Full-text resources of CEJSH and other databases are now available in the new Library of Science.
Visit https://bibliotekanauki.pl

Results found: 18

first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last

Search results

Search:
in the keywords:  offences
help Sort By:

help Limit search:
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
EN
In this draft position the author states that one of the provisions of the Act on combating unfair competition, concerning criminal liability for acts of dishonest competition in the field of advertising, is inconsistent with the Constitution. First, it provides an open catalogue of punishable acts, which violates the standard of specificity of criminal law. Second, the required elements of an offence were not sufficiently defined and they leave a subject of law in doubt as to whether his or her actions might result in criminal liability. Declaring the contested provision to be inconsistent with the Constitution eliminates the necessity of examining its conformity with Article 7 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Since in the examined case the constitutional standard and the international standard are practically the same, the proceedings regarding the latter should be discontinued.
Vox Patrum
|
2009
|
vol. 53
563-578
EN
The author of the article: „The problem of sexual offences, as a result of the mystery of iniquity present in the world, in the light of St. Jerome’s letters”, shows paradox of human existence, in which men, as a real being, continually escapes into the world of dreams and utopia; as a social being, adores in himself anarchis­tic behaviors; moral and religious values are precious for him, however by the whole of his existence opposes them; he speaks about the ideals of truth, justice and love, but in practice uses false in the wide sense of this word, without diffe­rence of time in which he lives and systems under which he exists.
EN
As for now, the Polish law of misdemeanours has not worked out a uniform concept. Historically, its developments have assumed various conceptual structures – starting with an administration type of model through the current one that comes closer to that of a criminal liability. As early as in 1918, while developing a concept of the law of misdemeanours, it was disputed whether misdemeanours should be recognised as a separate category, including cases of violation of the order, or as those that were primarily related to the sphere of administrative actions or whether they should be established on the basis of that social harm they caused and to assume that a misdemeanour was a petty form of an offence. The current model that has been worked out in the course of transformation is characterised by a significant lack of cohesion, and this assessment is even more substantiated by implementation of a concept of the socalled hybrid offences. The concept itself consisting in the diversification of liability by creating the so-called hybrid offences is a relatively new solution under the Polish system which raises significant doubts, largely in terms of its theoretical aspects, and also the one that creates serious practical issues (e.g. in 87 of the Code of Misdemeanours and under 178a of the Polish Penal Code). Conducting research within the planned extent process of contraventionalisation and principle nullum crimen sine lege has been assumed to provide for working out the basis for adopting coherent and uniform solutions with regard to the liability for what is referred to “petty offences,” and then allow undertaking further research, for example, into specific Polish solutions concerning offences and misdemeanours against safety in traffic in terms of clear limits and nature of such a liability which would serve as a reference point in legislation works in the future.
EN
The position of the Sejm regarding the motion of the First President of the Supreme Court stresses that the provisions of the Act on Vehicle Drivers and the Penal Code which are referred to the Constitutional Tribunal’s review are inconsistent with provisions of the Constitution. The challenged provisions concern the powers of the poviat (district) starost to issue an administrative decision to withhold a driving licence or a permit to drive a tram in specific cases. In its position, the Sejm shared the opinion of the proponent that the assessed norms deprive vehicle drivers accused of violating traffic regulations of the possibility to challenge the correctness of the actions of the control body. Such legal conditions violate the principle of loyalty of the state towards an individual, who, in such a case, is in practice dependent on the arbitrary judgement of the controlling body.
EN
The publication compiles data from police records on offences discovered in 1.965 – 1969 and the persons suspected of them.  
EN
Forfeiture of property is one of the oldest penalties in Polish law. Its origins can be traced in pre-state law, in the penalty of exclusion from tribe. Anybody could kill a person thus punished and destroy  his property, and would suffer no penalty for such acts. Later on, in early Middle Ages, the penalty of plunder was introduced: the offender’s possessions were looted, and his house burned. Destruction of the offender’s property as a penal sanction resulted from the conception of crime and punishment of that time. Crime was an offence against God, and punishment was seen as God’s revenge for crime – that offender’s house was destroyed as the place that had become unchaste, inhabited by an enemy of God. The penalties imposed in Poland in the 12th and 13th centuries were personal, material, and mixed penalties. There were two material penalties: forfeiture of the whole or part of property and pecuniary penalties. The utmost penalty was being outlawed which consisted of banishment of the convicted person from the country and forfeiture of his property by the ruler. Being outlawed was imposed for the most serious offences; with time, it became an exceptional penalty. In those days, forfeiture of property was a self-standing, as well as an additional penalty, imposed together with death, banishment, or imprisonment. As shown by the sources of law, forfeiture of property (as an additional penalty) could be imposed for “conspiracy against state” rape of a nun forgery of coins, cheating at games, and profiteering. Other  offences punishable in this way included murder, raid  with armed troops and theft of Church property, murder of a Jew committed by a Christian, and raid of a Jewish cemetery.  Data on the extent of the imposition of that penalty in the early feudal period are scarce; as follows from available sources, it was applied but seldom. The consequences of forfeiture were serious in those days. Deprived of property, the convicted person and his family inevitably lost their social and political status which  made forfeiture one of the most severe penalties. From  the viewpoint of the punishing authority (duke), forfeiture was clearly advantageous due to its universal feasibility; to the duke’s officials, it was profitable as they were entitled to plunder the convicted persons’s movables. In the laws of the 16th and 17th centuries, forfeiture was provided for: serious political crimes (crimen leaesae maiestatis – laese-majesty; perduelio – desertion to the enemy), offences against currency and against the armed forces.  As an additional penalty, it accompanied capital punishment and  being outlawed. The law also provided for situations where forfeiture could be imposed as a self-standing penalty. In 1573, the Warsaw Confederacy Act which guaranteed equality to confessors of different religions banned the inposition of forfeiture for conversion to another faith. Initially absolute – the whole of property being forfeited and taken over by the Treasury where it was at the king’s free disposal – forfeiture of  property  was limited already in the 14th century. To begin with, in consideration of the rights of the family  and third to forfeited property, the wife’s dowry was excluded from forfeiture. Later on, in the 16th century, the limitations concerned the king’s freedom of disposal of forfeited property. A nobleman’s property could no longer remain in the king’s hands but had to be granted to another nobleman. Forfeiture of property can also be found in the practice of Polish village courts; as follows from court registers, though, it was actually seldom imposed. European Enlightenment was the period of emergence of ideas which radically changed the conceptions of the essence and aims of punishment, types of penalties, and the policy of their imposition. In their writings, penologists of those days formulated the principle of the offender’s individual responsibility. This standpoint led to a declaration against forfeiture of property as a penalty which affected not  only the offender but also his family and therefore expressed  collective responsibility. The above ideas were known in Poland as well. They are reflected in the numerous drafts of penal law reform, prepared in 18th century Poland. The first such draft, so-called Collection of Jidicial Laws by Andrzej Zamojski, still provided for forfeiture. A later one (draft code of King Stanislaw August of the late 18th century) no longer contained this penalty. The athors argued that,  affecting not only the offender, that penalty was at variance with the principles of justice. The drafts were never to become the law. In 1794, after the second partition of Poland, an insurrection broke out commanded by Tadeusz Kościuszko. The rebel authorities repealed the former legal system and created a new system of provisions regulating the structure of state authorities, administration of justice, and law applied in courts. In the sphere of substantive penal law and the law of criminal proceedings, an insurgent code was introduced, with severe sanctions included in the catalog of penalties. Forfeiture of property was restored which had a double purpose: first, acutely to punish traitors, and second – to replenish the insurgent funds. When imposing forfeiture, property rights  of the convicted person’s spouse and his children’s right to inheritance were taken into account. Yet compared to the administration of justice of the French Revolution with its mass imposition of forfeiture, the Polish insurgent courts were humane and indeed lenient in their practice of sentencing. After the fall of the Kościuszko Insurrection, Poland became a subjugated country, divided between three partitioning powers: Prussia, Russia, and Austria. The Duchy of Warsaw, made of the territories regained from the invaders, survived but a short time. In the sphere of penal law and the present subject of forfeiture of property, that penalty was abolished by a separate parliamentary statute of 1809. After the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw, Poland lost sovereignty and the law of the partitioning powers entered into force on its territories. In the Prussian sector, a succession of laws were introduced: the Common Criminal Law of Prussian States of 1794, followed by the 1851 penal code and the penal code of the German Reich of 1871. Only the first of them still provided for forfeiture: it was abolished in the Prussian State by a law of March 11, 1850. Much earlier, forfeiture disappeared from the legislation of Austria. lt was already absent from the Cpllection of Laws on Penalties for West Galicia of June 17,1796, valid on the Polish territories under Austrian administration. Nor was forfeiture provided for by the two Austrian penal codes of 1803 and 1852. Forfeiture survived the longest in the penal legisation of Russia. In 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was formed of the Polish territories under Russian administration. In its Constitution, conferred by the Tsar of Russia, a provision was included that abolished forfeiture of property. It was also left in the subsequent Penal Code of the Kingdom of Poland, passed in 1818. Forfeiture only returned as a penal sanction applied to participants of the anti-Russian November insurrection of 1831. The Organic Statute of 1832, conferred to the Kingdom of Poland by the Tsar, reintroduced the penalty of forfeiture of property. Moreover, it was to be imposed for offences committed before Organic Statute had entered into force which was an infringement of the ban on retroactive force of law. Of those sentenced to forfeiture in the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, and Russia as participants of the November insurrection, few had estates and capital. A part of forfeited estates were donated, the rest were sold to persons of Russian origin. The proces of forfeiting the property of the 1830–1831 insurgents only ended in 1860 (the Tsar’s decree of February 2/March 2,1860). After November insurrection, the Russian authorities aimed at making the penal legislation of the Kingdom of Poland similar to that of the Russian Empire. The code of Main Corrective Penalties of 1847 aimed first of all at a legal unification. It preserved the penalty of “forfeiture of the whole or part of the convicted persons’ possessions and property” as an additional penalty imposed in cases clearly specified by law. It was imposed for offences against the state: attempts against the life, health, freedom or dignity of the Emperor and the supreme rights of the heir to the throne, the Emperor’s wife or other members of the Royal House, and rebellion against the supreme authority. Forfeiture was preserved in the amended code of 1866; in 1876, its application was extended to include offences against official enactments. The penalty could soon be applied – towards the participants of January insurrection of 1863 which broke out in the Russian Partition. The insurgents were tried by Russian military courts. After the January insurrection, 6,491 persons were convicted in the Kingdom of Poland; 6,186 of tchem were sentenced to forfeiture of property. Of that group, as few as 28 owned the whole or a part of real estate; 60 owned mortgage capital and real estate. The imposition of forfeiture on January insurgents stopped in 1867 in the Kingdom of Poland and as late as 1873 in Lithuania. The penalty was only removed from the Russian penal legislation with the introduction a new penal code in 1903. As can be seen, the Russian penal law – as opposed to the law of Prussia and Austria retained forfeiture of property the longest. It was designet to perform special political and deterrent functions as the penalty imposed on opponents of the system for crimes against state. It was severe enough to annihilate the offender’s material existence. It was also intended to deter others, any future dare-devils who might plan to resist authority. It was an   fitted element of the repressive criminal policy of the Russian Empire of those days. Forfeiture of the whole of property of the convicted person can be found once again in the Polish legislation, of independent Poland this time: in the Act of July 2, 1920 on controlling war usury where forfeiture was an optional additional penalty. At the same time, the act prohibited cumulation of repression affecting property (fine and forfeiture could not be imposed simultaneously). It originated from the special war conditions in Poland at the time. The ban on cumulation of repression affecting property is interesting from the viewpoint of criminal policy. The Polish penal code of 1932 did not provide for the penalty of forfeiture, and the Act on controlling war usury was quashed by that code’s introductory provisions. In the legislation of People’s Poland after World War II, forfeiture of property was re-established and had extensive application.
PL
W artykule poruszono problematykę dotyczącą zakresu odpowiedzialności Prezydenta RP za wykroczenia i ewentualnej jurysdykcji nad nimi. Dostrzegając brak wyraźnej regulacji tych zagadnień, autor wskazuje, iż – w związku z zakazem domniemywania immunitetów – zakres odpowiedzialności Prezydenta RP za wykroczenia musi być tożsamy jak w przypadku innych obywateli. Z uwagi jednak na szerokie niebezpieczeństwa nierozerwalnie związane z realizacją tej formy odpowiedzialności, proponuje objęcie jurysdykcji nad nimi przez Trybunał Stanu. Dla przyjęcia takiego stanowiska autora skłaniają zarówno treści obowiązującego porządku prawnego, jak również liczne argumenty natury funkcjonalnej i językowej. W konsekwencji zarysowuje on tezę, iż „przestępstwo” w rozumieniu art. 145 ust. 1 Konstytucji stanowi w istocie nazwę dla szeroko rozumianej odpowiedzialności karnej.
EN
The article discusses the scope of legal responsibility on the part of The President of the Republic of Poland. The lack of precise legal regulations concerning the matter in question leads to the following conclusion: taking into consideration the present prohibitionof implicit immunity the President of the Republic of Poland ought to share the same realm of legal responsibility as do other Polish citizens. Yet, due to the apparent dangers inherent in the execution of the legal responsibility the author proposes for the jurisdiction in question to be under the supervision of the State Tribunal. The author’s argument is founded on the present legal order as well as in numerous functional and language oriented factors. As a consequence, the author claims “the offense” as defined in the 145th article of the Constitution is in reality a general notion for criminal responsibility.
EN
For many years now, excessive drinking has been among the main symptoms of social pathology in Poland. Also the fact is beyond any doubt that  drinking is strongly related to crime: it is ussually found in over a half of offences known to the police committed by adults. The problem of drinking also plays an important part in the process of juvenile demoralization and delinquency. This fact was noticed by the legislator who, in the Act of October 26, 1982 on proceedings in cases of juveniles, situated drinking among the symptoms of demoralization. Among the juveniles found quality of offences, the proportion of those who drink alcohol is quite large, the offenders’ actual age considered. In recent  years, that proportion has been over 11,0% of all juvenile delinquents. There are also among the juveniles found quality of offences those who committed acts  prohibited by law while under the influence of alcohol. In recent years, the proportion of, such juveniles has been over 5,0% and, shows an upward trend. There is among the excessively drinking juvenile delinquents a decided majority of boys, whose proportion has always been over 91,0% in the last 20 years. The paper reports on a national empirical study of two groups of boys born in 1959. The first group consisted of 100 respondents who committed as juveniles at least one offence while under the influence of alcohol. The other group which also consisted of 100 persons (the control group) were boys selected from among the juveniles delinquents who committed offences but did not drink any alcohol before that act. The source of data on the two groups of respondents were: court files; records of implementation of the educational or corrective measures applied by the court, files of criminal cases for offences committed by those persons as adults; questionnaires sent out to sobering-up stations; as well as standarized interviews with the respondents themselves. The study has shown a number of differences between juveniles who commit offences under the influence of alcohol and the remaining juvenile delinquents. The main such differences are as follows: Different types of delinquency in the broad sense: ‒ offences committed under the influence of alcohol were frequently not the first offences of the examined juveniles (44,0% of cases, as compared to 7,0% in the control group); ‒ such offences were usually committed at the age of 15‒16 (93,0%), that is rather late in the juvenile’s career, at the threshold of statutory age: ‒ the offences committed by the first group were decidedly more aggressive and dangerous for the life and health of their victims than those committed by the control group; ‒ nearly 50,0% of the offences committed under the influence of alcohol were commitied in the streets (control group ‒ 39,3%); ‒ the juveniles who committed offences under the influence of alcohol were acting alone nearly 30 times more often than the remaining juvenile deliquents. In the case of boys who committed offences under the influence of alcohol, their state of health, family situation, and ‒ consequently ‒ also scholastic achievements were inferior to those in the control group: ‒ as few as 67,0% of boys in the first group were brought up in complete families (control group ‒ 82,0%); what is more, in 52,3% of those families disturbed functioning was found which was due to: alcoholism, excessive drinking, serious chronic diseases, disablement, mental disorders, delinquency or prostitution of one or both parents; thus as few as about one-third of the families of juveniles who committed offences under the influence of alcohol were fully efficient educational milieu; ‒ 69,0% of the boys who committed offences under the influence of alcohol were educationally neglected by their parents (control group ‒ 53,0%); ‒ 44,0% of the boys who commiited offences under the influence of alcohol (as compared to 25,0% in the control group) had as children suffered from serious diseases that affected their psycho-physical development, organic lesions or diseases of the central nervous system, or slight or minor degrees of mental deficiency; ‒ 7,0% of the boys who committed offences under the influence of alcohol did not go to school despite the fact that education is compulsory at their age (control group – 2%), and 58,0% (70,7% of those who did go to school) were educationally retarded by one to four years (control group – 51,0% that is 52,6% of the school-goers); The degree of social maladjustment was much higher in the boys who committed offences under the influence of alcohol: ‒ nearly a half of juveniles in that group were recidivists (44,0%, as compared to as few as 7,0% in the control group); ‒ 65,0% of the boys who drank (that is, by about one-third more than  among all juvenile delinqents) were cigarette smokers, and had started smoking long before their first contacts with alcohol; ‒ although the number of juveniles who ran away from home was similar in both groups, those who committed offences under the influence of alcohol did that more often and frequently drank alcohol while vagrant; ‒ 85,0% of boys in the first group (by about 20,0% more than among all juvenile delinquents) used to run the streets unsupervised, 79,0% with demoralized friends: ‒ as few as 5,0% of juveniles who committed offences under the infleunce of alcohol showed no symptoms of social maladjustment, other than those offences (23,0% among all juvenile delinquents), and at least three such symptoms were found in 69,0% (45,0% among all juvenile delinquents). In sum, the group of boys who had committed offences under the influence of alcohol in childhood was in many respects „worse'', and frequently much „worse'' than the control group selected from among all juvenile delinquents. Such boys would prove worse still were they compared with a representative sample of all Poles born in 1959. The facts discussed above prove the truth of the statement that juveniles who commit offences under the influences of alcohol are a high risk group compared to properly socialized young persons. They should therefore be submitted to special care by the competent agencies, including in particular family courts; however, no evidence of such care could be found in the study.
EN
The latest self-report delinquency study took place in school year 2002/2003 on a national random school sample of 13-16 years old young people. The size of the sample was 3857 persons. The questionnaire contained questions on problem behaviour and offending (property offences, violent offences against persons and objects, computer-related offences, drugs use and selling) as well as questions on school and family situation, friends, leisure time and attitudes.
EN
The present article deals with the development of restriction of freedom under the Polish legal system. Its original formulation is presented as well as the changes has undergone, and finally its present form. This penalty was introduced into the Polish legal order by the act passed on 14 May 1969 (Penal Code). Further, it features as a sanction for offences in the Petty Offences Code (20 May 1971) and in the Fiscal Penal Act passed on 26 October 1971 – as a sanction for financial offences. The penalty of restriction of freedom in its current form was enacted on 10 September 1999 (Fiscal Penal Code). The presented article outlines the many distinctions between this kind of sanction under the Fiscal Penal Code and the one under the Criminal Code. Moreover, differences regarding this penalty in relation to soldiers are discussed. New prospects concerning restriction of freedom are presented in the light of planned changes to Penal Code Changes drafted by the Criminal Law Codification Commission on 9 November 2013.
PL
Lasami państwowymi w Polsce w imieniu Skarbu Państwa zarządza Państwowe Gospodarstwo Leśne Lasy Państwowe, jako statio fisci. W ramach zarządu Lasy winny prowadzić trwale zrównoważoną gospodarkę leśną. Las jako jeden z najważniejszych komponentów środowiska przyrodniczego, obok pozyskania drewna, ma do spełnienia przede wszystkim funkcje społeczne jak również ochrony przyrody. Szeroko i prawidłowo rozumiana ochrona przyrody, nie jest jednak tożsama z gospodarką leśną, gdzie funkcje gospodarcze i pozyskanie drewna są działaniami wiodącymi.
EN
In Poland, on behalf of the state treasury, a National Forest Household is managing National Forests, as statio fisci. In frames of the management board Forests should lead the sustainable forest management permanently. Forest, as one of the most important components of the natural environment, besides acquiring wood has, above all, social functions as well as the conservations of nature to fulfill. Widely and correctly understood conservation of nature is not identical with the forest management, where economic functions and acquiring wood are leading actions.
EN
A study of two 100-person groups of juvenile delinquents born in 1959 was conducted in the years 1981‒1985 at the Department of Criminology, Institute of Legal Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. The first (experimental) group consisted of boys randomly selected from the total of 225 juveniles born in 1959 who had committed at least on offence while intoxicated. The other (control) group were 100 randomly juveniles selected from the entire population of 8196 juvenile delinquents born in 1959. None of the juveniles selected for the experimental group happened to find themselves in the control group as well. As shown by the findings, the juveniles who had committed at least one offence while intoxicated were much more demoralized as a group than the whole of juvenile delinquents. It seemed interesting, therefore, to follow the further fates of both groups as adults. The follow-up period was 7 years; until that time, all of the examined persons reached the age of 25 when the average Polish man be- comes stabilized to some extent, having graduated from university, worked for several or a dozen years (upon completion of secondary or elementary education respectively), and frequently having also established a family.  Data on the life situation of the young men from both examined groups on their 25th birthday were obtained from the following four sources: ‒ the Central Register of Convicted Persons kept  by the Ministry of Justice, and the Register of Convicted and Detained Persons where criminal records of the entire sample were checked; ‒ files of criminal cases of all men with criminal records (47.0% of the experimental and 35.0% of the control group); the files concerned criminal proceedings before common courts for offences committed after coming of age; ‒ questionnaire survey of 63.0% of the experimental and 66.0% of the control group; ‒ inquiry submitted to the sobering-up stations concerning the entire sample. As shown by the findings, 24.0% of the experimental and 13.0% of the control group established their own families before the age of 25. The proportions are high, as regards the experimental group in particular: erly in the 1980s, the newly married constituted about 10% of the total male population aged 20‒24 in Poland. The mean educational level was higher in the control compared to the experimental group; this concerns first  and foremost  cases of education higher than the elmementary technical (of which there were two in the experimental compared to ten in the control group). Moreover, no cases of illiteracy could be found in the control group, compared to one such case in the experimental group. Of all the men of the experimental group concerning whom data could be obtained, 80.4% had a regular job, and 19.6% stayed out of job or worked casually. Of the control group, 80.0% had a regular job (33% combining job with school), 18.3% stayed out of job or worked casually, and one person had entered university. The number of convicted persons in the experimental group (47) was larger compared to the control group (35) by 12.0%, the difference being significant. Also relapse into crime was higher in the expenmental group (l5 vs. 11 cases). The first offence committed by those convicted as young adults was mainly one against property: 35 cases in the experimental group (66.0% of all those convicted) and 28 cases in the control group (80.0%). The second most frequent offence of members of the experimental group was an aggressive act: against life and health, freedom, personal dignity and inviolability (10 persons, i.e. 18.8% of all those convicted). The offences of this type included: bodily injury (Art. 156 of the penal code – 3 persons, i.e. 6.4%); participation in a brawl or beating (Art. 158 and 159 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%); infringement of bodily inviolability (Art. 182 – 3 persons, i.e. 6.4%); assault against a public functionary (Art. 233 and 234 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%); insult against  a public functionary (Art. 236 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%). In the control group, 6 cases of such offences could be found (9.1% of all those convicted);  yet the only offence under Art. 148 1 of the penal code, that is homicide, had been committed by a member of that goup.The other discussed figures and proportions were respectively: Art. l58, 159 – 3 persons, i.e. 8.6%; Art. 182 – 1 person (2.9%); Art. 233, 234 – 1 person (2.9%); and Art. 236 – 1   person (29%). Beside offences, the two groups manifested also other synptoms of social maladjustment. The symptoms found most often in both groups were: “contacts with persons known to the police as delinquent” and stays at the sobering-up station. As regards the experimental group, the third frequent symptom were brawls in the place of residence followed by bad opinion with neighbors, hooliganism, and avoidance of work. In the control group, avoidance of work ranked third, followed by bad opinion with neighbors, hooliganism, and brawls at the place of residence. This ranking of frequency of the symptoms of social maladjustment points to a greater aggressiveness of the young men from the experimental group. On the 63 young men from the experimental group concerning whom data  could be obtained, 62 (98.0%) drank alcohol. In the control group 59 (89.0%) of the 66 concerning whom data could be obtained were drinkers. The group of drinkers included all those who had drunk several times a week already  as juveniles, and 70% of those who had drunk once a week. In the control group, drinkers included 91.7% of those who had drunk as juvoniles (11 of 12 cases). Of those who had drunk as juveniles in the control group, 66.7% (8 cases) were convicted as adults. As shown by the discussed data, young men from the experimental group – those who committed as juveniles at least one offence while intoxicated prove much inferior in terms of the social situation  to other men who also committed offences as juveniles but did not drink alcohol. Therefore, early alcohol consumption among juvenile delinquents is an important factor of a negative prognosis as to the further fates of such persons. A number of postulates have been formulated, addressed at the prosecuting agencies, criminal justice, and institutions designed to assist persons in extraordinary situation. With respect to the present sample, all such postulates acquire special importance and must be met without fail.
PL
A study of two 100-person groups of juvenile delinquents born in 1959 was conducted in the years 1981‒1985 at the Department of Criminology, Institute of Legal Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. The first (experimental) group consisted of boys randomly selected from the total of 225 juveniles born in 1959 who had committed at least on offence while intoxicated. The other (control) group were 100 randomly juveniles selected from the entire population of 8196 juvenile delinquents born in 1959. None of the juveniles selected for the experimental group happened to find themselves in the control group as well. As shown by the findings, the juveniles who had committed at least one offence while intoxicated were much more demoralized as a group than the whole of juvenile delinquents. It seemed interesting, therefore, to follow the further fates of both groups as adults. The follow-up period was 7 years; until that time, all of the examined persons reached the age of 25 when the average Polish man be- comes stabilized to some extent, having graduated from university, worked for several or a dozen years (upon completion of secondary or elementary education respectively), and frequently having also established a family.  Data on the life situation of the young men from both examined groups on their 25th birthday were obtained from the following four sources: ‒ the Central Register of Convicted Persons kept  by the Ministry of Justice, and the Register of Convicted and Detained Persons where criminal records of the entire sample were checked; ‒ files of criminal cases of all men with criminal records (47.0% of the experimental and 35.0% of the control group); the files concerned criminal proceedings before common courts for offences committed after coming of age; ‒ questionnaire survey of 63.0% of the experimental and 66.0% of the control group; ‒ inquiry submitted to the sobering-up stations concerning the entire sample. As shown by the findings, 24.0% of the experimental and 13.0% of the control group established their own families before the age of 25. The proportions are high, as regards the experimental group in particular: erly in the 1980s, the newly married constituted about 10% of the total male population aged 20‒24 in Poland. The mean educational level was higher in the control compared to the experimental group; this concerns first  and foremost  cases of education higher than the elmementary technical (of which there were two in the experimental compared to ten in the control group). Moreover, no cases of illiteracy could be found in the control group, compared to one such case in the experimental group. Of all the men of the experimental group concerning whom data could be obtained, 80.4% had a regular job, and 19.6% stayed out of job or worked casually. Of the control group, 80.0% had a regular job (33% combining job with school), 18.3% stayed out of job or worked casually, and one person had entered university. The number of convicted persons in the experimental group (47) was larger compared to the control group (35) by 12.0%, the difference being significant. Also relapse into crime was higher in the expenmental group (l5 vs. 11 cases). The first offence committed by those convicted as young adults was mainly one against property: 35 cases in the experimental group (66.0% of all those convicted) and 28 cases in the control group (80.0%). The second most frequent offence of members of the experimental group was an aggressive act: against life and health, freedom, personal dignity and inviolability (10 persons, i.e. 18.8% of all those convicted). The offences of this type included: bodily injury (Art. 156 of the penal code – 3 persons, i.e. 6.4%); participation in a brawl or beating (Art. 158 and 159 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%); infringement of bodily inviolability (Art. 182 – 3 persons, i.e. 6.4%); assault against a public functionary (Art. 233 and 234 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%); insult against  a public functionary (Art. 236 – 1 person, i.e. 2.1%). In the control group, 6 cases of such offences could be found (9.1% of all those convicted);  yet the only offence under Art. 148 1 of the penal code, that is homicide, had been committed by a member of that goup.The other discussed figures and proportions were respectively: Art. l58, 159 – 3 persons, i.e. 8.6%; Art. 182 – 1 person (2.9%); Art. 233, 234 – 1 person (2.9%); and Art. 236 – 1   person (29%). Beside offences, the two groups manifested also other synptoms of social maladjustment. The symptoms found most often in both groups were: “contacts with persons known to the police as delinquent” and stays at the sobering-up station. As regards the experimental group, the third frequent symptom were brawls in the place of residence followed by bad opinion with neighbors, hooliganism, and avoidance of work. In the control group, avoidance of work ranked third, followed by bad opinion with neighbors, hooliganism, and brawls at the place of residence. This ranking of frequency of the symptoms of social maladjustment points to a greater aggressiveness of the young men from the experimental group. On the 63 young men from the experimental group concerning whom data  could be obtained, 62 (98.0%) drank alcohol. In the control group 59 (89.0%) of the 66 concerning whom data could be obtained were drinkers. The group of drinkers included all those who had drunk several times a week already  as juveniles, and 70% of those who had drunk once a week. In the control group, drinkers included 91.7% of those who had drunk as juvoniles (11 of 12 cases). Of those who had drunk as juveniles in the control group, 66.7% (8 cases) were convicted as adults. As shown by the discussed data, young men from the experimental group – those who committed as juveniles at least one offence while intoxicated prove much inferior in terms of the social situation  to other men who also committed offences as juveniles but did not drink alcohol. Therefore, early alcohol consumption among juvenile delinquents is an important factor of a negative prognosis as to the further fates of such persons. A number of postulates have been formulated, addressed at the prosecuting agencies, criminal justice, and institutions designed to assist persons in extraordinary situation. With respect to the present sample, all such postulates acquire special importance and must be met without fail.   Niniejszy artykuł stanowi kontynuację opracowania: Nieletni sprawcy przestępstw popełnionych pod wpływem alkoholu, „Archiwum Kryminologii” 1991, t. XVIII.
EN
This paper contains general characteristics of a regime (being an institutional system) and a discussion on the specificity of socialism as a type of regime and its repressiveness. It also presents the type of institutional changes implemented after socialism and, in particular, in the wording of the laws and the system of types of organisation. Against this background, institutional factors fundamental for economy are analysed, and two main aspects of law enforcement and administration of justice: the (in)effectiveness and (in)justice are discussed with a special focus on Poland’s reality.
PL
Artykuł zawiera ogólną charakterystykę ustroju (systemu instytucjonalnego), a następnie omawia specyfikę socjalizmu jako ustroju, podkreślając jego represyjność. Kolejnym tematem są typy zmian instytucjonalnych po socjalizmie, zwłaszcza w treści praw oraz w systemie typów organizacji. Na tym tle analizowane są te czynniki instytucjonalne, które mają szczególne znaczenie dla gospodarki. Omawiane są dwa fundamentalne aspekty aparatu ścigania i wymiaru sprawiedliwości – generalnie i ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Polski: (nie)efektywność i (nie)sprawiedliwość.
EN
In the minutes of the meetings of the Public Education Council, referred to as the ‘supreme school authority in the Kingdom of Poland’ of the interuprising period, a lot of space between 1845 and 1850 was devoted to the matters of male secondary school students of the Warsaw Academic District. Among many decisions taken in this regard were also the issues of disciplinary penalties students received at that time. The punished can be divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 42 students, including those who, for patriotic reasons, escaped from schools and went abroad, probably to take part in the 1846 Kraków Uprising and the Spring of Nations afterwards. They were all expelled without the right to resume education. The second group consisted of 33 students who violated school discipline or committed criminal offences. Most often, they were punished with expulsion as well as flogging, a practice allowed by the law of the time. The information contained in the article complements the knowledge about secondary school students in academic circulation.
PL
Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie zagrożeń kryminalnych dla podmiotów gospodarczych prowadzących restauracje. W artykule prezentowane są główne wyniki badań przeprowadzonych przez autora wśród przedstawicieli trzech grup respondentów: właścicieli restauracji, managerów oraz pracowników. Opisana jest metodologia badań. W treści wskazane są najpoważniejsze zagrożenia kryminalne, zarówno zewnętrzne, jak i wewnętrzne. Autor przedstawia dane dotyczące wielkości strat generowanych przez sprawców oraz częstotliwości ich zachowań przestępnych. Wskazuje na różnice w postrzeganiu zjawiska przestępczości skierowanej przeciwko właścicielom restauracji przez różne grupy badanych. Omawia kwestie związane ze ściganiem sprawców i metodami profilaktycznymi stosowanymi przez przedsiębiorców. Istotnym i kluczowym walorem artykułu jest fakt, iż bazuje on na badaniach jakościowych w formie indywidualnych wywiadów pogłębionych z właścicielami i osobami zatrudnionymi w 18 restauracjach warszawskich.
EN
The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive review of criminal threats to the restaurant owners. The article presents a research methodology and the results of a research study conducted by the author on three groups of respondents: the restaurant owners, managers and employees. Indicated are the most serious criminal threats, both external and internal. Presented data reveal amounts of losses generated by the perpetrators and the frequency of their criminal activities. Discussed are the differences in the perception of crime against restaurant owners by different groups of respondents. A separate section of the article is devoted to prosecution of the perpetrators and preventive methods and measures applied by entrepreneurs. The key value of the present article lies in the methodology applied by the author, i.e., qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews with the owners and staff of 18 restaurants in Warsaw.
EN
The present contribution discusses the results of 4200 forensic-psychiatric  reports given, in the years 1953 to 1957, by twenty-one mental hospitals and the Department of Forensic Psychiatry of the Psychoneurological Institute, where copies of such reports, given by all the major mental hospitals in Poland, are collected. The present contribution does not take into consideration 300 reports in which no symptoms of a disease have been found with the subjects investigated, nor yet any mentally abnormal states, as well as 460 reports concerning reactive psychoses and 80 cases of simulation which arose only after the arrest of the investigated. (Cases of reactive psychoses and simulation will be dealt with separately, because of the altogether peculiar problems involved). Even though the leaving out of the account of the psychiatric examinations carried out in the Public Prosecutors’ Offices and the Courts of Law does not allow us to draw conclusions with regard to all those offenders suffering from mental disorders who have been submitted to examination, nevertheless, the large number of hospital reports available would seem to constitute valuable psychopathological and criminological material. 1. In investigating the cases sent by the Public Prosecutors’ Offices and the Courts to mental hospitals for psychiatric observation, we find, on the basis of available material, that the percentage of psychoses – setting aside reactive psychoses – is small, as it does not exceed 22 per cent. Three items: psychopathy, mental deficiency (most frequently a light feeble-mindedness or moronity) and alcoholism jointly account for a total of 50.8 per cent of the cases, and if, over and above that, we take into consideration post-traumatic mental disorders, epilepsy, post-encephalitic disorders and such like cases, it will appear that as many as over three-fourths of the reports given concern non-psychotic  states. Psychopathy accounts for 27.4 per cent of the cases, alcoholism and mental deficiency for 15.8 per cent each, post-traumatic disorders for 5.9 per cent, epilepsy for 4.7 per cent, and post-encephalitic disorders for 1.5 per cent. In the material under investigation cases of psychopathy amount, in reality, to more than 27.4 per cent, since cases of reactive psychoses and simulation, in which psychopaths figure extremely often, have been left out of the account. Similarly, there are probably more post-encephalitic states, which, having failed to be properly diagnosed, figure in cases which come under other heads, because of the lack of reliable interviews and the negative result of the neurological examination (in particular, in the mental deficiency and psychopathy groups). Cases of alcoholism, too, are less numerously represented in the material under investigation than would seem to result from the diagnoses contained in the reports. There can subsist no doubt that, apart from cases where the diagnosis reads ,,chronic (or else habitual) alcoholism", we also meet with alcoholism with a great many of such of the investigated with whom other pathological states have been diagnosed, and where alcoholism merely constitutes an additional factor, as a complication of other mental disorders. Altogether, the percentage of alcohol addicts amounts to at least 28. Among psychoses, schizophrenia is the one most numerously represented (510 cases). Only 29 delinquents suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, 62 from general paralysis, 30 – from involutional psychosis, 28 - from senile dementia. There were 19 cases of delusional psychosis, and 14 cases of paranoia. The number of cases with cerebral arteriosclerosis was 49, and that of cases of cerebral syphilis - only 20. In 44 cases it was a matter of twilight states with non-epileptics; here belong 30 cases of pathological drunkenness, 7 cases of pathological affect, 3 cases of ,,short-circuiting" (the so-called „Kurzschlusshandlungen” in German), and 4 cases of twilight states with an obscure etiology. 87.1 per cent of the reports concern men, 12.9 per cent - women. For every 100 men investigated there were only 14.9 women, while in the 1955 judicial statistics there were as many as 30 convicted women to every 100 convicted men. Cases of psychopathy, mental deficiency and schizophrenia constitute 61.3 per cent of the total of reports concerning women, while with men the above three items only amounted to 63.8 per cent after cases of alcoholism were added to them. Women are relatively most numerously represented in involutional disorders and manic-depressive psychosis. 2. When we examine the data concerning delinquency, it is obvious that it is the perpetrators of manslaughter, sexual offences and arson that are particularly numerously represented in the judicial psychiatric material. The most common offences against property, which constitute 33 per cent of the total number of offences in the material under investigation, reach the highest percentages in those cases which are not psychoses. On the other hand, among the offences perpetrated by persons suffering from psychoses there are relatively more offences against life and health, and, in particular, of manslaughter. Manslaughter amounts to 14 per cent of the offences committed by the persons investigated suffering from involutional psychosis, to 12.2 per cent of those committed by sufferers from schizophrenia, to 11.1 per cent of those committed by sufferers from paranoia, to 10 per cent, with sufferers from senile dementia, while with psychopaths the figure is only 5.7 and with oligophrenics - 4.7. Altogether, there were 288 cases of manslaughter or murder in the material investigated, and of these 77.4 per cent were divided between cases of psychopathy (67 cases), schizophrenia (67 cases), alcoholism (51 cases), and mental deficiency (28 cases). Among the 179 cases of sexual offences the bulk were cases of misconduct with persons under 15 years of age (93 cases), there were 43 cases of rape, 21 cases of incest, 12 cases of exhibitionist acts. Nearly 70 per cent of the sexual offences have been committed by psychopaths (55), oligophrenics (41) and alcohol addicts (28). On the other hand, the relatively highest percentage of such offences is to be met with those suffering from senile dementia, cerebral arteriosclerosis, and with mental deficiency. As far as arson is concerned, which in the material under investigation amounted to 3.3 per cent of the total number of offences, percentages higher than average ones are to be met with in cases of involutional psychosis, senile dementia, schizophrenia and mental deficiency. Out of a total number of 146  cases of arson, 53.4 per cent were accounted for by schizophrenia (40) and mental deficiency (38). With psychopaths and alcoholics comprised by the material under investigation cases of arson are extremely rare. Examining the delinquency of 158 epileptics, we establish that both the percentage of manslaughter and the number of cases of arson are small. What is worth while noting beside that is the fact that only in 24 cases the offence was perpetrated in a twilight state. The data concerning the delinquency of 510 schizophrenics bear witness to the fact that it was only a mere 8 per cent of the investigated that committed the offence during the first year of their illness, while the majority of cases the latter has been going on for above three years. When we analyze the 67 cases of manslaughter we find that it was only in two cases that the manslaughter was committed in the initial stage of the disease and constituted, as it were, the first visible sign of the schizophrenic process. In delusional psychoses cases of manslaughter were frequent, differently from cases of paranoia. In the few (29) cases of manic-depressive psychosis only one offence was committed in the depressive phase, white all the others were committed in the maniac phase or else in the hypomanic state. Deserving our attention is the lack of any more serious offences against life and health in this group. In the 30 cases of involutional psychosis more than one half of the offences consisted of those against life and health. Among the offences committed by the 49 persons with symptoms of cerebral arteriosclerosis, one-third consisted of offences of a serious character, while with the 25 patients suffering from senile dementia as many as one-half of the offences belonged to the category of serious offences. The delinquency of the 62 sufferers from general paralysis is almost exclusively reduced to offences of small importance of similar character as were the offences committed by the 20 sufferers from cerebral syphilis. In the 44 cases of twilight states (pathological drunkenness, pathological affect, and others) still 50 per cent of the offences consist of offences against life and health; 18 people fell victim to manslaughter. 3. The Polish Criminal Code, in force since 1932, contains provisions concerning, both in cases with mentally abnormal states, a state of irresponsibility and of diminished responsibility. A state of irresponsibility occurs when, at the time of committing the offence, the accused did not understand the significance of the deed he was perpetrating, or else was unable to direct his conduct because of psychosis, mental deficiency or other psychical disorders. A diminished responsibility occurs when, because of one of the reasons mentioned above, the ability of the accused to grasp the significance of the offence committed by him, and to direct his conduct was considerably limited. With regard to such and offender the Court may apply an extraordinarily mitigated penalty, while with regard to an offender who has been declared irresponsible, of course, no penalty at all may be applied. The offenders declared irresponsible are, by virtue of the Court's decision, transferred to a general mental hospital, if their staying at large could be dangerous for the legal order. They cannot be released from the hospital by the Court earlier than after the lapse of one year. An offender with regard to whom a diminished responsibility has been decreed and who is dangerous to the legal order may also be placed in a mental hospital (he, too, can be released from there by the Court not earlier than after the lapse of one year at the least). If the Court has sentenced such an offender to serve a term of imprisonment, the question of whether or not the penalty decreed is to be served is decided by the Court after the offender's release from the mental hospital. In cases of psychosis, forensic psychiatrists always decree irresponsibility. In cases of mental deficiency their decree depends on the degree of such deficiency, while in the cases, most frequent in judicial practice, of mild subnormality (morons, debils) –  also on the, category of the offence which has been committed. Psychopaths are, in principle, considered to be fully responsible. Altogether, out of a total of 3900 delinquents examined 24.7 per cent of the cases have been pronounced by experts to be irresponsible, 23.1 per cent of the cases – to have a diminished responsibility, while 50.7 per cent of the offenders have been declared to be fully responsible. 4. As far as experts' opinions are concerned with regard to the application of internment in mental hospitals of offenders pronounced to be dangerous for the legal order, as well as irresponsible, out of a total number of 946 offenders declared irresponsible, a mere 34 per cent have been pronounced to be dangerous. Moreover, in 31 per cent of the cases, experts have pronounced for the necessity of hospital treatment under ordinary circumstances. Finally, 35 per cent of the offenders pronounced to be irresponsible have been described as not standing in need of any hospital treatment. A diminished responsibility has been decreed by the experts in a total of 855 cases, but only 6.4 per cent of the latter number have been pronounced to be dangerous to the legal order and to stand in need of internment in a mental hospital. Apart from the above, only in 10 per cent of the cases, experts have pronounced in favor of the need for hospital treatment. In the remaining 83.5 per cent of the cases the experts have confined themselves to stating that the responsibility of the offenders in question was diminished which, in result, comes merely to a possibility of an extraordinary mitigation of the penalty being decreed by the law-court. It is evident from the analysis of the judicial sentences which we have just carried out that experts a[ too unfrequently declare in favor of the need of applying security measures. The result is an irrational punitive policy with regard to such offenders who ought to be approached first and foremost, from a psychiatric point of view. The Criminal Code provisions concerning security measures are obsolete and demand essential alterations, which can only be done by means of codification. Quite independently of the need for extending the network of ordinary mental hospitals, there also exists a necessity of creating a special type of establishments, of a psychiatric-cum-penitentiary character, for a certain category of offenders who exhibit abnormal mental peculiarities and tendencies to recidivism. Equally needed is the establishing of treatment homes for offenders who are alcohol addicts. As it ensues clearly from experiments made in various countries, the application of ordinary penalties to delinquents who require a special treatment from a psychiatric point of view is altogether inefficacious.
first rewind previous Page / 1 next fast forward last
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.