated negatively because of alcoholism in the family, lack of systematic work of the father or delinquency, constituted no less than 60,3% (50% among late recidivists and 64,4% among early recidivists). Systematic abuse of alcohol by fathers was often (52,4%) established in the families of the investigated (46% of the fathers of the late recidivists and 61,4% of the fathers of the early recidivists). The percentage of fathers who systematically abused of alcohol even before birth of the investigated is also considerable and amounts to 43%. (35% of the late recidivists and 48,3%, of the early recidivists). Alcoholism was established in a fairly considerable percentage of families of parents of the investigated, namely their fathers or brothers (55,6%). The late recidivists were for the most part brought up in only one educational environment, i.e. they had only one home and were under constant care of at least' one and the same person (73,8% of the late recidivists). During the childhood of the early recidivists, changes of their educational environments were established more often (45,5% of cases). Nearly one third of the early recidivists were brought up in at least three educational environments while such frequent changes of educational environments regarding the late recidivists were established in only 13% of cases. Family homes of the late recidivists were educationally more advantageous than those of the early recidivists. Educationally negative factors such as alcoholism or delinquency of fathers were established less often. Similarly, changes of educational environments during their childhood were less frequent. 5. The percentage of those subjects who came from large families was considerable: 36,4% of the investigated had three or more brothers or sisters. Brothers and sisters of the investigated either displayed similar lacks in elementary education but some of them were on a much higher educational level. In 36,4% of cases the investigated had brothers or sisters who did not finish elementary school. As many as 28,5% of the investigated had somęone in the family who graduated from a vocational school. Higher education appeared in families of the investigated in 7,2% of cases. In many families there were brothers without any professional qualifications whatever (53,7 % of cases). It is significar that many persistent recidivists had brothers who displayed symptoms of social maladjustment' committed offencęs or were judicially convicted. Social maladjustment of at least one brother was established in two-thirds of cases, 44,7% of the investigated had someone in their families who committed unrevealed thefts or was tried by Juvenile Courts or Courts of Law for thefts and other offences. Percentages of the late recidivists with socially maladjusted siblings did not differ from similar percentages of the early recidivists. 6. At the time of the investigations 41,8% of the investigated were bachelors, which constitutes a percentage twice higher than the established percentage of the total of men in Poland aged between 25 and 34. Bachelors appeared more often among the early recidivists (45,8%) than among the late recidivists (32,3%). However, most marriages contracted by the late recidivists were subsequently broken (54,5%). In the period preceding their arrest only 28,6% of the investigated stayed with their wives. 19,5% lived outside their family circle at that time. Wives of the investigated often came from the ranks of socially maladjusted women. 28,8% of them were abusing of alcohol. 18% were convicted by Courts of Law. 8% of the wives of the late recidivists and 17,5% of the wives of the early recidivists were suspected to practice prostitution. In two thirds of cases within the family backgrounds of the wives there could be found brothers or fathers who were abusing of alcohol. A relatively good family life of the actually married recidivists was established only in 36,3%, of cases. In the remaining families there occurred constant quarrels and rows, mostly provoked by the investigated in the state of inebriety. It has been established, that as many as 57% of late recidivists and 52,9% of early recidivists were aggressive to their families in the state of inebriety. 46% of late recidivists and 31,6% of early recidivists took things and money from their homes and spent them on alcohol. 21,5% of the late recidivists and 10,3% of early recidivists were tried at least once for maltreating their families in state of inebriety. The situation of children brought up in such families is certainly very unfavourable. 63% of late recidivists and 50% of early recidivists had children and relatively often they presented serious educational difficulties, had difficulties at school or displayed neurotic symptoms. Appearance of any of these symptoms was established in 58,6% of the families of the late recidivists in children over 7 and in 70% of the families of the early recidivists in children of the same age. 7. One of the most important questions which revealed itself at the examination of the social adjustment of the investigated during the period when they were over 17 was the course of their professional work and particularly the appearancę among them of individuals who either did not work at all or worked only by snatches. Most of the investigated did not have any profession at all (56,1%), not even such, which could be acquired at a short course or at work. Only few of the investigated had professional qualifications acquired at vocational schools (8,2%-13,8% among the late recidivists and 6% among the early recidivists). The late recidivists more often had a profession (55,4%) than the early recidivists (40,4%). Many late recidivists however, who had some professional qualifications had with time stopped working in that profession (58,4% already did not work in their profession at the time preceding their last arrest). Usually, it was due to a degradation caused by the abuse of alcohol. Since the investigated recidivists were of different age and spent different periods of time in prison, it was ascertained, that it would be best to compare the duration of their respective work by means of percentages (the duration of work done in their life beginning at 17 - in relation to the whole period during which the investigated were at liberty and were able to work). Already at the time when the investigated were 17 -20 a distinct difference in the duration of work of the early and the late recidivists has become manifest. Among the late recidivists, more frequent are cases of such subjects who at the age of 17 - 20 worked longer than half the time in which they were able to work while among the early recidivists, more frequent were cases of working less than half that time (statistical dependence significant on significance level 0,001). Differences in the duration of work of the early and the late recidivists become evident also at the examination of the entire period of their life, beginning at 17. The investigated who worked more than half of the time in which they were able to work, constituted 30% of the total of the investigated recidivists (27% among early recidivists and nearly half of late recidivists). Only few recidivists worked longer than three-quarters of the time in which they were able to work (merely 11,5%). In this way, a considerable majority of the investigated recidivists worked only unsystematically or did not work at all. As many as 35% of the investigated worked only less than one-fourth of the time in which they were able to work. The irregular character of their work was due to their early social maladjustment. Those investigated who worked very little in their life were more often maladjusted as juveniles than those who worked for longer periods (dependence statistically significant on the significance level 0,001). Besides, in the origins of the subjects' attitude to work, the absence of vocational training, connected with the unfinished elementary school and the lowered intellectual level, constituted the essential element. This lack of professional qualifications was an obstacle in getting a job of a certain social status. To simple, physical work, demanding considerable physical effort, the majority of the investigated had a decidedly negative attitude. Systematic abuse of alcohol was another factor which contributed to the irregular character of their work. For instance, according to the evidence given by their employers, the subjects often drank alcohol during working hours. Only for 16,4% of the investigated their wages constituted their sole source of maintenance. However, the investigated whose sources of maintenance were exclusively legal (wages or help of the family) constituted 34,1%. Living on various sorts of offences exclusively (i.e. besides thefts also other offences against property, cheating at hazardous gams, illegal trade, etc.) was established only with 17,7%, of the investigated; recidivists living exclusively on committing offences appeared more often among early recidivists 20,6%) than among late recidivists (10,7%). The percentage of persistent recidivists living only on thefts was merely 8,6% of the total. The fact, that a relatively large percentage (36,8%) was supported, even partly, by parents or wives deserves consideration. 8. Among the investigated persistent recidivists an immense majority constitute men, who systematically abuse of alcohol (89,5%) whilst more than a half of the investigated (53,2%) are alcohol addicts. 50,6% of the investigated, already as juveniles, began drinking wine at least once a week or vodka at least once a month. 51,3% of the investigated drank at least a quarter-liter of vodka three times a week or more, before they were 21. Similarly, the investigated persistent recidivists early displayed first symptoms of alcoholism (61% of recidivists, who were alcohol addicts displayed distinct symptoms of alcoholism already under 28). A distinct abstinence syndrome was established in regard to 76% of alcoholic recidivists; it became evident already at the age of 27. The investigated who already suffered from alcoholic psychosis, delirium tremens for the most part, constitute among alcoholic recidivists a percentage as high as 21,4%. The average age of the subjects showing first symptoms of alcoholism is very young, much younger than that established in various investigations of alcohol addicts. 40% of the investigated alcohol addicts were treated at least once, usually under pressure of their families, in out-patients clinics, but very soon they interrupted the treatment and did not return to the clinic any more. The long process of systematic drinking of alcoholic beverages beginning almost at the time of their juvenility doubtlessly strengthened the symptoms of social maladjustment and personality deviations displayed by persistent recidivists. Data relating to the beginnings of the abuse of alcohol show that late recidivists began drinking alcoholic beverages later than early recidivists and they did it less often as juveniles (36,4% of late recidivists and 57,5% of early recidivists abused of alcohol as juveniles). However there is no difference in percentage of alcohol addicts among late recidivists and early recidivists. Regarding late recidivists the systematic abuse of alcohol plays, despite its later beginnings, a much more important role in the etiology of their delinquency than with the early recidivists. In general, in case of early recidivists, perpetration of offences preceded their systematic drinking of alcoholic beverages. On the other hand, in case of late recidivists, systematic drinking of alcohol and subsequent alcoholism constitute factors of the greatest importance regarding the origins of their persistent recidivism. It is fitting to mention, that considerable percentages of offenders systematically drinking alcoholic beverages in large quantities were already established by investigations previously conducted by the Department of Criminology, on juvenile and young recidivists (57% and 75%). In this connection, the creation of special institutions for treatment of alcoholic offenders should be acknowledged as an urgent social demand. 9. Over 17, the delinquency of late recidivists is less serious than that of early recidivists. There are more perpetrators of small thefts among late recidivists who seldom steal objects of greater value. Also there are less perpetrators of robberies among late recidivists (20%) than among early recidivists (34,8%). Late recidivists represent an altogether different type of offender than early recidivists. There are less “professional” (24,6%) offenders among them while such offenders constitute as high a percentage as 44,6% among early recidivists. Offenders, committing thefts in connection with their alcoholism, appear more often among late recidivists as well as offenders committing almost exclusively offences of the so-called hooligan character: against persons or public officers (mostly the insulting or attacking of the policemen). The subjects belonging to those two groups constitute 53,8% of the late and only 24,4% of the early recidivists. The difference in the gravity of offences committed by late and early recidivists is made evident also by penalties which were imposed upon them. There are more investigated among late recidivists sentenced exclusively to less than two years of prison (50,7%), whilst among early recidivists they constitute merely 20%. 10. When discussing the problem of juvenile delinquency we cannot bypass the subjects' personality disorders dating in many of them as early as their childhood. These disorders are made evident by biographies of the investigated and by dimensions of their social maladjustment as well as by a characteristic structure of offences, among which prevail offences against property, relatively unimportant, while offences connected with aggression constitute a considerable percentage. They are also shown by the fact, that a relatively considerable percentage of the investigated recidivists stayed in prison longer than at liberty. This work does not examine in detail problems of personality disorders (it will be the subject of a separate work). Nevertheless, certain matters should be touched upon. It has been ascertained on the basis of interviews that in 18,3% of cases there existed a justified suspicion that the investigated had a brain injury at birth. Besides, it was often ascertained that the investigated displayed neurotic symptoms in their childhood (in 66,2% of cases), particularly enuresis (24% of the investigated) and stuttering (15%). On the basis of the information supplied by the mothers and by the investigated themselves who confirmed that they had frequent fights at school and were pestering their siblings at home, it has been established that 44,9% were aggressive during their childhood. This aggressiveness had been found to be more frequent in cases of the early recidivists than in cases of the late recidivists. (The correlation between the early age at the first trial and the aggressiveness in childhood was statistically significant at the significance level 0.01). The percentage of those subjects who had ever suffered from illnesses in the central nervous system or who had suffered concussion of the brain was relatively considerable and amounted to 28,6%. The psychiatric expert evidence found in the records of 76 investigated, contained diagnosis of encephalopathy in regard to 20% of recidivists. In connection with the fact that many investigated were tried for committing aggressive offences, the problem of aggressiveness of persistent recidivists was given particular attention. In the first place those investigated were considered aggressive, whose behaviour was often aggressive (physical aggression) as well as those, who showed evident hostility to their environment. The investigated considered aggressive, constituted a considerable percentage (60%); moreover, 14,8% were aggressive only in the state of inebriety. Late recidivists were less often aggressive (45,1%) than early recidivists (66,4%). 50,3% of aggressive recidivists committed acts of self-aggression. The correIation between committing self-aggression and aggressiveness was statistically significant (on significance level 0,001). It is remarkable that various acts of self-aggression were established with 43,2% of the investigated (49,7% of early recidivists and, 27,7% of late recidivists). As many as 34,1% of the total of the investigated recidivists committed self-aggression when they were at liberty. Low professional qualifications of the investigated and non-graduation of the majority of them from elementary schools were partly connected with a relatively large percentage, in the investigated group, of men with a lowered level of intelligence. 44,1% of them, tested by Wechsler-Bellevue scale attained intelligence quotients below 91, while 17,1% were below 80. Examining these results it is necessary to take into consideration the fact, that the investigated group displayed a marked mental deterioration (the deterioration of over 20% was established in cases of 42,8% of the investigated). This may be connected with alcoholism of the investigated.

Wyniki badań 110 dziewcząt “nie uczących się i nie pracujących”

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Kossowska A.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1972

issue V

84-117

The publication presents the findings of an inquiry conducted among 110 girls aged 15 - 17 who had been directed, on the grounds of being “out of school and out of work”, to two one-year vocational schools in Warsaw (catering and clothing). All the girls enrolled in these schools were the subjects of the study. The first point to be established was whether the girls classified as “out of school and out of work” had in fact not been attending school or gainfully employed for a longer period of time prior to admission. In point of fact the job question did not really enter the picture since almost all the subjects had never yet been employed, partly on account of their age: only 31 per cent of them had reached their 17th birthday at the time of the inquiry. Most of them had previously been attending school, while the period of idleness was as a rule very short: as many as 70 per cent had been in attendance until the end of the preceding school year and had found themselves without a place at the beginning of the new one. The number which had quit or interrupted school attendance in the course of the preceding school year came to 24 per cent; only 6 per cent had longer breaks in schooling of a year or more. However, if we forego this formal criterion of non-attendance and take into account not only failure to enroll in a school, but also systematic truancy, it turns out that the number not attending school is much larger: two-thirds of the subjects had either left school or, though nominally in attendance had in fact been systematically truant in the course of the preceding school year. The question of the criteria employed to classify young people as “out of school and out of work” merits special emphasis because, as we shall see, it was systematic staying away from school though nominally enrolled rather than brief official breaks in attendance which proved bad prediction for subsequent adjustment in the one-year vocational school. Two-thirds of the girl subjects had fallen behind in elementary school, and among 46 per cent this retardation came to at least two years. The school retardation of the subjects was not only much greater than the general rate among children in the higher grades of elementary school in Poland, but also greater than among boy subjects attending analogous one-year vocational schools. So large a degree of school retardation prompts the question whether poor progress was not due to the diminished intelligence level of the subjects. This point was examined with the help of Raven’s Progressive Matrices, tests of achievement in basic subjects, and the opinions obtained from teachers at the schools which the subjects had previously attended. A large percentage of the girls (41 per cent) had low and very low Raven scores (under 25 percentiles). Girls attending one-year vocational schools had far worse scores than average school children, and worse ones than boys attending one-year vocational schools and even than boys attending two-year vocational schools. These Raven scores must be put into the context of data obtained by other means. As had been said, tests were made of the level of achievement in basic subjects (Polish and mathematics). The percentage of subjects who displayed a very low level of achievement was greater than the percentage with low and very low Raven scores. The girls attending one-year vocational schools differed markedly in level of achievement from the control group of elementary school children. Additional information on the abilities of the subjects was obtained from questionnaires answered by teachers at the schools which these girls had previously attended. On this evidence, more of them were found to be “dull” than had been suggested by their Raven scores. The variations in the data obtained from different sources require clarification. Raven’s Progressive Matrices test only certain abilities (reasoning visual perception) important to learning. But there are also a number of other abilities which play a part in progress at school (e.g. memory, audial perception, verbal abilities) and deficiencies where these are concerned might have contributed to the low scores of the subjects in the tests of achievement and to the teachers’ estimates of their abilities. The failures or difficulties of a part of the subjects at school might have been connected with disturbances in these particular learning abilities. But they might equally well have been due to personality factors or – and this seems especially important given the evidence obtained in interviews – to considerable neglect at home. The school retardation of the subjects, their achievement level, their low Raven scores and the teachers’ opinions of their poor abilities are all signs that their being “out of school and out of work” was clearly bound up with failures at school and objective difficulties with learning. The next question was the degree of social maladjustment of the subjects. Only a small number of the girls (18 per cent) had no record of considerable school retardation, presented no particular problems of conduct at school, and displayed no symptoms of social maladjustment. The biggest quantitative problem among the subjects were the girls (almost half) who only manifested evidence of maladjustment as regards school work, i.e. retardation of two or more years, systematic truancy, and repeated discontinuance of school attendance. Only a third of the girls were found, however, to have other symptoms of social maladjustment: keeping demoralized company, running away from home, excessive drinking, stealing and suspected sexual promiscuity. It was only these girls in whom the relevant symptom or symptoms had occurred frequently or jointly that were classified as socially maladjusted. It should be added, however, that only three of the girls had been previously convicted, only 10 per cent were found to have committed thefts and only 10 per cent were suspected of sexual promiscuity. These percentages are insignificant when compared to those found in girls brought before the courts. However, for a third of the girls to reveal evidence of social maladjustment constitutes a relatively large proportion if it is compared with the degree of social maladjustment found in an average schoolgirl population. In the inquiry a comparison was made of the girls who displayed only symptoms of maladjustment at school (notably considerable school retardation) with those whose behaviour indicated evidence of social maladjustment as well. It was found that the subjects in the latter category tended indeed to come more frequently from adverse home environments and were more often described by school teachers as excitable, restless and aggressive. Although systematic truancy has in this study been placed under the heading of maladjustment at school, it proved in fact to be more frequent among the socially maladjusted girls than those who displayed only school maladjustment. This fact, as well as evidence of a connection between social maladjustment and certain personality features, suggest that it is not difficulties and failures at school as such, but the modes of reaction to them that lead to major maladjustment. The next point tackled by the inquiry related to the environmental, health and personality factors behind the subjects’ non-attendance of school and lack of employment. Here the data was obtained by means of background interviews and interviews with 62 of the girls who qualified most obviously for the designation of “out of school and out of work” on account of interrupted school attendance and systematic truancy. Of these 62 girts, as many as 44 per cent came from broken homes. Among their families there was a high incidence (47 per cent) of excessive drinking by the father. A third of the fathers had criminal convictions and in 30 per cent of the families there were brothers with convictions. This data indicates that the girls who were “out of school and out of work” had frequently been brought up in homes which constituted socially negative educative environments and got their children off to a bad start in life. Health data showed that 29 per cent of the girls “out of school and out of work” had suffered various protracted illnesses resulting in long absences from school which could have led to low achievement level. Hospital or sanatorium treatment had been prescribed at some time for 44 per cent. The interviews afforded grounds for suspecting that 23 per cent had suffered brain damage. These are all factors which interfere with progress at school. But they are obstacles which could have been more easily overcome if the girls could have counted on the help and care of their families; in the home environment in which many of the subjects grew up, on the other hand, they formed serious barriers to normal results at school. Finally progress at school has been analysed in 110 pupils attending one-year schools as well as their accomplishment in a successive year. A total of 40 per cent of the subjects attended the one-year vocational schools very irregularly, cutting over a quarter of the days of instruction. This poor attendance record had a statistically significant interdependence with systematic truancy in the preceding school year (though insignificant with the break in school attendance prior to enrolment in the one-year vocational school). This indicates that truancy schould be regarded by schools as a particularly urgent warning to pay greater attention to the children involved. Irregular attendance of the one-year vocational schools was also connected with social maladjustment in the period preceding admission. The girls with the greatest degree of social maladjustment were the ones who found it hardest to adapt in the vocational schools. A year after the end of the school year in which the inquiry was conducted, follow-up interviews were made in order to see if the former pupils of the one year vocational schools were still attending school or gainfully employed. It was found that almost half the girls were continuing their education and 29 per cent were working (half of them in jobs matching their vocational qualifications); only about a fifth were “out of school and out of work”. The reasons they gave for this varied and in certain cases the fact that they were neither attending school nor working was clearly justified by special circumstances.

Wstęp

63%

Batawia S., Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1972

issue V

8-14

The paper discusses the findings of research conducted by the Department of Criminology of the Polish Academy Sciences’ Institute of Legal Sciences among Warsaw 15 - 17 years-olds who left school but were not gainfully employed, and were subject to the requirement of compulsory vocational training. The problem of this category of youth is of considerable social importance since it is closely connected with the problem of delinquent or socially at risk youth. In 1967 and 1968 the educational authorities in Warsaw registered 5,749 boys and 2,477 girls aged 15 - 17 who were “out of school and out of work”. The Department’s surveys embraced a sample of only a proportion of the youth subject to registration, but it included in all probability a large majority of the boys and girls whose normal education had suffered the greatest disturbances: 1) ones who had completed only four, five or six grades of elementary school and had been directed to newly organized two-year vocational schools; and 2) ones who had completed the 7th grade but had failed to qualify for admission to the 8th grade or to a normal vocational school and had been directed to newly organized one-year vocational schools. The object of organizing these one- and two-year vocational schools was to give the kind of children who drop out of the normal educational stream the chance of learning a trade and also those attending the two-year schools the possibility of continuing their elementary education. It should be noted that in the one-year schools classes are held only twice a week, and in the two-year schools three times a week. The remaining days are given over to practical in-work training. In the 1967/68 school year the Department’s inquiry was conducted among boys attending one- and two-year building and electrical schools and a one-year motor mechanics school; they accounted for 52 per cent of the boys with the greatest degree of school retardation. In the following year, 1968/69, the subjects were boys attending one- and two-year building and electrical schools, to which 60 per cent of boys in this category had been directed. In 1967 a sample for each school was drawn from a complete list of the pupils in attendance, providing a sample of 180 boys. In 1968 the survey embraced all the boys (a total of 252) at these two schools. In 1968/69 the inquiry was extended to include girls as well: the subjects were all the girls enrolled at a one-year catering school (70) and a one-year clothing school (40). As regards the age of the boys assigned to these vocational courses, 43 per cent were over 17 in the first survey, and 23 per cent in the second; the remainder were aged 15 and 16. Girls over 17 formed 31 per cent of the sample. The selection for the Department’s survey of pupils whose normal education had probably suffered the most serious disruptions made it reasonable to suppose that distinct symptoms of social maladjustment would be found among them. To ascertain the incidence of such symptoms and the size of the category of youth with clearly delinquent tendencies or records was one of the chief objects of the inquiry. However, the working hypothesis was that 15 - I7-year-olds “out of school and out of work” were recruited from among the sort of boys and girls who had in the first place had serious problems with the elementary school course and that these difficulties had played a large part in their social maladjustment. As regards the degree of their social maladjustment it seemed likely that they were far less demoralized than the majority of juveniles with criminal convictions and tendencies to recidivism. In the inquiry whose findings are discussed below the following breaches of the fundamental rules of society or the standards of behaviour expected of children and youth were considered evidence of maladjustment: 1) persistent truancy; 2) staying out of school and out of work; 3) keeping demoralized company; 4) running away from home; 5) excessive drinking; 6) delinquency; 7) sexual promiscuity among the girls. Account was further taken of symptoms indicating serious school maladjustment: considerable school retardation and frequent commencement and discontinuance of attendance at different schools. Only those subjects of the inquiry were classified as maladjusted in the case of whom evidence was obtained that they were given to conduct of a certain type and that they regularly displayed a combination of deviational symptoms and not only a single isolated one. It should be indicated that in view of the impossibility of conducting medical and psychological examinations crucial aspects of the genesis and mechanism of difficulties at school and behaviour disorders could not be properly investigated. The inquiry had necessarily to be restricted to symptomatic and not etiological criteria of maladjustment. These were, however, enough to identify on the basis of the degree of neglect of school work and specific behaviour certain boys and girls as being socially maladjusted to some extent or another ‒ which was the main purpose of the research undertaken among this category of youth and made it largely possible to single out the children in need of care and attention. Recourse was had in the inquiry to opinions about the subjects collected from their elementary and vocational schools and from the work-places in which they underwent practical training, to court and police records, etc. Tn addition, in 1967/68 background interviews were conducted in the homes of the subjects. Both in the first and second survey tests were made of their level of achievement in Polish and mathematics at schools and of their intelligence on the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The inquiry was supplemented by follow-up studies which for the boys in each of the successive years embraced a period of 2 2/3 years and l 2/3 years (including the period of vocational school attendance). The paper in question runs to 140 pp. of print and consists of a number of contributions: Introduction; Section 1, devoted chiefly to the criteria of social maladjustment among children and youth (written by Z. Ostrihanska); Section 2, discussing the findings of the studies of 432 boys (written by H. Kołakowska-Przełomiec); Section 3, reporting on the studies of 110 girls (written by Z. Ostrihanska, in association with A. Kossowska); Section 4, containing the results of the tests of the boys’ and girls’ achievements in Polish and mathematics (written by M. Marek); and a resume of the results of all the research and the conclusions to be drawn from it (written by S. Batawia).

Karalność uczniów nieprzystosowanych społecznie

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Wójcik D.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1984

issue XI

143-166

1. The study discussed in the present paper is a continuation of the research on extent and determinants of social maladjustment among schoolchildren in Warsaw elementary schools, which was conducted in the years 1976-1979. Over 600 classes (grade III-VIII) were then examined, which makes the total numer of 17,662 children aged 9-16. Teachers indicated children who revealed symptoms of social maladjustment (such as regular truancy, many-hours loitering around the streets without control, running away from home, stealing, frequenting company of demoralized colleagues, drinking alcohol, sexual demoralization, vandalism and frequent aggressive behaviour). 885 boys (which makes 10 per cent of all schoolboys included in the study) and 220 girls (2.7 per cent of all girls) were found to reveal these children, which included information as to the child’s family environment, school situation, school failures, behaviour, health, and symptoms of social maladjustment. From this general popuration of 885 schoolboys who revealed symptoms of social maladjustment, a group of 262 boys was separated whose symptoms were particularly intense and cumulated. This group then underwent a detailed individual examination. As a control group to match this group of 262 boys whose symptoms of social maladjustment were cumulated and intense, 151 boys were drawn by lot from among those of all schoolboys who had not been mentioned by the teachers as children who reveal symptoms of social maladjustment, and who were classmates of the socially maladjusted boys. The control group underwent the same individual examination. 2. At the stage of the study presented in the present paper the aim was to answer the following questions: - how many of the schoolchildren indicated by the teachers because of various symptoms of social maladjustment had cases in court before they were included in the study. – how many of them had cases in court during the five years of follow-up study. – what was the total number of children who had ever had cases in court and what was the intensity of their criminal careers. –is there any difference between the socially maladjusted schoolchildren who had cases in court and those with a clean record, as regards any features of their family environment or the kind of symptoms of social maladjustment, which caused them to be included in the study. Is there any difference between them as regards their school failure or the results of psychological examination. In order to answer these questions, in mid 1982 it was checked if the children indicated as socially maladjusted had cases in court as juveniles or as young adults (aged 17 and over). The examined persons were then aged 15-23. The cases of persons concerning whom it was impossible to obtain data, as to their criminal record were excluded from the analysis therefore, finally the examined population consisted of 859 boys and 220 girls. 3. At the moment when the examined schoolchildren were indicated by the teachers as revealing symptoms of social maladjustment, 6.9 per cent of the socially maladjusted boys and 3.7 pet cent of the girls had criminal cases in family courts. A considerable majority of these children (5.1 per cent of the boys and all girls, 3.7 per cent) had only one case in court. The cases occurred generally at the age 14-16. The number of children who had had cases of care and protection during anamnesis is comparatively large: 5.5 per cent of boys and as many as 16.3 per cent of girls. The examination of the schoolchildren's further criminal careers during the following 5 years produced the following results: - 20.9 per cent of boy were convicted by courts within that period (10.2 per cent had cases in family courts, 5.7 per cent- in ordinary courts, 5 per cent- both in family and in ordinary courts). - 4 per cent of girls were convicted (3.6 per cent by family courts, 0.4 per cent by ordinary courts). It should be added that on account of the age, only 629 boys and 178 girls could have had cases in ordinary courts. Among them, 14.8 per cent of boys and one girl were convicted. The percentage is high, as part of those who „could have had cases" were only 17 years old, the probability of their conviction being thus minimal. 25.7 per cent of boys convicted by ordinary court committed aggressive acts, while 70.7 per cent were convicted only for offences against property. When the entire examined period (anamnesis and follow-up period) is discussed together, it appears that every fourth boy (23.4 per cent) and every thirteenth girl among all socially maladjusted children were delinquent. This result certifies to the generally known difference between the extents of delinquency of boys and girls. However, the represented proportion changes diametrically if one takes into account not only criminal cases, but also those of care and protection. 12.2 per cent of boys and as many as 25.4 per cent of girls had cases of care and protection in family courts. There were 26.4 per cent of socially maladjusted boys and 28.6 per cent of girls who had cases in family courts (criminal and care and protection together). The high percentage of girls who had cases of care and protection may be connected to their worse family situation which demanded intervention, as well as with the fact, that girls revealed symptoms of sexual demoralization more frequently than boys (as many as 1/5 of socially maladjusted girls in grade VIII); these symptoms awoke concern of the adult and may induce them to seek intervention of a court. Such symptoms, not being offences, may only be a reason for instituting tutelar proceedings. Another problem was also examined, that is of the features of the examined persons and of their family environment (as revealed by the questionnaires filled in by the teachers) which would differentiate the delinquent boys from those who had never been convicted. The delinquent boys were found to live in worse family backgrounds, in which criminality of parents or siblings or alcoholism of the father occurred more frequently. Instead, the delinquent boys were not found to live more frequently in broken homes or separately from their parents. The delinquent boys were more socially maladjusted than those never convicted: they revealed a greater numer of symptoms of social maladjustment, their teachers informed more frequently of threir thefts, drinking, contacts with demoralized colleagues, and truancy. Instead, the delinquent boys were not described by the teachers as fighting with their schoolmates „often” and „very often” more frequently than those never convicted. It may be that such a description of a child by the teacher was unreliable; the boy's aggressive behaviour may have been a temporary phenomenon, resulting from actual social situation; aggressiveness revealed at school may have been separate from the entire syndrome of social maladjustment. However, at the present stage of the study we are not in a position to take up any attitude towards these possible explanations. Neither the many-hours loitering around the streets was found to significantly differentiate the delinquent boys from those never convicted. This results from the fact that loitering is a typical way of spending time of the considerable majority of socially maladjusted boys, therefore it does not differentiate those who were convicted from the others. 4. In the group of 262 individually examined boys who revealed intense and cumulated symptoms of social maladjustment, the extent of delinquency appeared to be larger than in the entire population of 885 socially maladjusted schoolboys from which this group has been selected. During anamnesis, 32 per cent of boys had criminal cases in family courts; 78.9 per cent of them had only one case, 18.3 per cent had two cases, and 2.8 per cent -three or more cases. During the follow-up period, 28.2 per cent of the examined boys had cases in court, including 14.1 per cent who had cases in family courts only, 7.6 per cent who had cases in ordinary courts only, and 6.5 per cent who had cases both in family and in ordinary courts. Within the whole of the examined period (both anamnesis and follow-up period), nearly half of the examined boys were convicted: 29.4 per cent had cases in family courts only, 5.3 per cent- in ordinary courts only, and 14.1 per cent-both in family and in ordinary courts. Therefore, every second boy from the group with intense and cumulated symptoms of social maladjustment had cases in court within the examined period, while every fourth one from the entire population had been convicted. Poor material and housing conditions of the family, insufficient care of children, broken home and bad conjugal life of the parents were not found to be significantly connected with the delinquency of the examined boys. Instead, a correlation of statistical significance was found between delinquency and excessive drinking of the fathers, their own criminal records and periods of imprisonment, as well as between the sons' delinquency and the lack of elementary education of the parents. On the other hand, no difference was found between delinquents and non-delinquents as regards the teachers' estimation of their intelligence level and learning difficulties pointed out by their mothers and themselves. None of the biopsychical variables taken into account in the study was found to differentiate both groups: lowered level of intelligence, eyesight defect, hearing defect, disturbances of speech, dyslexia, probable past lesions of the central nervous system, troubles with concentration, very slow rate of working. Persisting neurotic symptoms. Indeed, these factors were present rather more frequently among the non-delinquent boys, distinctly connected with their learning problems and school failures. On the other hand, delinquents actually repeated classes more frequently than non-delinquents, got bad marks in various subjects, and their learning progress was estimated as worse by the teachers. Delinquent boys more frequently behaved badly at school beginning from the lowest standards, they played truant from various lessons, were disobedient and disturbed the course of the lessons, had lower marks for behaviour and stated that they did not like school. The socially maladjusted delinquents used to spend time in company of friends older than themselves more often than the non-delinquent boys; they themselves described those friends as badly behaved and drinking alcohol. They were also substantially more often connected with groups of juvenile delinquents according to the teachers' opinion. They revealed a considerably larger intensity of symptoms of social maladjustment. Among these symptoms, only the frequency of aggressive behaviour failed to differentiate the delinquent and non-delinquent boys, which means that as regards the individually examined group, the result concerning the entire population was confirmed. Therefore, the delinquency of the examined persons was related to the greater intensity of their social maladjustment, to their negative family environment and their school situation connected not only with objective learning difficulties but also with the child's reluctant attitude towards school and teachers, and with the teachers' disfavourable opinion of his learning progress and behaviour. It is also worth mentioning that in the control group of 151 schoolboys who were not indicated by the teachers as revealing symptoms of social maladjustment, only one person was found who had been convicted by court during the entire examined period.

Młodzież nie przystosowana społecznie (badania katamnestyczne)

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Wójcik D.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1989

issue XVI

141-188

The paper presents further fates of socially maladjusted children from Warsaw elementary schools in the period from 1976-1978 (when they were examined for the first time) till 1985 (when they were interviewed again and their criminal records were checked). The children to be included in the study had been indicated by their teachers due to intense and cumulated symptoms of social maladjustment (though nor necessarily offences). The following acts were found to be symptoms of maladjustment: regular truancy, loitering, running away from home; contacts with demoralized peers; thefts; drinking of alcohol; sexual depravation; vandalism; aggressive behaviour. Further fates of those examined persons were compared with the fates of their non-maladjusted classmates whose fathers, socio-professional status was the same as in the basic group. Four to six years passed from the initial interview till the catamnesis. Criminal records were checked for a period of about seven years. During the first study, boys from both groups were aged 10-16; accordingly, they were aged 16-24 during the follow-up period. The second study included 243 maladjusted boys, with the control group of 139, while 262 and 151 boys respectively had been examined during the first study. Longitudinal studies of social maladjustment are very important, as they render it possible to appraise the initial symptoms of social maladjustment and to define their prognostic value. Such studies also make a discrimination possible between transitory difficulties which are frequently related to a definite stage of the child’s development, and behavior that requires specialistic treatment . Moreover, basing of such studies, the quality and results of interventions taken towards the socially maladjusted youth can be appraised. The follow-up study was aimed at answering the following questions: a) What - if any were the changes of family situation of boys from both groups ? b)What were the further fates of the socially maladjusted boys as compared with member of the control group? In particular, did they finish elementary school, did they continue their education, what secondary school did they choose and did they finish that school? c) Do those out of school work? What profession are they in? Are they satisfied with that profession and the work they perform? d) What are the leisure habits of the examined boys? e) What are the drinking habits, delinquency, and criminal records of the socially maladjusted boys as compared with their peers from the control group ? In both groups, the examined persons family situation underwent various changes during the catamnesis, and so did the relations between them and their parents. The changes consisted mainly in 42.8 per cent of the maladjusted boys staying temporarily away from which frequently resulted from the court's or educational authorities decisions to send them to educational or correctional institutions. Boys from the control group usually spent the entire follow-up period at home. The two groups differed as regards their family environments, those of the socially maladjusted boys being much less favourable. These differences grew during the follow-up period as regards many factors (broken home, the fathers irregular employment or lack of permanent job, excessive drinking). Also the school situations clearly differentiated the two-groups both in the first study and during the follow-up period. At the moment of the second examination, only one boy from the control group was still going to elementary school, while there were as many as 40 (16.5 per cent) of such boys among those socially maladjusted. This proportion seems very large the fact considered we deal here with young persons whose intellectual development is normal, and with the educational level necessary for the individual’s future professional activities and participation in the country’s social and cultural life . (The fact should also be stressed here that in the first study, nearly half of the socially maladjusted boys were in standard VII at the very least, and thus not far from finishing school). As shown by our study, the chances for learning and finishing elementary school later in life are extremely poor. All members of the control group and two-thirds of the socially maladjusted boys learned on after finishing elementary school. It appeared that those from the basic group not only continued education less frequently (this fact being related to their educational backwardness), but also changed and left schools (35.1 per cent) much more frequently than boys from the control group (21.1 per cent). It seems, however, that changing and leaving school takes place very often in the control group, too. This testifies to learning difficulties of elementary school graduates and to their frequent mistakes in choosing the line and type of education. It is worth mentioning here that, in the light of the examined persons statements, the institutions assigned to render professional guidance to young persons influenced their decisions to a minimal degree only. At the moment of follow-up interviews, as many as 162 socially maladjusted boys and only 35 members of the control group were already out of school. Less than a half (46.9 per cent) of the former finished elementary school, while nearly all (97.6 per cent) of those from the control group who were not learning anymore managed to reach that educational level. The secondary schools which the socially maladjusted boys who were not learning anymore finished were frequently (in 35.5 per cent of case) shortened courses. The examined persons often left elementary school defeated and hostile towards it; they had no professional aspirations and acceptable leisure habits. Our findings seem to demonstrate that elementary school and the associated institutions frequently fail confronted with difficult children from negative families. An appraisal of the examined persons, employment is difficult due to their different life situations and ages. Among those employed from the control group there was a greater number of apprentices as compared with the socially maladjusted group (where apprentices constituted 5-per cent only of those employed). Nearly half of those from the basic group (46.4 per cent) were skilled workers, and 44.3 per cent performed manual work that required no professional qualifications. Thus in nearly half of the cases, when starting on their professional careers, socially maladjusted boys had no chance to train in a profession. The two groups also differ greatly as regards professional aspirations and their fulfillment. The socially maladjusted boys had no particular professional plans in a greater proportion of cases (27 per cent) than members of the control group (7 per cent). Asked whether the professional plans they hand on finishing elementary school ever came true , nearly half (48 per cent) of the socially maladjusted answered in the negative, and just 20 per cent-in the affirmative. The respective proportions were reversed In the control group: 53 per cent of affirmative and 30.7 per cent of negative answers. Generally speaking, those employed are not pleased with their earnings. Asked about the wages which which satisfy them, they frequently mentioned sums several times higher than what they were paid. The fact is worthy of notice that those who finished a secondary school are not at all those who earn most. As shown by the analysis of the examined persons, leisure habits, the socially maladjusted are more passive in this respect, their leisure activities being less diversified and restricted to having fun and social contacts only. The leisure habits they follow create frequent opportunities to drink alcohol, and some of their activities (like a game of billiards or cards) make it necessary for them always to have money which they would spend on such games. The following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of the examined persons drinking habits: during catamnesis, 43.1 per cent of the socially maladjusted and 25.1 per cent of members of the control group drank alcohol (vodka or wine) at least once a week and or drank larger amounts on one occasion (i. e. more than 200 cl. Vodka or 600 cl. wine). the respective proportions of teetotalers (according to their own and their mothers statements) were 15.7 and 19.6 per cent. The boys who had drunk repeatedly in the first study were also found to drink regularly during the follow-up period, while a considerable proportion of those who had abstained from alcohol before drank only seldom and small amounts later on, too. An opinion is thus justified that repeated drinking by children and young persons, if it stars at a young age (and particularly if it accompanied by other symptoms of social maladjustment), is not a transistory phenomenon but develops into a relatively persistent lifestyle and leisure habit with time, those affected following that habit in the company of similarly oriented peers. In the first study, repeated drinking coexisted with other symptoms of social maladjustment, such as truancy, running away from home, stealing etc. As shown by the analysis of such persons further life situation, their attitude towards and extent of drinking does not change with time as a rule, instead, their drinking habits grow more excessive and are related, like before, to disturbed socialization. Moreover, regular drinking is related to other negative factors as well. Excessive drinkers among those socially maladjusted frequently failed to finish school; is they succeeded after all, it was usually a year or more later than their peers. This fact negatively influenced their chances to learn on and to train in a profession. Among such boys there was also a greater proportion of those who neither learned nor worked during the catamnesis (p<0.05). Stealing was also more frequent among them (p<0.001), and so were contacts with peers who committed thefts (p<0.01) and who drank regularly (p<0.02), as well as drug abuse (p<0.05) and self-mutilations (p<0.02), committed more frequently as compared with the remaining socially maladjusted boys. Also in the control group, boys who drank during the fallow-up period stole (p<0.01), belonged to regularly drinking peer groups (p<0.001), and stayed out of school and work (p<0.01) more frequently than others from that group. Therefore, regular drinking renders difficult such examined persons proper start into adult life. As regards criminal records, the group of socially maladjusted proved to be differentiated. This concerns both the initial stage of our study when one-third of those boys had already had cases at family courts, and the follow-up period when the percentage of those with criminal records went up to 55.8. As many as 30 per cent of the examined persons had cases at criminal courts after the age of 17, and every fourth of those who had cases at courts (both family and common courts) had been convicted at least four times. Despite the differentiation, the data concerning criminal records are rather alarming, the extent of delinquency gradually becoming higher during the seven years of catamnesis. If we compare socially maladjusted boys who never had any cases at court with those previously convicted, the number of convictions taken into account, these two groups prove to differ not only as regards their respective careers in this regards. It appears that various negative factors found both in the examined persons themselves and in their families and peer groups are more frequent in those previously convicted and repeatedly convicted as compared with those. who have no criminal record. Fathers of the former have their own criminal records more frequently, and the boys themselves more often have stealing and drinking friends. They also reveal a greater number of various symptoms of social maladjustment; during the follow-up period, more of them neither learned nor worked, and more failed to finish elementary school or only finished it behind time. As follows from our study social maladjustment when going to elementary school does not necessarily determine such young persons' further demoralization. The group of socially maladjusted boys is highly diversified in many respects. At the same time, it also differs greatly from the control group, being much worse: those socially maladjusted reach a lower educational level and wages, are more displeased with their own lives, and more excessive in their drinking habits, and also commit offences and have cases at court more frequently. The extent of maladjustment found in that group seems rather large which manifests among others the small range and poor effectiveness of preventive actions taken towards the examined persons by the competent educational institutions.

Funkcjonowanie ustawy o postępowaniu wobec osób uchylających się od pracy - wyniki badań

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Rzeplińska I.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1988

issue XV

95-152

The Act on the treatment of persons evading work was passed on November 26, 1982 and entered into force on January 1, 1983. The passing of the Act was preceded by a period of heated discussions during which the need for this regulation or objections against it were justified by various social, economic, political legal as well as philosophical reasons. The Act bound all men aged 18-45 (with the exception of some clearly defined categories) who neither work nor learn for a period of at least 3 month and who are not registered in employment agencies as looking for a job to report at the local state administrative agencies and explain the reasons of this state of affairs. Such persons can be recognized as not working for justified reasons (in this case, they should get help if needed) or for unjustified reasons (to such persons the possibilities of taking the job should be pointed out; they should also get help if needed). Man who persistently evade work and whose sources of maintenance cannot be revealed or prove to be contradictory to the principles of social existence, are included in a list of persons who persistently evade work. The law provides for the following legal consequences towards persons who fall under its provisions: a failure in the duty to report is a transgression for which there is a penalty of limitation of liberty of up to three months; the same penalty is provided for the registered person’s failure to appear when summoned by the local administrative agency: a failure of a registered person in the duty to appear when summoned in order to make a statement concerning his sources of maintenances is an offence for which a penalty of limitation of liberty or a fine is provided; the persons who have been included in the list may be obligated to perform the work for public purposes in cases of force majeure or natural calamity that constitutes a serious threat for the normal conditions of the people’s existence; a failure in this duty is an offence for which a statutory penalty is that of limitation of liberty up two years or a fine. The Act deals with only one of the many and varied problems that result from the broad and multifarious issue of work: the situation of not being formally employed. Employment is connected with the actual policy in this respect, the labour market, and with many economic problems. The passing of the Act and the period of its functioning discussed in the present paper fell in Poland on the days of a profound socio-economic crisis which influences the problems related to employment. In our study, however, we have taken no account of the above broader issues, focusing on the functioning of the Act: the nation of ,,evasion of work’’ and ,,a person evading work’’ it introduced, the extent of the population that falls under the Act, characterization of the population mentioned the institutions and persons involved in realization of the Act, ways of dealing with the persons evading work, conformability of the conduct of the Act’s addresses with the model of conduct it includes, appraisal of the degree to which the aims of the Act, as set before it by the legislator have been reached, and the social effects of the law. The study concerned the functioning of the Act in the capital city of Warsaw. The basic source of information were index cards of all man evading work that had been registered in this territory in the period from January 1, 1983, till April 30, 1984. Moreover, district constables of the police were interviewed about these men; data concerning their criminal records were obtained from the Central Criminal Register and information about their detention in the Warsaw sobering-up station was obtained from the station's files. Two years later, additional data were gathered in order to check which of the registered men worked for at least 6 month after having been registered; the course of work for public purposes done by the examined persons was also checked with enterprises that organized such work. In the period included in the study, 2,195 men evading work were registered in Warsaw. The size of this population seems susceptible of various interpretations, depending on the adepted point of view. This number however seems insignificant as compared with that of situations vacant reported at the employment agency which for instance exceeded 18 thousand jobs for men on December 31, 1983. As shown by the analysis of the course of registration in the entire examined period, and of the differences in the sizes of the registered populations in the separate Warsaw districts, the sizes in question vary greatly and depend on administrative steps that influence the revealing of men who answer the statutory definition. The term "person evading work" designates various persons whose various circumstances - whether socially accepted or not – justify their lack of permanent employment, and who find themselves in various situations. They are e.g. persons waiting to be called up, those who help their families with farming, alcoholics who find it impossible to keep any permanent job, men supported by their familes and looking after a family member, those who are preparing for examination to enter the university, those taking a rest after release from prison, and those who actually do work (there were about 1/4 of them): casually, seasonally or in private firms, but fail to settle their situation formally. According to the police data, as few as every tenth of the examined persons had among others, though not exclusively, illegal sources of maintenance such as offences or illicit trade. In general, the men registered as evading work did not differ from the entire population of men aged 18-45 who lived in Warsaw at that time as regards the age structure. There were among them relatively few married men. Their level of education was somewhat lower as compared with men employed at that time in Warsaw in the socialized economy; yet two-thirds of them were trained in some profession. According to the police inquiries, and to the information from index cards and from sobering-up station, three-fourth of the examined persons drank extensively; one-third of them were detained in the station, with the majority being detained repeatedly which arouses suspicion as to their dependence. 79 per cent of the registered persons were known to the police who had to intervene in their cases comparatively often and the company they kept was appraised negatively by the police 45 per cent had criminal records (with offences against property predominating) their effence however did not provide them money enough to replace employee’s wages. The first stage of introduction of the Act was to reveal persons liableto registration. The performance of the duty of registration met with most serious problems. Persons who reported themselves to be registered constituted less than a half of the total of those registered, this situation remaining unchanged even one year after the Act had entered into force. Even after that period, over a half of those newly registered were persons who had not been working for over a year and who thus should have been registered much earlier Some of those who reported themselves did it only because they needed a certificate of registration to settle some important personal matter A rather numerous category nearly one- third of the examined men consisted of those registered after having been punished by a transgresion board for failure in the duty of registration, and those reported by the police or public prosecutor' s office Therefore, the police were explicitly involved in the process of picking out persons evading work. Also the realization of the entire second stage of dealing with the above persons - that of classification - arouses serious doubts. Index cards of a great number of persons lacked information essential for the realization of the Act, i.e. concerning certain facts about the registered person and the history of this previous employment. Among the vital decisions taken in relation to the registered persons is the recognition of the reason of their unemployment as justified or unjustified. A tendency became pronounced in these decisions to treat illness and prolonged formal transactions related to future work as valid excuses for not working and out to excuse working without formal employment. It appeared also that officials deciding in these matters enjoyed a certain degree of discretion when appraising the reasons of unemployment. The actions taken toward the registered persons assumed first of all the character unemploying: they consisted in obligating these persons to report again and inform about employment, or in referring them; therefore these actions failed to bring about any considerable effects; had the persons in question reported directly at the employment agency, the effects would have been identical. One-forth of the registered persons were directed to do work for public purposes. As many as two- thirds of them never even appeared to get the adress of the enterprise which such organized work, and 15 per cent reported at the workplace but failed to fulfil their duties. Thus directing to work for public purposes was of a trifle importance only; out of proportion with the effort put in the organizing of such work. Thoroughout the period included in the study, the names of 152 (7 per cent) of the registered men were entered in the list of persons who persistently evaded work. Punishment for infringement of the disscused Act was moved for in one third of cases. As shown by the picture of realization of the Act, the officials who apply it often face the registered men's most complex life problems, that are difficult to appraise explicitly and to decide upon beyond dispute; besides, methods of successful circumvention or evasion of the provisions of the Act appear to have emerged. The appraisal of the functioning of the discussed Act has been done on two planes: both the realization of the legislator's intentions and the social effects of its introduction other than intended have been analyzed. The legislator's intentions are defined as coming to the assistance of those out of work and out of school who want work, and inducing to work those who fail to express this wish. In the statements of the Minister of Justice and of the deputy reporter during the parliamentary discussion, also such aims were formulated as: drawing up a record of persons evading work and thus getting knowledge as to the extent of this phenomenon; providing hands in cases of their shortage; and soothing the indignant public opinion which demanded radical measures to fight the phenomenon of the so-called social parasitism. The above intentions have been realized but to a slight degree. Cases of getting help from administrative agency were extremely rare, the agency playing but the role of an agent who directs clients on to the employment or medical agencies. After registration 44.5 per cent of the examined persons took a job and 37.6 per cent continued to work incessanuy for 6 months which is the condition of their names being stroken off from the register. The latter group proved to be "better" as regards selected social traits. According to our appraisal, these persons had greater chances and possibilities of and performing a job as compared with the remaining group; what's more "inducing" them to work was frequently absolutely unnecessary. Registration failed to provide knowledge as to the size of the phenomenon of evasion of work, inconstancy being among its characteristics. The examined persons are often temporarily unemployed, this situation far from being permanent. Registration failed to improve the situation in the labour market: not only the number of those who found a job but also the total of those registered was too small as compared with the needs. Whether the public opinion has been soothed and satisfied by the introduction of the Act, we do not know. What we do know, is that among those registered there were hardly any persons whose unemployment particularly irritated the public opinion (e.g. black market and foreign currency dealers). A number of persons "evad.ing work" can always be" found, and the reasons for which some of them fail to take a job would hardly meet with social desapproval. Apart from the intended effects of any legal regulation, there are also those unintended which in the case of the discussed Act can be found in the following spheres: 1) the legal system: in the labour law (limitation of the principle of freedom of work), and in the penal law (the range of penalized acts has been broadened to include transgressions and offences provided in the Act; moreover, a penal law sanction was used as an instrument to solve a problem that belongs to the sphere of social an economic policy exclusively; 2) the sphere of political an social activities: an additional bureaucratic cell in labour exchange has been created in the case of alcoholics, intervention of the Act is but a seeming action, leaving the essence of the problem out of account; in the case of ex-convicts, the Act doubles the activity of other institutions (such person can obtain help in employment agencies or from their probation officers, and they are ,,induced" to take a job by their life situation or by the conditions on which they have been released from prison); 3) the sphere of social attitudes towards the law: failure to collect subpoenas and to appear when summoned could be observed among the registered persons which means that mechanisms of circumventing the Act emerged. In our opinion, the Act on the treatment of persons evading work is unnecessary. A separate and independent problem of persons who evade work does not exist. Instead, there is a number of various, partly overlapping problems: demand for labour, social frustrations of the crisis period, as well as alcoholism, delinquency disturbed socialization of the youth, failure to insure employes without setting the required formalities, problem of employment of the disabled. Also favourable phenomena and traits can be found here such e.g. the energy and initiative of those who want to work more effectively and to be paid better As shown by our study, ,,social parasitism ,, i.e. the actual staying out of work and living at the expense of others, can be found in a tiny percentage of registered persons.

Sytuacja dzieci i młodzieży w Polsce

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Wójcik D.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1985

issue XII

69-78

Praca mężczyzn nadużywających alkoholu (przyczynek do dyskusji nad ustawą o postępowaniu wobec osób uchylających się od pracy)

63%

Ostrihanska Z., Rzeplińska I.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1987

issue XIV

115-150

The article presents the findings of a study on the problems of alcoholism related to the Act of 26 October 1982 on dealing with persons evading work. The Act defines the phenomenon of the so-called social parasitism as evading socially useful work and having sources of maintenance contradictory to the law or principles of social coexistence. Men aged 18-45 who have not been employed for at least 3 months, who do not attend any school and are not registered in an employment agency as looking for a job, are obliged to report at the local State administrative agency and to explain the reasons of their unemployment or failure to learn. A nonfulfillment of this duty is a transgression for which a penalty of limitation of liberty of up to 3 months or a fine of up to 50,000 zlotys is provided. There are certain categories of persons who are not liable to this duty: among others, these are the retired or disabled persons, those who receive allowances from the social security fund etc. The reported men are entered in a record of persons evading work. In the case of their further persistent evasion of work, they are liable to further proceedings and various sanctions. They may also be recognized as unemployed for socially grounded reasons. Towards such persons, the Act provides no further special duties, and the administrative agency is obligated to come to their assistance if necessary. In the present paper, the important problem of whether the legal regulation of the problems connected with the so-called social parasitism is justified, has not been discussed. We have focused on the relation between unemployment and excessive drinking and on the problems and disturbances in employment among excessively drinking men. The study was aimed at answering the following questions: What is the number of persons with alcohol problems, repeatedly detained in the sobering-up station, among the men registered in District Offices in Warsaw as "evading work"? What is the number of unemployed persons aged 18-45 among those repeatedly detained in the sobering-up station? What is the relation between employment and work on the one hand, and excessive drinking and the entire life situation on the other hand among the above-mentioned men? The following three groups of men have been included in the study: A. In order to obtain the answer to the first question. records of 2,195 men were examined who had been registered in the seven District Offices in Warsaw within the period from January 1. 1983 till April 30. 1984 as evading work, and their detentions in the sobering-up station were checked. B. The second group of the examined persons consisted of all men aged 18-45 who had been detained in the sobering-up station for at least, the second time on randomly selected days in October and November of 1984 and in January of 1985 (576 persons). Information concerning their employment was obtained from the .records of the sobering-up station based either on their own statements or on entries in their identity cards. C. The third group consisted of 56 patients of the sobering-up station aged 18-45 who had repeatedly been detained; they were examined individually in the period from October 1984 till January 1985. The examination consisted in a free interview based on a specially constructed questionnaire. The aim of the interview was to obtain information concerning the course of employment and the drinking habits of the examined persons. their possible symptoms of dependence and withdrawal treatments they underwent, family situation and state of health. From among 2,195 men registered as evading work. one-third had been detained in the sobering-up station at least once. As many as two-thirds of them had been detained repeatedly. A part of the registered men (6.9 per cent) were included at a later date in the list of persons who persistently evade work. Persons detained in the sobering-up station constitute 37 per, cent of those included in the record. Employment of patients of the sobering-up station was examined in the second of the above-mentioned groups: the 576 men aged 18-45 repeatedly detained in the Warsaw sobering-up station. Among those patients men aged at least 30 predominated (76.9 per cent). Those detained at least four times were the most numerous (45.5 per cent); there were 20.6 and 33.9 per cent of those detained three and two times respectively. According to expectations, older patients had been detained in the station more frequently than the younger ones. At the moment of detention in the station, the majority of the repeatedly detained persons (60.6 per cent) were employed at State enterprises; 10 per cent worked for private employers, and 1.4 per cent in their own workshops or farms. 5 per cent were pensioners, 8:3 per cent worked casually, and 14.6 per cent were not employed at all. Therefore, the category of persons who did not work or who worked only casually constituted 22.9 per cent of the examined group, which seems rather a high percentage. It grows still if the category of pensioners is added. amounting then to 27.9 per cent of men aged 18-45 repeatedly detained in the station and to as many as 34.7 per cent of those detained over three times. 56 persons were examined individually. They were somewhat older than the above-mentioned group of 576 patients of the sobering-up station and had been detained there for a smaller number of times. The essential problem in our study was their drinking of alcohol. 36 per cent of the examined persons stated they had started drinking at the age of 16 at most, while in the case of 33.3 per cent the respective self-reported age was 17-18. As many as two-thirds admitted usually dinking half a litre or more vodka on one occasion. 34.8 per cent admitted drinking daily. It was most difficult to find out whether the examined persons were already alcohol dependent. There were question included in the questionnaire and asked during the interview, that served this purpose. Some of the examined persons were afraid even to admit they drank excessively which was due to the type of work they performed in which abuse of alcohol is not tolerated (first of all in the driver’s profession). Symptoms indicative of dependence were found in 24 of the examined persons (42.9 per cent). A part of them had already started withdrawal treatment in the past, yet they frequently gave it up after as few as several visits. The detention in the station and talks conducted with the patient on release were noticed to be an opportunity for initiating a change in his attitude towards treatment. It seems that the sobering-up station may and should be an important link in the alcohol dependence treatment system. Basing on the appraisal of the entire course of employment, the examined group could be divided into two categories: A. those in the case of whom undisturbed performance of work and its regularity was found according to the information obtained (22 persons); B. those who had been unemployed for long periods of time, worked irregularly, at intervals, and failed to perform work properly (31 persons). In the category A, two subgroups were distinguished: a. men who usually did not drink excessively or who abused alcohol but to a slight degree, who worked regularly and were relatively well socially adjusted. Their repeated detentions in the sobering-up station seemed to result from various chance situations and from their poor tolerance of alcohol; b. men who regularly abused alcohol or who could have been dependent on it, in whom however this situation did not influence their performance of work. In the category B, it was not possible to distinguish any subgroups. In individual cases, joint occurrence of some of the following overlapping problems was found: a. poor performance of work related to excessive drinking, yet without the symptoms of professional degradation; b. professional degradation connected with alcohol dependence; c. poor performance of work and excessive drinking connected with and resulting from an early social maladjustment; d. unemployment accompanied by a declared reluctance to work in the future which was connected rather with the examined person’s personality traits than with his excessive drinking; e. unemployment due to disability resulting from an accident or illness which made it impossible to perform the former job. Such a situation could have been brought about by excessive drinking, and the present unemployment is a factor that increases these persons alcohol dependence. Among 2,195 men registered in the Warsaw District offices as evading work, there were 708 patients of the sobering-up station of whom two-thirds had been detained repeatedly. As shown by an analysis of their statements made at the District offices, the reasons of their unemployment varied greatly. An observation seems justified that the majority of them do work, though irregularly. Among then, 115 were recognized to be unemployed for justified reasons; a very small part of them (20 per cent) asked for assistance of the administrative agency in finding a job through the Employment Department. The group of 708 patients of the sobering-up station consists of men who may at least be assumed to drink excessively However, the officials who keep the records were poorly informed as to this problem. Further, despite registration and activities of the department for unemployed persons to compel these persons to work' as many as two-thirds of men in this group failed to take a job. Any action undertaken towards this specific group of men (who were repeatedly detained in the sobering-up stations and were excessive drinkers), proved entirely ineffective, both at the stage of compelling them to work regularly and at that of having them perform public works. From among 708 men – 26.1 per cent were directed to public works; about three-fourths of them never even reported at work. The intervention undertaken by means of the Act of dealing with persons evading work seems futile. Some of these persons may perhaps need referring to an alcohol dependence treatment unit, some others - counselling as to the choice and finding of an adequate job; still another part will probably constitute a regular group that is characteristic of any society: u group of persons who constitute a social fringe and live in a way that departs from the norms of conduct accepted in the society.

Środki alternatywne dla najmłodszych przestępców program Buskerud

51%

Stangeland P., Waal H., Ostrihanska Z.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1985

issue XII

79-88

Ofiary włamań mieszkaniowych (wyniki międzynarodowych badań porównawczych)

45%

Ostrihanska Z., Wójcik D., Mawby R. J., Walklate S., Görgenyi I.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1998

issue XXIII-XXIV

75-113

Burglary is a serious offense which particularly affects the victim. It often has more one victim, and its effects react on ihe entire family and broader community. For the victim, its important element is not only the loss of and possibly damage to property, but also violation of privacy and of the related feeling of safety. The survey discussed in the paper was conducted in 6 cities in the following countries: Germany - Monchengladbach; Poland - Warsaw and Lublin; Hungary - Miskolc; and United Kingdom - Plynouth and Salford. Discussed here will be mainly the findings obtained in Warsaw and Lublin, and data from the rest of the sample will be referred to on some issues only. The survey focused on the following issuess: 1/ circumstances of the offense and losses suffered by the victims; 2/ respondents’ attitudes to the police and appraisal of police work in their case; 3/ assistance received, self-organization, steps undertaken by the victims to prevent further burglaries; 4/ respondents’ feelings, their reactions to the offense and persistence of those reactions. The survey based on data from interviews with victims of burglary and on information obtained from the police (the questionnaire was developed by the designer and head of the project, Prof. R.I. Mawby and contained some questions from the British Crime Survey Questionnaire of 1984, 1988, and l992). Sampled in each city selected for the project were 400 reported cases of burglary; interviews were conducted in a half of those cases (200 burglaries) on two occassions, that is at least 6 to 8 weeks and 16 to 18 weeks after the date burglary was reported. As was shown by comparison of data on the socio-demographic situation of victims of burglary in different countries, variables such as age, structure of family, or material or housing situation significantly differentiate individual national samples (e.g. persons living alone were much fewer in Poland as compared to Hungary and the United Kingdom). The circumstances of burglary, losses suffered and anti-burglary protection measures shape differently in different countries. In the United Kingdom, the number of burglaries committed during the night while the victims were at home and asleep was twice as big as in Poland and Germany. On some points, however, no differences were found. About a half of respondents in all countries said that some of the objects stolen during the burglary were to them of sentimental value. Besides, property stolen most often throughout the sample was electronic equipment. Polish respondents were below the average as regards special protective measures. For example, a slight proportion only had alarm devices installed, and a mere one-third had taken out an insuranie policy. Due to high costs of insurance in Poland, the insurance sum was low as a rule and seldom corresponded with the actual value of equipment. As a result, Polish respondents could not get compensation from the insurance company; when compensation was paid, the loss actually suffered was hardly made up for. Interestingly, though, the taking out of insurance was related neither to respondent's level of education nor to his self-appraised material situation. Polish respondents' attitude to the police and opinion on police work tended to be more critical compared to the rest of the sample. Criticized were many aspects of police work in cases of burglary. Polish respondents stated more often that the police had arrived too late, ignored their suggestions as to possibly identity of the burglars, and failed to interrogate persons they indicated. A vast majority of Polish respondents believe that the police failed to inform them properly about the state of investigation. Fewer Polish victims of burglary are also satisfied with the way in which the police conducted the investigation in their case (about 20% compared to about 75% of British and Hungarian respondents). Policemen enjoy a lower prestige among Polish victims. Social perception of the police depends on their treatment of the victim but also on the national tradition, previous experiences with police forces being used by the authorities to perform political tasks, the image of the force created by the media etc. In view of the more critical opinion on the police found among Polish respondents, it is inieresting to find out whether such opinion has any objective grounds, that is whether the proportion of offenders detected in Polish cases was lower compared to the rest of the sample. The answer is no. In cases of burglary, detectability rate was low throughout the sample and Poland was by no means inferior in this respect. Polish victims' tendency to be the most critical of all towards police work may have a number of reasons. It may be related to actually greater shortages of the force (e.g. inferior equipment); to a greater pain involved in losses suffered by Polish victims; or to society’s critical attitude towards the police fixed under the past regime. On the grounds of our data, it would be difficult to select any of the above three explanations. Considering the reasons of Polish respondents' critical attitude towards the police, one can hardly ignore the fact that with a growth in both crime and thę social sense of threat in the country, also society's expectations and demands of the police have gone up. As we know, burglary causes not only material losses but also psychological effects which tend to persist for a long time in many victims. Inquired about in the survey were respondents' first reactions to burglary; the persistence of those reactions; reactions of their family members; and the aspect the victims considered the worst of all in their experience of burglary. As follows from the findings, the psychological effects of burglary suffered by the victims are similar in all countries in the sample. Most respondents felt depressed, and this frame of mind persisted in onefourth of the sample. The worst experience mentioned most often was material loss (which frequently amounted a loss of possessions that had taken a person's lifetime to amass); worsening of the living conditions; and in many cases the accompanying sense of harm and injustice. Another worst experience mentioned was invasion of privacy, a loss of trust in one's fellow men, and helplessness. Persons who consider themselves the most ,,affected” by burglary among Polish respondents are those calling themselves not too well-off, the not insured, and women rather than men. Compared to the rest of the sample, British respondents feel less affected by burglary; however, burglary was found to affect victims in a similar way irrespective of the country. Interestingly, the frequency of victims' psychological reactions followed the same pattern throughout the sample. Anger ranked first, followed by shock, anxiety, sleep disorders, and crying. Burglaries examined within the Polish sample affected a greater number of persons compared to those committed in the remaining countries: Polish households that were burgled were bigger. We also strove to find out whether respondents felt threatened with crime. Such sense of threat was more intense in Polish compared to Hungarian and British respondents. The system of assistance to victims was the best in terms of organization and functioning in United Kingdom followed by Germany, Hungary and Poland. The situation of Polish victims of burglary proved the most unfavorable as regards the possibility of getting both compensation for material losses and assistance from competent institutions. As opposed to the rest of the sample, Polish respondents were less often satisfied with the way in which the police handled their case and much more critical towards police work. The findings show that, in Poland in particular, the insurance system has to be reconsidered and differently regulated, and there is an urgent need for a systemic and coordinated program of comprehensive assistance to victims. The more critical opinion on police work found in Polish respondents also suggests that the treatment of victims by the police in Poland requires a thorough analysis.

Rozmiary nieprzystosowania społecznego młodzieży "nie uczącej się i nie pracującej" badanej w latach 1967/1968 i 1968/1969

45%

Ostrihanska Z., Kołakowska-Przełomiec H., Batawia S., Kossowska A., Marek M.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1972

issue V

7-149

INTRODUCTION The paper discusses the findings of research conducted by the Department of Criminology of the Polish Academy Sciences’ Institute of Legal Sciences among Warsaw 15 - 17 years-olds who left school but were not gainfully employed, and were subject to the requirement of compulsory vocational training. The problem of this category of youth is of considerable social importance since it is closely connected with the problem of delinquent or socially at risk youth. In 1967 and 1968 the educational authorities in Warsaw registered 5,749 boys and 2,477 girls aged 15 - 17 who were “out of school and out of work”. The Department’s surveys embraced a sample of only a proportion of the youth subject to registration, but it included in all probability a large majority of the boys and girls whose normal education had suffered the greatest disturbances: 1) ones who had completed only four, five or six grades of elementary school and had been directed to newly organized two-year vocational schools; and 2) ones who had completed the 7th grade but had failed to qualify for admission to the 8th grade or to a normal vocational school and had been directed to newly organized one-year vocational schools. The object of organizing these one- and two-year vocational schools was to give the kind of children who drop out of the normal educational stream the chance of learning a trade and also those attending the two-year schools the possibility of continuing their elementary education. It should be noted that in the one-year schools classes are held only twice a week, and in the two-year schools three times a week. The remaining days are given over to practical in-work training. In the 1967/68 school year the Department’s inquiry was conducted among boys attending one- and two-year building and electrical schools and a one-year motor mechanics school; they accounted for 52 per cent of the boys with the greatest degree of school retardation. In the following year, 1968/69, the subjects were boys attending one- and two-year building and electrical schools, to which 60 per cent of boys in this category had been directed. In 1967 a sample for each school was drawn from a complete list of the pupils in attendance, providing a sample of 180 boys. In 1968 the survey embraced all the boys (a total of 252) at these two schools. In 1968/69 the inquiry was extended to include girls as well: the subjects were all the girls enrolled at a one-year catering school (70) and a one-year clothing school (40). As regards the age of the boys assigned to these vocational courses, 43 per cent were over 17 in the first survey, and 23 per cent in the second; the remainder were aged 15 and 16. Girls over 17 formed 31 per cent of the sample. The selection for the Department’s survey of pupils whose normal education had probably suffered the most serious disruptions made it reasonable to suppose that distinct symptoms of social maladjustment would be found among them. To ascertain the incidence of such symptoms and the size of the category of youth with clearly delinquent tendencies or records was one of the chief objects of the inquiry. However, the working hypothesis was that 15 - I7-year-olds “out of school and out of work” were recruited from among the sort of boys and girls who had in the first place had serious problems with the elementary school course and that these difficulties had played a large part in their social maladjustment. As regards the degree of their social maladjustment it seemed likely that they were far less demoralized than the majority of juveniles with criminal convictions and tendencies to recidivism. In the inquiry whose findings are discussed below the following breaches of the fundamental rules of society or the standards of behaviour expected of children and youth were considered evidence of maladjustment: 1) persistent truancy; 2) staying out of school and out of work; 3) keeping demoralized company; 4) running away from home; 5) excessive drinking; 6) delinquency; 7) sexual promiscuity among the girls. Account was further taken of symptoms indicating serious school maladjustment: considerable school retardation and frequent commencement and discontinuance of attendance at different schools. Only those subjects of the inquiry were classified as maladjusted in the case of whom evidence was obtained that they were given to conduct of a certain type and that they regularly displayed a combination of deviational symptoms and not only a single isolated one. It should be indicated that in view of the impossibility of conducting medical and psychological examinations crucial aspects of the genesis and mechanism of difficulties at school and behaviour disorders could not be properly investigated. The inquiry had necessarily to be restricted to symptomatic and not etiological criteria of maladjustment. These were, however, enough to identify on the basis of the degree of neglect of school work and specific behaviour certain boys and girls as being socially maladjusted to some extent or another ‒ which was the main purpose of the research undertaken among this category of youth and made it largely possible to single out the children in need of care and attention. Recourse was had in the inquiry to opinions about the subjects collected from their elementary and vocational schools and from the work-places in which they underwent practical training, to court and police records, etc. Tn addition, in 1967/68 background interviews were conducted in the homes of the subjects. Both in the first and second survey tests were made of their level of achievement in Polish and mathematics at schools and of their intelligence on the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The inquiry was supplemented by follow-up studies which for the boys in each of the successive years embraced a period of 2 2/3 years and l 2/3 years (including the period of vocational school attendance). The paper in question runs to 140 pp. of print and consists of a number of contributions: Introduction; Section 1, devoted chiefly to the criteria of social maladjustment among children and youth (written by Z. Ostrihanska); Section 2, discussing the findings of the studies of 432 boys (written by H. Kołakowska-Przełomiec); Section 3, reporting on the studies of 110 girls (written by Z. Ostrihanska, in association with A. Kossowska); Section 4, containing the results of the tests of the boys’ and girls’ achievements in Polish and mathematics (written by M. Marek); and a resume of the results of all the research and the conclusions to be drawn from it (written by S. Batawia). FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH AMONG BOYS The boys examined in the l967/68 school year (the first year in which the educational authorities registered this category of youth) were older than the subjects in the following year. As has been already indicated, 43 per cent of the boys in 1967/68 had passed their 17th birthday, compared to only 23 per cent in 1968/69. It is worth noting, however, that the number of l5-year-olds was small, only 23 and 36 per cent respectively. Since only a third of all the subjects were at least 17 at the time of registration, the question of the employment of these boys in the period preceding their referral to vocational school is not worth entering into. The basic point is connected with the course of their school attendance – the degree to which the process of education at elementary school was disrupted and the length of time these boys had been out of school (among those who had completed the 7th grade and also those who had discontinued attendance at a normal vocational school). The surveys revealed the important fact that only a small percentage of the youth described as “out of school and out of work” had in actual fact been absent from school for a period of more than six months (including the summer holiday): in the two succeeding years the number of boys of this kind was 28 and 21 per cent, while the number who had no breaks in school attendance whatsoever was 33 per cent in the first year and as much as 77 per cent in the next. On the other hand, the process of education had been highly disturbed: among the subjects attending one-year vocational schools only 21 per cent had no record of retardation at elementary school, and barely one per cent in the two-year schools. Among the boys attending the one-year schools 28 and 24 per cent had dropped two years behind, and 11 and 18 per cent three years or more. The boys in the two-year schools who had completed only 4 - 6 grades were of course even more retarded: in 1967/68 retardation of two years was shown by 28 per cent and in 1968/69 by 45 per cent, and three years or more by 52 and 39 per cent respectively. As many as 70 – 80 per cent of all the subjects had been systematically truant from elementary school, and about two-thirds had long-lasting disciplinary difficulties. In considering these boys’ failures at school, attention should be given to the results of tests of their achievement level and of their scores in the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. On the whole the subjects’ achievement level in mathematics differed markedly from that of a comparative sample of children in corresponding grades of elementary school. Bad marks in mathematics were scored by 62 and 64 per cent of the boys in the one-year schools and 83 and 86 per cent of the boys in the two-year schools. There were also considerable differences in achievement in Polish between the subjects and the control group. Particular emphasis should be given to the bad scores recorded in silent reading and comprehension tests not only by many of the boys in the two-year schools who had not completed the 7th grade but also by many of the boys in the one-year schools. This low achievement level in basic subjects was undoubtedly a serious obstacle to learning progress for the majority of the subjects, not only earlier at elementary school, but also at vocational school. Raven’s Progressive Matrices testing, first of all, reasoning ability revealed in 1967/68 a larger percentage of boys with low and very low scores than in the control group. The subjects in the one-year schools had better scores than the subjects in the two-year school. In the following year, 1968/69, however, the percentage with low and very low scores decreased, though it remained higher among the boys attending two-year schools than one-year schools. The Raven’s Progressive Matrices scores do not, however, explain all the reasons for the boys’ great degree of school retardation, since there was a fairly large group which had good and very good scores. Their failure at school must be connected with other factors than low reasoning ability. These may be deficiencies in other mental abilities, personality disorders, neglect at home, etc. In examining the degree of social maladjustment (the criteria were discussed earlier) of the boys surveyed in 1967/68 it was found that: 1) only 28 per cent of the boys could be judged seriously socially maladjusted; they displayed a number of symptoms of marked demoralization and committed offences (theft); 2) 35 per cent could be called moderately maladjusted: they had been out of school or out of work longer than six months, had been frequently truant, and some of them also displayed other symptoms of maladjustment of a less marked order: 3) a relatively large group (36 per cent) were boys who by and large displayed only symptoms of school maladjustment, and symptoms of demoralization only sporadically. It should be added that the number of seriously maladjusted boys was much smaller in the one-year schools (25 per cent) than among those who had not completed the 7th grade and had been placed in the two-year schools (33 per cent). It is worth drawing attention to the fact that boys with various Raven scores and various achievement levels in basic subjects can be found in similar percentages both among the group of boys only slightly socially maladjusted and the group of boys moderately or seriously maladjusted. However, the more socially maladjusted boys had worse home backgrounds than the others and no doubt suffered from greater personality disorders since they had already earlier caused more serious disciplinary problems. The greater degree of maladjustment among this groups of boys who had made bad progress at school was, therefore, affected by factors connected with personality and home background. It should be noted that 34 per cent of the subjects in 1967/68 and 33 per cent in 1968/69 came from broken homes. Fathers who were excessive drinkers (alcohol addicts among them) constituted 41 per cent of the total, and the number of brothers (over ten years of age) who displayed various symptoms of social maladjustment came to 30 per cent. Bad material conditions were found in almost half the homes of the subjects. The surveys revealed that the percentage of boys “out of school and out of work” who had appeared before juvenile courts was relatively small. Among the total number of subjects (432), only 28.4 per cent had been prosecuted before being directed to vocational school. In the period of attendance to vocational school and later a total of 39 boys were convicted, but only 14 of those had previous convictions. The percentage of boys brought to court rose only very slightly to 31.7 per cent, and it should be emphasized that the percentage of recidivists with three or more cases among the total number convicted came to only 24 per cent (including juvenile court appearances). A large majority of the subjects are therefore boys who were not seriously delinquent even though they displayed a whole series of symptoms of social maladjustment. The careers of the boys after placement in vocational schools are basically contingent on the degree of their social maladjustment, and only this, and not appearance in court, forms the proper criterion for assessing the difficulties encountered by efforts to normalize these boys. Although the subjects’ attendance at the vocational schools was not regular and there was a considerable degree of absenteeism from the practical training periods, while a large percentage (53 and 41 per cent in the two succeeding years) failed to complete the vocational course on time, follow-up studies showed that only a third of the subjects in 1967/68 and a fifth in 1968/69 had not subsequently continued their education or entered employment. These boys, in the case of whom attempts at rehabilitation had been wholly unsuccessful, did not exceed 25 per cent of the total of 432. Virtually all of them came from the group of subjects with serious prior social maladjustment who had long displayed advanced symptoms of demoralization. FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH AMONG GIRLS The publication presents the findings of an inquiry conducted among 110 girls aged 15 - 17 who had been directed, on the grounds of being “out of school and out of work”, to two one-year vocational schools in Warsaw (catering and clothing). All the girls enrolled in these schools were the subjects of the study. The first point to be established was whether the girls classified as “out of school and out of work” had in fact not been attending school or gainfully employed for a longer period of time prior to admission. In point of fact the job question did not really enter the picture since almost all the subjects had never yet been employed, partly on account of their age: only 31 per cent of them had reached their 17th birthday at the time of the inquiry. Most of them had previously been attending school, while the period of idleness was as a rule very short: as many as 70 per cent had been in attendance until the end of the preceding school year and had found themselves without a place at the beginning of the new one. The number which had quit or interrupted school attendance in the course of the preceding school year came to 24 per cent; only 6 per cent had longer breaks in schooling of a year or more. However, if we forego this formal criterion of non-attendance and take into account not only failure to enroll in a school, but also systematic truancy, it turns out that the number not attending school is much larger: two-thirds of the subjects had either left school or, though nominally in attendance had in fact been systematically truant in the course of the preceding school year. The question of the criteria employed to classify young people as “out of school and out of work” merits special emphasis because, as we shall see, it was systematic staying away from school though nominally enrolled rather than brief official breaks in attendance which proved bad prediction for subsequent adjustment in the one-year vocational school. Two-thirds of the girl subjects had fallen behind in elementary school, and among 46 per cent this retardation came to at least two years. The school retardation of the subjects was not only much greater than the general rate among children in the higher grades of elementary school in Poland, but also greater than among boy subjects attending analogous one-year vocational schools. So large a degree of school retardation prompts the question whether poor progress was not due to the diminished intelligence level of the subjects. This point was examined with the help of Raven’s Progressive Matrices, tests of achievement in basic subjects, and the opinions obtained from teachers at the schools which the subjects had previously attended. A large percentage of the girls (41 per cent) had low and very low Raven scores (under 25 percentiles). Girls attending one-year vocational schools had far worse scores than average school children, and worse ones than boys attending one-year vocational schools and even than boys attending two-year vocational schools. These Raven scores must be put into the context of data obtained by other means. As had been said, tests were made of the level of achievement in basic subjects (Polish and mathematics). The percentage of subjects who displayed a very low level of achievement was greater than the percentage with low and very low Raven scores. The girls attending one-year vocational schools differed markedly in level of achievement from the control group of elementary school children. Additional information on the abilities of the subjects was obtained from questionnaires answered by teachers at the schools which these girls had previously attended. On this evidence, more of them were found to be “dull” than had been suggested by their Raven scores. The variations in the data obtained from different sources require clarification. Raven’s Progressive Matrices test only certain abilities (reasoning visual perception) important to learning. But there are also a number of other abilities which play a part in progress at school (e.g. memory, audial perception, verbal abilities) and deficiencies where these are concerned might have contributed to the low scores of the subjects in the tests of achievement and to the teachers’ estimates of their abilities. The failures or difficulties of a part of the subjects at school might have been connected with disturbances in these particular learning abilities. But they might equally well have been due to personality factors or – and this seems especially important given the evidence obtained in interviews – to considerable neglect at home. The school retardation of the subjects, their achievement level, their low Raven scores and the teachers’ opinions of their poor abilities are all signs that their being “out of school and out of work” was clearly bound up with failures at school and objective difficulties with learning. The next question was the degree of social maladjustment of the subjects. Only a small number of the girls (18 per cent) had no record of considerable school retardation, presented no particular problems of conduct at school, and displayed no symptoms of social maladjustment. The biggest quantitative problem among the subjects were the girls (almost half) who only manifested evidence of maladjustment as regards school work, i.e. retardation of two or more years, systematic truancy, and repeated discontinuance of school attendance. Only a third of the girls were found, however, to have other symptoms of social maladjustment: keeping demoralized company, running away from home, excessive drinking, stealing and suspected sexual promiscuity. It was only these girls in whom the relevant symptom or symptoms had occurred frequently or jointly that were classified as socially maladjusted. It should be added, however, that only three of the girls had been previously convicted, only 10 per cent were found to have committed thefts and only 10 per cent were suspected of sexual promiscuity. These percentages are insignificant when compared to those found in girls brought before the courts. However, for a third of the girls to reveal evidence of social maladjustment constitutes a relatively large proportion if it is compared with the degree of social maladjustment found in an average schoolgirl population. In the inquiry a comparison was made of the girls who displayed only symptoms of maladjustment at school (notably considerable school retardation) with those whose behaviour indicated evidence of social maladjustment as well. It was found that the subjects in the latter category tended indeed to come more frequently from adverse home environments and were more often described by school teachers as excitable, restless and aggressive. Although systematic truancy has in this study been placed under the heading of maladjustment at school, it proved in fact to be more frequent among the socially maladjusted girls than those who displayed only school maladjustment. This fact, as well as evidence of a connection between social maladjustment and certain personality features, suggest that it is not difficulties and failures at school as such, but the modes of reaction to them that lead to major maladjustment. The next point tackled by the inquiry related to the environmental, health and personality factors behind the subjects’ non-attendance of school and lack of employment. Here the data was obtained by means of background interviews and interviews with 62 of the girls who qualified most obviously for the designation of “out of school and out of work” on account of interrupted school attendance and systematic truancy. Of these 62 girts, as many as 44 per cent came from broken homes. Among their families there was a high incidence (47 per cent) of excessive drinking by the father. A third of the fathers had criminal convictions and in 30 per cent of the families there were brothers with convictions. This data indicates that the girls who were “out of school and out of work” had frequently been brought up in homes which constituted socially negative educative environments and got their children off to a bad start in life. Health data showed that 29 per cent of the girls “out of school and out of work” had suffered various protracted illnesses resulting in long absences from school which could have led to low achievement level. Hospital or sanatorium treatment had been prescribed at some time for 44 per cent. The interviews afforded grounds for suspecting that 23 per cent had suffered brain damage. These are all factors which interfere with progress at school. But they are obstacles which could have been more easily overcome if the girls could have counted on the help and care of their families; in the home environment in which many of the subjects grew up, on the other hand, they formed serious barriers to normal results at school. Finally progress at school has been analysed in 110 pupils attending one-year schools as well as their accomplishment in a successive year. A total of 40 per cent of the subjects attended the one-year vocational schools very irregularly, cutting over a quarter of the days of instruction. This poor attendance record had a statistically significant interdependence with systematic truancy in the preceding school year (though insignificant with the break in school attendance prior to enrolment in the one-year vocational school). This indicates that truancy should be regarded by schools as a particularly urgent warning to pay greater attention to the children involved. Irregular attendance of the one-year vocational schools was also connected with social maladjustment in the period preceding admission. The girls with the greatest degree of social maladjustment were the ones who found it hardest to adapt in the vocational schools. A year after the end of the school year in which the inquiry was conducted, follow-up interviews were made in order to see if the former pupils of the one year vocational schools were still attending school or gainfully employed. It was found that almost half the girls were continuing their education and 29 per cent were working (half of them in jobs matching their vocational qualifications); only about a fifth were “out of school and out of work”. The reasons they gave for this varied and in certain cases the fact that they were neither attending school nor working was clearly justified by special circumstances. CONCLUSIONS In the light of the surveys of the 15 - l7-year-olds “out of school and out of work,” it can be seen that a large majority of the subjects are recruited from among boys and girls whose basic problems can be reduced to school maladjustment, serious learning difficulties and inability to adapt to the school curriculum. With most of the subjects social maladjustment is clearly connected with school maladjustment, which is no doubt frequently the anterior process. The lack of detailed psychological and medical tests makes it impossible to say what are the factors chiefly responsible fur such school retardation: what percentage of the subjects are backward children, children with only partial developmental retardation, children with certain congenital defects which are serious obstacles to learning to read and write, or children with personality disorders which interfere considerable with a normal process of education, reduce their capacity for systematic effort, impede concentration, etc. The children whose normal progress at school encounters serious difficulties and cannot cope unaided with their school obligations have a sense of inferiority with regard to the other children in their class, and the conflict situations experienced by them continually and their fear of the consequences of bad results at school make for a hostile attitude to school, truancy, seeking contacts outside school with peers in a similar position, spending much of their time with other maladjusted boys in whose company they can win approval. Children of this kind frequently drop far behind in elementary school and sometimes fail to complete it altogether. Subsequently, they have a very difficult start in life, extremely limited prospects of employment in jobs with a low social status and a sense of personal failure and rejection which frequently helps to develop antisocial attitudes. In dealing with boys and girls of this sort who have already reached an older age bracket, one should realize that their considerable school retardation, their unaccustomedness for systematic study and the development of certain adverse habits militate against progress in the vocational schools to which they are directed. In view of the fact that teaching them a specific trade in combination with practical in-work training may be of vital importance to their subsequent careers, the syllabus in these special vocational schools should be adjusted to the degree of inability displayed by such boys and girls. Since the boys who have not even completed six or seven grades of elementary school are in a worse position than those who have completed a greater number of grades, the syllabus of the vocational courses for these children should be differentiated to match their achievement level in elementary school. It seems essential therefore, before directing such boys and girls to a vocational school, to submit them to psychological tests to discover their intelligence level and suitability for a specific trade. The findings of these surveys make clear the importance from the point of view not only of the practice of the educational authorities but also of social policy of paying special attention to cases of recurring repetition of elementary school grades and truancy, and of failure to complete elementary school. Problems and failures at school require the early intervention of psychologists and doctors and the extension of special attention to such children in the earliest grades. The elimination and prevention of symptoms of school maladjustment depend on the proper organization of school work to allow for the specific problems of this category of children. It is essential to provide a sufficient number of special classes in the lower years to enable children making poor progress to catch up and also individual coaching of pupils who have special learning problems. The surveys show how important the implementation of the above recommendations could be for prevention of social maladjustment and demoralization among a large proportion of the children subsequently classified as “out of school and out of work”. The fact that among juvenile offenders there is a large incidence of records of serious disturbances in the course of their education from an early age is obvious evidence of the need to pay special attention to school maladjustment with a view to the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Since the surveys have shown that a large proportion of children with serious school failures come from adverse home backgrounds, from broken homes, from homes in which the father is an alcoholic and from homes whose material circumstances are bad, it is essential to put such families under special supervision and also to provide welfare benefits to the mothers of children in such home.

Publikacja posiada następującą strukturę: Wstęp I . Zofia Ostrihańśka: Kryteria nieprzystosowania społęcznego dzieci i młodzieży II. Helena Kołakowska-Przełomiec: Wyniki badań 432 chłopców "nie uczących się i nie pracujacych" III. Zofia Ostrihanska, Anna Kossowska: Wyniki badań 110 dziewcząt "nie uczących się i nie pracujących" IV. Maria Marek: Wyniki badań poziomu wiadomości szkolnych młodzieży "nie uczących się i nie pracującej" Streszczenie wyników badań i wnioski

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Kryteria nieprzystosowania społecznego dzieci i młodzieży

Rozmiary nieprzystosowania społecznego uczniów warszawskich szkół podstawowych

Profesor Stanisław Batawia

Sprawca przestępstwa (zarys problematyki)

Wielokrotni recydywiści w świetle badań kryminologicznych i psychologicznych

Prognoza recydywy u nieletnich przestępców oraz wyniki badań prognostycznych 180 recydywistów w wieku 15-16 lat

Wielokrotni recydywiści o wczesnym i późnym początku karalności

Wyniki badań 110 dziewcząt “nie uczących się i nie pracujących”

Wstęp

Karalność uczniów nieprzystosowanych społecznie

Młodzież nie przystosowana społecznie (badania katamnestyczne)

Funkcjonowanie ustawy o postępowaniu wobec osób uchylających się od pracy - wyniki badań

Sytuacja dzieci i młodzieży w Polsce

Praca mężczyzn nadużywających alkoholu (przyczynek do dyskusji nad ustawą o postępowaniu wobec osób uchylających się od pracy)

Środki alternatywne dla najmłodszych przestępców program Buskerud

Ofiary włamań mieszkaniowych (wyniki międzynarodowych badań porównawczych)

Rozmiary nieprzystosowania społecznego młodzieży "nie uczącej się i nie pracującej" badanej w latach 1967/1968 i 1968/1969