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Młodociane prostytutki. Analiza procesu społecznego wykolejenia 100 dziewcząt

100%

Jasińska M.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1964

issue II

145-250

This contribution provides an analysis of one of the forms of the social degradation of girls viz. prostitution, on the basis of an investigation which has comprized one hundred girls and young women, below twenty-five years of age, all of them living in Warsaw. The way in which the materials have been collected authorizes one to suppose that the latter is representative, in the sense that many features typical for the girls under investigation will also prove to be such with regard to other juvenile prostitutes in the milieu of a great city. The prostitutes below twenty-five years of age constitute about forty per cent, of the total number of the women who practice prostitution, and who are known as such to the police. Even though, under the new social and economic conditions, the dimensions of prostitution in Poland are now incomparably smaller than they used to be in the pre-war period, yet the existence of that troublesome phenomenon fully justifies the need for scientific research, more particularly so where juveniles are concerned. Among the girls comprized by the investigation, forty per cent, were under eighteen years of age, another forty per cent. - between nineteen and twenty-one years, and twenty per cent. - from twenty-two to twenty- -five years of age. During the investigation it appeared that the majority of the youngest girls (those under eighteen) could not be described as prostitutes in the strict sense of the term, in spite of their way of life and their behaviour which made them resemble prostitutes. The behaviour of such girls exhibited a number of symptoms of social deviation, in particular early begun and frequent sexual intercourse with various partners, strolling about at night time, spending time in the environment of social wrecks and outcasts, abusing of alcoholic drink, etc. The interviewing of eighty-two of the prostitutes was, as a rule, carried out at the police stations in various districts of Warsaw, and, moreover, later on also in the private homes of the investigators, at the domicile of the interviewed, etc. Part of the girls were interviewed in a women's jail. In every single case environment interviews have been carried out. They took place at the family homes of the girls, or in the homes of those persons with whom they were brought up. Moreover, interviews have been carried out in the schools which the girls under investigation had attended, as well as at the place of work, if they had worked prior to practicing prostitution. The data concerning the prostitutes’ judicial record (whether punished or not) have been scrupulously checked. It has been found possible to comprize a mere one-third of the girls under investigation in psychological and medical examination, mostly those who were serving a term of imprisonment in jail. One year after the termination of the research follow-up studies were carried out in every single case, and again, after nearly two years, they were once more repeated. The latest follow-up studies obtained come from the year 1960. The fundamental difficulties which have made it impossible to carry out deeper psychological and psychopathological investigation were connected, first and foremost, with the place where such investigation was conducted, and have been the reason why the material was elaborated mostly from a sociological angle. It would seem, however, that taking into account, first and foremost, the sociological aspect was fully justified (and has proved to be fruitful), since an investigation of prostitutes carried out almost exclusively from a psychiatric angle fails to explain properly the process of such persons going to wreck socially. The girls who practice prostitution could be classified into various categories of prostitutes. The classification of the girls investigated has been carried out in accordance with the terminology accepted in their environment and with a complex criterion imposed, as it were, by the girls themselves. Such elements as: clothing and outward appearance, the place of making contacts with men and of spending time with them, the method and forms of winning them over, and, finally, the amount of pay received are, in the opinion of the prostitutes themselves, a testimony of their belonging to such or such other circle. The two fundamental categories of persons who practice prostitution, singled out on the basis of the set of elements enumerated above are the so-called “premises” and the “street” prostitutes. That division, however, is inadequate in a fundamental way, since it does not single out, from the total number of street prostitutes, that group of persons who, from the point of view of the general living standards of the women who practice prostitution, stand considerably lower than their remaining companions from the street. Because of the criterion accepted, therefore, the most adequate seems to be a threepartite division, comprizing the following categories: (“ A” ) premises prostitutes, (“ B” ) higher-class street prostitutes, and (“C” ) - lower-class street prostitutes. The above division of the persons investigated has greatly helped to notice the various aspects of the complicated problem of prostitution. In the course of the investigation it has appeared that the stereotyped notion of “ prostitute in general” ought to undergo revision. The differences which divide from each other the prostitutes of the several categories are so great, beginning with the origin of the process of their social derailment and ending with their present-day way of life, that it is really hardly possible to speak of the type of the average prostitute. It would seem that the above problem had so far been underestimated in the research on prostitution. The social environment, from which the girls under investigation hailed, was divided according to the following groups: working-class, peasant, lumpen-proletariat, educated and the so-called “ miscellaneous” . 51 per cent, of the girls come from working-class families (in the broad sense of the word), while only one-third of their parents were skilled workers, while another one-third were manual workers without any training, employed as porters, janitors, coachmen, cleaners, etc. A relatively small group of girls hailed from the country (18 per cent.). Their parents were agricultural labourers or small-holding peasants. The third group of girls were the daughters of representatives of the lumpen-proletariat (lowest, socially degraded stratum of the proletariat). 12 per cent, of the girls hailed from an environment of that type. The fourth group of the girls investigated hailed from environments described as “miscellaneous” . Here we have included those girls, whose parents worked at trades widely differing from one another (e. g. hairdresser and typist, waiter and factory girl, etc.), while the type of home environment itself did not present any close analogies with those previously enumerated. Altogether 14 per cent, of the population investigated belong to that group. The fifth type of environment distinguished by us in this material is the intelligentsia. 5 per cent, of the girls hailed from intelligentsia families. The data concerning the level of education of the parents of the prostitutes under investigation, and the economic situation of the family environment look as follows: In the working-class families the parents or guardians of more than one-half of the total number of the girls had barely gone through a few classes of the elementary school, or even are illiterate. The economic situation of the working-class families under investigation does not present any uniform picture: one-half of the families live in middling material conditions, another half - in bad ones. In the lumpen-proletariat families the level of the parents’ education presents a critical picture. Not a single one of all the parents has finished elementary school. They live mostly in distant suburbs, in one-room dwellings, under poor hygienic conditions. Their material situation is bad. In the peasant families, from which the girls under investigation hail, the level of the education of the parents is similarly low. The financial conditions of such families exhibit considerable divergencies, from bad ones in several families burdened with a great number of children, right up to a prosperity which enabled them to maintain and educate their children in town. The intelligentsia families from which some of the girls hail are characterized by a favourable financial and housing situation. The girls’ parents have a secondary, or even a higher, education. In the family environments described as “miscellaneous” considerable differences as to the education level of the parents make their appearance. The financial situation of such families is moderately good or good. From the above data it results that 72 per cent, of the total number of parents are people who either did not have even an elementary education, or else were altogether illiterate, and that one-half of the total number of the girls under investigation were brought up in at least middling financial conditions, and another half - in poor conditions. A characteristic feature, which makes its appearance with nearly all the categories of girls, is the m u l t i p l i c i t y o f e d u c a t i o n a l e n v i r- o n m e n t s through which they went in the period of their childhood and early youth. The children who were brought up by one of the parents only, or else by a stepfather, stepmother or by strangers, changed their educational environment particularly frequently. Among the one hundred girls, who, it should be noted were selected at random for investigation, as many as forty-five were half-orphans, and fifteen - total orphans, while approximately thirty per cent, have live through a wrecking of their parents’ marriage. Altogether as many as eighty-four per cent, of the girls have been deprived of a normal, full family, while only fifteen per cent, of their number ceased to be under the guardianship of both parents at the age of from fourteen to eighteen years, and all the remaining ones - below the age of fourteen. Such facts to a large extent explain the changing destinies of the girls under investigation, as well as the multiplicity of the environments in which they were brought up (aproximately one-third of them spent at least a couple of years in State Homes for Children). Barely seventeen per cent, spent both their childhood and their youth in one single family home. The girls who had changed their ,,homes“ twice or three times account for forty-two per cent, of the total number, four or five times - for twenty-six per cent., from six to ten times - for fifteen per cent. The lack of a feeling of stability, the necessity of breaking emotional ties, changing authorities and requirements - all that exerted a powerful influence upon the mental development of those children. Being already adults they more than once expressed themselves on that subject with a grudge and a feeling of having been wronged. E d u c a t i o n a l c o n d i t i o n s assumed a most unfavorable outlook in the case of nearly the whole group of girls. One-third of the girls had made a direct experience of the consequences of living under the same roof with a habitual drunkard, while a total of two-thirds came into contact with various forms of intense alcoholism. Every fourth girl was brought up in a family where both parents or guardians abused of intoxicating drink. Other undesirable elements of the educational atmosphere, such as: frequent brawls and quarrels, a bad married life of the parents, their conjugal infidelity etc. made their appearance in the families of seventy per cent, of the girls under investigation. Bad relations between the children and their stepfather or stepmother appeared in nearly one-third of the families. A considerable group of the girls (approximately forty per cent.) had met, in the family home, with emotional coolness, indifference or hostility on the part of their stepmother, stepfather, father or mother. A lack of rational educational methods made their appearance with more than one-half of the family environments under investigation, while a general lack of guardianship and control over the children prevailed in three-fourths of the homes. In about one-half of such cases one could definitely speak of a convergence between the absorbing professional work of the mothers and the lack of care of the children (altogether seventy-two per cent, of the mothers worked for a living outside the family home). A total absence of any single of the above-mentioned negative educational factors appears in a mere one per cent, of the families investigated. It should be emphasized that it was merely in five per cent, of the families that th‘e mothers also practiced prostitution (or else the female guardians of the girls did), while with another five per cent, of the cases there subsisted a suspicion of the mothers practicing prostitution. It has not been found possible to collect any more precise information concerning the parents’ criminal record; there can be no doubt, however, that at least twenty per cent, of the fathers and mothers had been prosecuted before the law-courts for various offences. The data concerning the b r o t h e r s and s i s t e r s of the girls under investigation bear witness to the significant fact that, in two-thirds of the families, not only the prostitute investigated herself, but also at least one of her brothers or sisters betrayed certain symptoms of having gone to wreck socially. There were cases of hooliganism (twenty-five per cent.), of criminality (thirty-four per cent.), of far-gone alcoholism (twenty-two per cent.), of prostitution (seventeen per cent.). Moreover, several of the sisters of the girls under investigation led a sexual life fairly approximating prostitution (thirteen per cent). In a number of families such phenomena made their appearance concurrently. It has been found, moreover, that the process of social degradation of the girls’ brothers and sisters as a rule occurred in those cases, where there was a particular intensity of educationally undesirable elements in the family environment. An application of the X2 test has made it possible to demonstrate whether and if so, in what cases, there exist bases for rejecting the hypothesis of the independence of the variables which characterize the environment of the girls under investigation, of the category of prostitutes. Such hypotheses have been checked on a level of significance amounting to 0.05. As a standard of the degree of dependence, Tchuprov’s coefficient of contingency T, has been accepted. Below are some of the significant statistical dependences which have been brought to light. The “premises” prostitutes (“ A" ) differ from the prostitutes of the remaining categories by their social origin: they come from working-class or peasant environment considerably more rarely than do the remaining girls. Illiteracy among the parents of the “premises” prostitutes makes its appearance considerably more rarely then is the case with the families of the other girls. The financial and housing conditions in which the girls belonging to this group have been brought up were considerably better than in the case of the remaining persons. The “premises” prostitutes more rarely changed their educational environment, and remained for a longer time among their complete families. On the other hand, they came much more frequently than the remaining prostitutes into contact with such a destructive factor as a bad married life of the parents, and with that specific atmosphere of the family home, in the formation of which an essential role was played by the matrimonial infidelity of the parents. A peasant social origin distinguishes in a characteristic way the group of street prostitutes of the lower class (“C” ) out of all the other prostitutes. The percentage of illiterates among their Barents is the highest. The girls who had found their way into that circle of prostitutes had been brought up in financial conditions worse than those of the remaining persons. They were also deprived at an earlier date of guardianship of both parents. It is also in the group that the percentage of entire orphans is the highest. The higher-class street prostitutes (“B”) more frequently than the others girls investigated hailed from working-class families domiciled in Warsaw. As distinguished form the group “C” prostitutes, the majority of whom had spent their childhood in critical finacial conditions, as well as from the “premises” prostitutes, a large number of whom had a good situation in this respect, the ,,higher-class“ street prostitutes were brought up in average, middling material conditions. The data concerning the e d u c a t i o n o f t h e p r o s t i t u t e s under investigation present a picture fairly unfavourable for the total of the population investigated. Fifty-one per cent, of them have not completed their elementary education, while a mere three per cent, have a secondary education. As many as eighty-six per cent, of the girls have interrupted their training, either at the elementary, or at the secondary school. The girls who stayed on in the same form for a second or a third year broke away from school with particular ease. Fifty-five per cent, of the girls under investigation repeated one or several forms. That was mainly caused by two factors: considerable pedagogical neglect, the lack of any assistance or even control on the part of the girls’ parents, and the low level of intelligence with a great many of the investigated. The abandoning of school prior to finishing it was of the significant statistical dependences which have been moreover more than once caused by difficult general conditions whether family of personal, in which many of the girls found themselves (deportarian to Germany during the war, the absolute necessity of taking care of younger brothers and sisters, etc.). In so far as the educational difficulties which the prostitutes under investigation caused in the period of their childhood are concerned, it must be stated that, out of the eighty-five girls about whom it has been possible to collect more detailed data, more than one-half (forty-five) were considered to be “ difficult” children. In the anamneses their own mothers describe some of them as being impatient, prone to outbursts of anger, aggressive, others again - as restless, of unequal disposition, excessively excitable, over-active, nervous, while others still were described as apathetic, lazy, passive, unwilling to undertake even the smallest effort. Part of the girls under investigation can undoubtedly be classified as psychopaths, neurotics and persons with encephalopathy symptoms. Over and above this, seventeen per cent, of them were cases of mental deficiency (morons). Altogether, fifty-three per cent, of the prostitutes under investigation exhibited, in their childhood, obvious personality disorders and pathological traits. Concerning the girls who did not pass for particularly difficult at the time of their childhood and who did not distinguish themselves, in an unfavourable sense, against the background of their co-equals, brothers and sisters, many mothers yet asserted that they were characterized by frivolity, a lack of perseverance, as well as a considerable susceptibility to the influence of the environment. The question of whether, within this group of girls, persons with features of e. g. a psychopathy of the type of life instability were represented in any numerical strength or not, cannot be decided, because of the lack of adequately precise data. It should be remarked, moreover, that twenty-seven per cent, of the investigated, even though they did not exhibit features of mental deficiency yet were at an intelligence level below average. The initial symptoms of the process of social degradation made their appearance with twenty-one per cent, of the investigated - prior to their completing their thirteenth year of age, with thirty- height per cent. - between the fourteenth and fifteenth year of age, with forty-one per cent. - in their sixteenth year of age or later. Approximately three-fourths of the investigated ran away from home. Such flights were mainly caused by: fear of punishment, not feeling well at home, revolt because of having been placed, against their will, in an educational institution or with strange people, etc. Thefts, during that initial stage of demoralization, were committed by eighteen per cent, of the girls, whereas theft as a phenomenon isolated from other symptoms of the girl’s degradation rarely made its appearance (a mere eight per cent, of the cases), unless we also take into consideration sporadic petty thefts in the family home or at school, which were committed by twenty per cent, of the investigated. A characteristic feature is the participation of the girls under investigation in three types of groups of seriously demoralized young people: hooligan (thirty-one per cent, of the girls), hooligan-and-thieving (twelve per cent of the girls), and the so-called “ premises group” (twenty-five per cent, of the girls). The circles of young people who frequented a luna-park (entertainment park) or such similar place, in which many of the girls investigated spent their time, were easily transformed into groups of a more or less hooligan character. The presence, there, of individuals who had gone through a certain “ period of training” in a hooligan gang, and acquaintance with the “merits” of intoxicating drink particularly favoured such a change. Cases of coming forward, in an aggressive manner, against their environment, which at first has been sporadic, fairly rapidly became a habit and a permanent element in the life of the group. One of the principal attractions of the life within such a group was frequent sexual intercourse between boys and girls. The joining of hooligan-and-thieving groups by the girls frequently followed a course approximating that described above. Such groups, because of their very character, were, as a rule, better organized and more compact. Usually, they also had at their disposal their own accommodation - a “ dive” (thieves’ den). Part of the girls under investigation joined the life of groups of young people of yet another sort, namely so-called premises groups. The fact of frequently staying away from home in search of company and entertainment in cafés, dancing resorts, etc. was, in many instances, connected, in some manner or other, with the fact that the girls investigated did not feel well at home, in an atmosphere of family quarrels, of a very bad married life of the parents, of their conjugal unfaithfulness, etc. What has also contributed to their joining the circles of young people who spent their time in entertainment premises were, moreover, various other personal experiences of the investigated, and, among others, their first and unsatisfactory sexual experience, which brought about an early awakening of erotical desire and the search for ever new partners. Sexual promiscuity unconnected, in a special way, with the girl belonging to any comradeship group made its appearance in eighteen per cent, of the cases. It should be noted, however, that approximately one-half of those girls did not start their sexual experiences out of their own free will, but had been raped by adult men. All such girls began, after the above happening, to run away from home and to go in for an intense sex life. Out of the seventy-six g i r l s w h o h a d b e e n w o r k i n g for their livelihood prior to their beginning to practice prostitution, eighty-three per cent, had gone to work before the eighteenth year of their lives, including one-half who did so before they had completed sixteen years of age. The work which such girls had been able to get was, in an overwhelming majority of the cases, very poorly remunerated and mostly very unattractive, owing to the girls’ young age, their lack of education and qualifications. Sixty-one per cent, of their jobs was accounted for by manual work (factory worker, agricultural labourer, errand-girl, domestic servant, etc.), twenty per cent. - by half-manual jobs (shop assistant, conductress, waitress, etc.). The girls under investigation fairly frequently changed their place of work: on an average every one of them had worked 3.7 times. A factor which favoured that lack of stabilization in their trade was, first and foremost, the process of their social degradation, mostly already begun during that period, and, in particular, their connections with groups of seriously demoralized young people. A dishonest attitude to work, the missing of workdays, petty thefts at the place of work, etc. have caused twenty per cent, of the investigated to receive reprimands, while disciplinary action had been taken against as many as forty per cent., and another ten per cent, were prosecuted . before the law-courts by their place of work. It has been found possible to establish, by means of the x2 test, further differences between the several categories of the girls under investigation, other than those discussed previously (under item 7). The dependence between the level of education and the fact of the subsequent finding their way into the several categories of prostitutes has proved to be significant. The girls from the group of lower-class street prostitutes (“C”) have the poorest level of education, the ‘‘premises” prostitutes (“A” - the highest). Then, when checking in turn the hypotheses of a possible lack of dependence between the girls’ intellectual level and their belonging to this or that category, it was found possible to establish the following fact: persons intellectually below an average level could be met with, relatively most frequently, among the group (“C” ) prostitutes; relatively most rarely among those of group (“A”). The considerable pre-dominance of persons with an intellectual level below average (seventy-one per cent.) among the prostitutes of that lowest category, and of persons with a normal intellectual level among the “ premises” girls (seventy-seven per cent.) have caused the dependence between the variables enumerated to be particularly striking. This confirms the observation made in the course of the investigation, that the problem of a low intellectual level has played a role in the process of the degradation of but certain categories of prostitutes. The test of significance has, moreover, made probable the existence of a clear connection between the age of the investigated and the initial symptoms of the process of degradation, discussed previously, as well as between such symptoms and the fact of the girls belonging to the several categories of prostitutes. Thus e.g. flights from home and petty thefts, committed individually, most frequently made their appearance among very young girls (before their fourteenth year of age); participation in hooligan and hooligan-and-thieving groups has proved to be characteristic of those girls, who in time became street prostitutes, while participation in a group of young people frequenting some place of entertainment - of those girls, who were subsequently to become “ premises” prostitutes. The girls under investigation started their s e x u a l l i f e relatively early. Nearly one-half (forty-four per cent.) of them experienced their first sexual intercourse before they had completed their sixteenth year of age, and another group, equally numerous - between their seventeenth and their eighteenth years of age. Their first partner was mostly the boy with whom they “ went out” , or else a comrade from the group. Such first sexual experiences were, generally speaking, rapidly followed by others, with other partners. Questions which form part of the domain of sexuology were extremely difficult to establish under the conditions under which the investigation was carried out. It was barely in approximately one-half of the cases that it proved possible to obtain data concerning the sexual experiences of the girls under investigation, concerning the period when they were practising prostitution. The group of entirely frigid girls was represented by approximately thirty per cent, of the total number. Nearly one-half (forty-six per cent.) consisted of girls, who had average sexual experiences with those men, with whom they were emotionally bound, and, moreover, they occasionally experienced a satisfaction of their sexual drive even with chance “ customers” who appealed to them. The remaining girls (twenty-four per cent.) only achieved satisfaction in sexual intercourse, when their partner was a man for whom they had some feeling. The data concerning the beginnings of prostitution with the girls investigated looked as follows. Those girls who spent a lot of their time in groups of young people in cafés, places of entertainment, etc. generally speaking reached prostitution within a very short time. The influence of intoxicating drink, the example and persuasion of girl-friends already demoralized, numerous offers on the part of the men who spent a lot of their time in such places, and such-like factors created circumstances which favoured the taking up of the profession of prostitute. A most essential factor, moreover, consisted in the large sums of money frequently offered and given to the girls by men (such sums oftentimes amounted to the equivalent of one half of the girl’s monthly wages at her place of work). The girls who were members of hooligan groups, as a rule already seriously demoralized, not working, having no money of their own, usually easily found the way into a prostitutes’ environment, yielding to the example of girl-friends, who had been prostitutes previously. The girls who belonged to thieves’ groups began to practise prostitution in the hope of convenient and easy theft or else became prostitutes upon the demand of the group. Their appointed task was to provide convenient opportunities for the members of the gang to steal from their “customers”. A certain part of the girls under investigation (fourteen per cent.) who did not have the support of a family home, taken from among those girls who had been prosecuted before the courts (principally ‘for theft) after completing their seventeenth year of age, found their way to a prostitutes’ environment only after having left prison, as a result of the example and persuasion of their fellow-prisoners. Thirteen per cent, of the girls began to practise prostitution because of having established contacts with either a procuress or a souteneur. The fact should be emphasized that, in the course of their practising prostitution, as many as approximately thirty per cent, of the girls investigated were bound up with souteneurs. The data concerning the under investigation, when c r i m i n a l i t y o f t h e p r o s t i t u t e s we take into consideration both the period preceding prostitution and the period of actually practising it, look as follows: Prior to their practising prostitution the criminality of the investigated was mostly limited to hooligan acts and to thefts. No criminal offences, not even any petty home or school thefts, were committed at that time by forty per cent, of the girls. During the period of their practising prostitution (the average duration of that period amounted to 5.4 years) as many as eighty-four per cent, of the investigated committed criminal offences. The latter were mainly offences against property and offences against the public peace (resistance to the police, brawls and scuffles when under the influence of drink, etc.). Offences against the public peace were committed by approximately sixty per cent, of the investigated. Offences against property (which as a rule consisted of thefts) were commiteed by seventy-six per cent, of the total number of girls investigated. The thefts mostly consisted in taking from a drunken “customer” his money or his watch. Thefts accompanied by the use of violence or robberies (eleven cases in all) were committed by the girls investigated always along with men, who organized such operations. Barely one-fifth of the girls never saw the inside of a prison. The rest served various terms of imprisonment and were detained under preventive arrest pending inquest mostly more often than once (most frequently from twice to five times). The majority of the criminal offences committed by the prostitutes investigated were connected with their practising their profession, and, first and foremost, with the environment in which such girls stayed and to which they accommodated themselves. Contrary to numerous opinions formerly expressed in the literature of the subject, we may now include thefts in the number of criminal offences more particularly bound up with prostitution. On the basis of the %2 test an obvious dependence has been found to exist between the “road” which had led them to prostitution, and the category of prostitutes. The higher-class street prostitutes (“B” ) significantly more often than the persons belonging to the other groups became prostitutes direct through their participation in hooligan-and-thieving groups. Among the lower-class street prostitutes (“C”) relatively the largest number began to practise prostitution after having come out of prison. That fact is closely connected with their homelessness, by which they significantly differ from the other girls investigated. The typical “road” of arriving at prostitution in the case of the premises girls was their previous participation in circles of young people who frequented places of entertainment. During the period when they practised prostitution the street girls committed offences against public peace considerably more frequently than did the premises girls. The test of significance has brought to light the fact, that there did not, however, exist any dependence between the lesser or greater intensity of offences against property and the fact of a girl belonging to this or that definite category of prostitutes. This is true, first and foremost, of theft, which has become one of the - elements of a prostitute's “profession”. 17 . The follow-up studies comprize the period of merely two years from the moment of the termination of research work, and this is precisely the reason why the data concerning the further destinies of the girls under investigation have, of necessity, but a limited scope. The age of the prostitutes under investigation at the time of the carrying out of such follow-up studies mostly amounted to from twenty-two to twenty-five years, and the average length of the period during which they had been practising prostitution - to 5.4 years. The breaks in the practising of prostitution, whether of longer or shorter duration, which took place in thirty per cent, of the cases, were principally brought about by the girl in question tying her life to some one man, who frequently was e.g. the girl’s previous “customer” . But unions of that type were not distinguished by their lasting character. Twenty-eight (i.e. thirty-four per cent.) of the prostitutes under investigation got married. The marriages of thirteen of their number took a favourable course: those women altogether broke away from their previous way of life. The marriages of ten of them have proved unsuccessful, and, after becoming separated from their husbands, those women once more began to practise prostitution. Five of the prostitutes have married thieves and souteneurs, and still continue to ply their trade. Out of the whole number of the remaining girls under investigation who were not married, a mere five have undertaken systematic work for a livelihood and have broken away from prostitution. Thus only twenty-two per cent, of the juvenile prostitutes investigated abandoned prostitution during either the period of the research, or else during that of the follow-up studies (together amounting to from four to five years). What is emphasized, first and foremost, in the c o n c l u s i o n of the contribution, is the fact that the process which leads a girl to prostitution is one of long duration. It grows out on the substratum of an abnormally functioning family and of personality disorders with such girls, whereas there exist, as early as during the period of their minority, clear and obvious harbingers of the beginning and increasing process of social degradation, in the form of a whole number of symptoms (such as e.g. their playing truant from school, running away from the family home, early begun and frequently repeated sexual intercourse with varying partners, spending time in the environment of socially degraded young people, the abusing of intoxicating drink, and the like). The laying hold, at an early date, of such and such like symptoms of general demoralization, and a proper interference at the suitable time could, in all probability, have prevented the later appearance of the phenomenon of prostitution among those girls.

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

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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

Wielokrotnie karani recydywiści w wieku 26-35 lat w świetle badań kryminologicznych

88%

Archiwum Kryminologii R.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1969

issue IV

7-10

Nadużywanie alkoholu w biografiach młodocianych toksykomanów

75%

Tomczak J. W., Zakrzewski P.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

389-401

In the present study the young adult drug addicts are discussed who were included in the multidisciplinary research conducted by the Department of Mental Health of the Polish Academy of Sciences. An attempt is made to reveal the psycho-social mechanisms which cause the co-existence of excessive drinking and taking other drugs causing dependence. This problem is insufficiently elucidated both in Polish and foreign scientific literature. We do not cite here the description of the methods employed in the study of sufficient information is provided for in the summary of the study of the progress of dependence and changes in the social behavior of young adult drug addicts, published in the present volume. Attention should be drawn to a difference in the methods: in the present study, we deal first of all with young adult males. Among girls, excessive drinking does not play any important role, therefore the coexistence of alcohol and other drugs in their life stories occurs comparatively rarely. The phenomenon of excessive drinking occurred in 48 boys - drug addicts, which makes 58% of the total of 83 boys. Excessive drinking generally preceded the taking of drugs; alcohol was also used as a mean to soften the abstinence symptoms due to a temporary lack of the basic drug; drinking resulted also from a futile attempt at withdrawal from an advanced morphine habit. The cases of simultaneous drinking and taking of narcotic drugs in order to achieve more intense experiences were rare, as well as those of alternate drinking and taking drugs; in this last case, it meant that the individual was first of all anxious to strenghten the bonds between the members of the group, not yet feeling any mental nor all the more physical symptoms of dependence on alcohol or other drugs. To sum up, we noted in the large part of the addicts the easiness of changing from narcotic drugs to alcohol and vice versa. The possible general interpretation of these facts is as follows: individuals with certain personality deficiencies are characterized by a low tolerance to defeats, stress and tensions, which causes the need to seek the so-called “mental prothesis” or the desire to change one’s own state of mind. These needs and desires can be aggravated by the intensified symptoms of puberty, among them excessive and inadequate emotional reactions, discontent with one’s everyday duties and necessities, states of depression and dysphoria. Both alcohol and narcotic drugs can soothe these needs on temporarily satisfy them, though naturally not identically nor to the same extent. Therefore, where greater efficiency of reaction is desired, the individual may pass on to narcotic drugs. On the other hand, when the person is first of all anxious to soothe the conflicts with his immediate environment, to avoid pressure by the police and the sentence, i.e., meet with more indulgence on the part of his environment and at the same time to have less problems with purchasing a particular drug, and thus to avoid in future the painful withdrawal symptoms - in such cases the conversion from morphine or other drugs to alcohol is probable. Among the individuals who had often drunk alcohol before they started taking narcotic drugs, the later reverse to alcohol to soothe withdrawal symptoms caused by the lack of morphine or other drugs which brought about the state of dependence, is highly probable as the individuals in question already know the influence, of alcohol and the favourable reaction of their organism to it.

Prostytucja młodocianych w Warszawie na przełomie lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych

75%

Jasińska M.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1985

issue XII

129-137

O młodocianym w ujęciu kodeksu karnego

75%

Daniluk P.

Studia Prawnicze

2014

issue 2 (198)

121-142

The article is devoted to a specific category of offenders i.e. juveniles. Firstly, the legal definition of the juvenile, provided under Art. 115 § 10 of the Criminal Code, is analyzed, making a distinction between the notion of the juvenile and the notion of the minor. Then the grounds for the special treatment of juvenile offenders are examined. A special attention is paid to the presumption of lesser degree of juvenile’s guilt and their susceptibility to be affected, which constitutes a good prospect for their education (reformation, reclamation). Finally, the criteria on the basis of which it is established whether an offender is a juvenile offender or not, are analyzed. A special attention is given to the criterion which states that a juvenile is an offender who has not reached the age of 24 years at the time of the trial in the first instance.

Funkcja ochronna prawa pracy na przykładach wybranych regulacji państw europejskich

71%

Jarota M.

Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sectio G (Ius)

2015

vol. 62

issue 2

The protective function of labour law is the most important feature of the employment relationship stemming from both labour law standards encoded in the provisions of normative acts, as well as the specific mechanism of their interaction. In Europe, the protective function of labour law is defined as the regulations and mechanisms privilege of remaining in employment, particularly in view of the factual situation in which they are located, for example age (the so called Protection law) and legal structures which boil down to prevent unjustified solve employment contract with the employee by the employer (the so-called job security). The study focuses on the presentation of three planes carrying out protective function of labour law: the right of workers to leave; protection of individuals under the age of 18 years performing work; the legal status of an employee, which the employer intends to terminate the employment contract by notice limited to the presentation of selected institutions: Greece, Spain, Latvia, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and Italy.

Funkcja ochronna prawa pracy jest najważniejszą dla stosunku pracy cechą wynikającą zarówno z norm prawa pracy zakodowanych w przepisach aktów normatywnych, jak i ze specyficznego mechanizmu ich oddziaływania. W Europie funkcję ochronną prawa pracy określa się jako regulacje prawne oraz mechanizmy uprzywilejowania osób pozostających w stosunku pracy, szczególnie ze względu na sytuację faktyczną, w jakiej się znajdują, np. wiek (tzw. protection law) oraz konstrukcje prawne sprowadzające się do zapobiegania nieuzasadnionemu rozwiązywaniu umowy o pracę z pracownikiem przez pracodawcę (tzw. job security). W opracowaniu skupiono się na przedstawieniu trzech płaszczyzn realizowania funkcji ochronnej prawa pracy: prawa pracowników do urlopu wypoczynkowego; ochrony osób w wieku poniżej 18. roku życia świadczących pracę; sytuacji prawnej pracownika, z którym pracodawca zamierza rozwiązać umowę o pracę w drodze wypowiedzenia – ograniczając się do przedstawienia wybranych instytucji: Grecji, Hiszpanii, Łotwy, Niemiec, Szwecji, Wielkiej Brytanii i Włoch.

Current family as a potential factor of risky behaviour among children and youth

71%

Hoferková S.

Wychowanie w Rodzinie

2017

vol. XV

issue (1/2017)

187-198

W artykule zaprezentowano rodzinę jako potencjalny czynnik wywołujący ryzykowne zachowania wśród dzieci i młodocianych w Czechach. Zachowania młodzieży naruszające normy społeczne określić można jako patologiczne, ryzykowne, niewłaściwe itd. W ostatnich latach zjawisko ryzykownych zachowań wprowadzono szczególnie w edukacji szkolnej; zastąpiło wcześniej stosowany termin „zachowanie patologiczne”. Zachowania ryzykowne to takie zachowania, które mają negatywny wpływ na zdrowie i funkcjonowanie społeczne, i psychologiczne jednostki, lub zagrażające jej otoczeniu społecznemu. Takie zachowania to wagarowanie, łamanie prawa, różne formy agresji (znęcanie się nad rówieśnikami i nauczycielami), autoagresja (samouszkodzenia, zaburzenia odżywiania), nadużywanie substancji uzależniających, jak również zachowania związane z technologiami informacyjnymi (np. zjawisko znęcania się w cyberprzestrzeni czy uzależnienie od komputera). Czynniki zewnętrzne i wewnętrzne prowadzą do zachowań łamiących normy (sygnały ryzykownych zachowań); wprowadza się wieloczynnikową etiologię odchylenia społecznego. Czynniki zewnętrzene zwykle postrzega się jako fundamentalne; są nimi, na przykład, szkoła, rówieśnicy, media, ale szczególnie rodzina. W artykule scharakteryzowano współczesną rodzinę w XXI wieku, którą określają liczne czynniki postrzegane jako formatywne występowanie zachowań odbiegających od normy. Należą do nich np. sytuacja demograficzna (niska dzietność, rosnąca liczba kohabitacji, wysoki odsetek rozwodów, ojcowie nie obecni), pogarszająca się sytuacja społeczno-ekonomiczna (wykluczenie społeczne, ubóstwo), zmiany systemu wartości (konsumpcjonizm) oraz obraz ludzkiego życia w mediach.

The contribution presents the family as a potential factor of risky behaviour among children and juveniles in the Czech Republic. Youth conduct that violates social norms of the society can be labelled as deviant, risky, defective, etc. In recent years the concept of risky phenomena (or risky behaviour) has been introduced, particularly in school education; it replaced the previously used concept of socially pathological phenomena. Risky behaviour refers to those behaviours that have a negative impact on health, the social or psychological performance of an individual, or threaten his social surroundings. Such phenomena include, for example: truancy, crime and delinquency, various forms of aggression (bullying towards classmates and teachers), vandalism, self-aggression (self-harm, eating disorders), and abuse of addictive substances or dangerous phenomena related to information technology (e.g. cyber-bullying or addiction on the computer). Internal and external factors partake in the inception of deviant behaviour (signs of risky behaviour); introduced as multifactor etiology of the concept of social deviance. External factors are mostly perceived as fundamental; these are, for example: school, peers, the media, but especially the family. The post characterizes the contemporary family in the 21st century, which is defined by more features that can be perceived as risky in the forming of deviant behaviour. These include e.g. the demographic situation (low total fertility rate, increasing amount of cohabitation, high divorce rate, “missing” fathers), a deteriorating socio-economic situation (social exclusion, poverty), shifts in values (consumerism), or media coverage of human life.

Rozwój uzależnienia a zmiany społecznych zachowań młodocianych toksykomanów

63%

Zakrzewski P.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

363-388

In the present study the changes in behavior of young adult drug addicts are described, which occurred as their dependence has developed since the beginning of taking drugs. We regard as scientifically fruitless frequent general statements concerning young adult (as well as adult) drug addicts irrespective of their age and the stage of dependence. The research on which the present study is based was a part of multidisciplinary studies of young adult drug addicts which were conducted by the Department of Mental Health of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Łódź in the years 1974-76. It concerned all patients aged 15-23 registered in the out-patient clinics for young drug addicts and in district out-patient clinics for adults in the city of Łódź because of the repeated taking of narcotic drugs. It is important to note that the discussed population consisted of 102 young adults, of which 23% were girls. Three detailed interviews were carried on in relation to each case: one with the mother of the given boy or girl (in exceptional cases with another adult member of the family), the second one at school with the tutor and the teachers, and the third one with the drug addict himself . The questionnaires on which the interviews were based took into account, to a high degree, the family conditions of the addicts, their behavior at home , from their earliest childhood up to the latest months, their school history, ways of spending their leisure time, the outset and circumstances of taking drugs, the use of alcohol, the peer groups, living problems in the period preceding the taking of drugs and in subsequent years, delinquency etc. Data were also collected concerning the criminal records of the addicts and the history of various diseases treated in different out-patient clinics. The study was conducted by a team of several persons working under supervision of the author of the present paper. Estimation of the degree of dependence was based on medical diagnosis. Among the addicts, the following three stages of dependence were distinguished: the stage of social dependence, that of mental dependence and the stage of physical dependence. The greatest part (50%) of the addicts were in the stage of mental dependence. The addicts were noticed to move to the more advanced stages of dependence in course of time. The mean duration of the period of taking drugs was: with young adults socially dependent 5 months, with those mentally dependent 1 year 5 months, and with those physically dependent 2 years 8 months. There are, however, limitations to this regularity. Some individuals withdrew from talking drugs within the first 12 months of social dependence. Others reached the stage of mental dependence very rapidly, so to say cutting down or even skipping the first stage of dependence. There were also those who remained for a long time in the preliminary stage of the illness, that is, that of mental dependence, revealing no symptoms of physical dependence even after one or two years. It is thus apparent that the progress of dependence and its rapidity are not the derivative of the length of the period of taking drugs only. An important role is also played by the intensity of taking drugs, by their peculiarities and by the individual immunity of the central nervous system of a given person. The notion of the so-called social dependence is controversial to a certain degree and as such used only by some of the authors. However, the results of the present study speak in its favor as the term defining the first, and so to say preliminary stage of dependence, preceding the next stages of dependence in the medical sense. In the present study the notion of social dependence is of a very broad range, i.e., its criteria are not limited to the pressure of the peer group and the boy’s or girl’s eagerness to adjust themselves to this group. On the basis of the collected material, we included in the notion social dependence also the cases in which the addicts communicated with loose society circles, e.g. in cafés, which was accompanied by the predominant trend to adjust themselves to the fashion and customs of such circles, as well as the cases of an influence of individual persons of different sex attracted to each other. The notion of social dependence is worthy of separation, particularly, as the patterns of taking drugs have now become generally accepted among the youth. Taking certain drugs several times, or even once, caused a considerable improvement of mood of the individuals inclined to experience conflicts intensely, who had a low tolerance to frustration and a poor ability to overcome obstacles, if they only happened upon the drug which changed their mental stale favourably from their point of view. Phenmetrazine was good for some of the persons examined to suppress their mental inhibitions, while others used sedatives to suppress states of tension and excitement, still others - morphine and its derivatives to experience something new and to get away from the dullness of the everyday life. The process of social dependence turning into mental dependence among the addicts consisted in the fact that - as they were experimenting with various drugs in the company of others - they soon found that not only the interpersonal ties were hereby fortified, but also their hitherto only poorly tolerated mental state could undergo a favorable change. As this belief grew stronger and proved true in all next instances of taking the drug, they experienced the more and more intense desire to take such drugs whenever the state of tension, discouragement or irritation had reached a considerable degree of intensity. However, after some time the hitherto felt desires were dominated by additional and extremely trying sensations of not only mental but also physical nature which occurred in the periods of the break in drug taking. The addicts tried at any price to get rid of withdrawal symptoms. Most frequent were the complaints about the sensation of irritation, restlessness, inability to concentrate on anything, lack of energy, anxiety, insomnia or nightmares, headache and melalgia, hand tremor and other annoying and exhausting symptoms. The examined persons with these symptoms had already found themselves in the stage of physical dependence. In the diversity and variability of drugs taken by the addicts as their dependence developed, a following essential regularity could be noticed: the comparatively greatest diversity of drugs taken was usually found at the stage of social dependence. In that of mental dependence, morphine and the specimens approximal to it more and more prevailed among the drugs taken by a given individual, thus reducing the role of other drugs. The transition to physical dependence meant further concentration on the opiates (mainly morphine), while other drugs – including alcohol- became substitutes and were taken when the individual did not possess the favorite drug and thus felt withdrawal symptoms. The danger of conversion to morphine and other opiates, with all its consequences, thus grew as the taking of drugs continued. It is a matter of course that, as the individual gradually needed drugs more and more difficult to obtain (that, is, those from the morphine group), which were sold at a higher price, and as he needed more and more of the drug and found it more and more difficult to do without - the ways of obtaining it had to change. A phenomenon occurs which can be called escalation not only of the drugs taken, but also of the means of obtaining them. The means in question become more and more ruthless, one counts less and less both with one’s own hitherto existing line of conduct and ambitions and with the probable reactions of the environment. The means of obtaining drugs grow also more and more absorbing, they engage more and more time and efforts. Simultaneously followed the process of diminution of individual interests and of the disappearance of ambitions in the addicts. It was more and more difficult for them to acquit themselves of the hitherto performed social roles. And thus, for instance, within the range of the role of a pupil, the following symptoms could be found among the addicts beginning from the stage of mental dependence: considerable difficulties of concentration, the slowing down of the run of thought, passiveness and drowsiness during the classes, increasing absence from school, being far away with thought even if physically present at school, regular remiss in doing homework, indifference to school failures, reluctance to undertake efforts to overcome them - that is, greater and greater slackness in the school duties. School, usually quitted in the advanced stages of dependence, gave place to irregular and chance periods of working, which did not in the least lead to any professional promotion of a given individual. All the hitherto existing forms of activity which satisfied their former interests and life plans were - as the dependence developed - replaced by the efforts to obtain every now and again new doses of the longed-for drug. Parallel to this process new specific elements appeared in the life of the addicts: contacts with out-patient clinics, stays in detoxication centres and mental hospitals, which repeated from time to time, and in a considerable number of the cases – court appearances ending more than once with imprisonment. In general, it must be stated that the progress of dependence has led to intense degradation changes in the lives of the addicts. The whole of those changes were composed of the following: increasing problems and failure at school, quitting school, aggravating conflicts at home, participation in youth groups and circles out of control which were characterized by socially negative patterns of behavior, giving up one’s professional ambitions, staying for months in hospitals, undergoing detoxication treatment, gradual limitation of one’s aims and interests to obtaining and taking drugs, court appearances every now and again.

Postawy rodziców i opiekunów wobec zażywania środków uzależniających przez młodych pacjentów poradni odwykowych

63%

Zakrzewski P.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1991

issue XVII

339-373

The paper presents the finding of a longitudinal study of two problems: the addicts’ prospects of quitting drugs, and the psycho-social factors conducive to success in this respect. The first study (conducted in the years 1974–1976) concerned all patients aged 15–28 treated in that period for repeated taking of drugs, at the disaccustoming clinic for young persons and at district clinics for adults in the city of Łódź. The total of 107 patients were examined (23 per cent of girls and 77 per cent of young men). According to medical diagnosis, 21 per cent of them suffered from a social, 50 per cent – from a psychological, and 29 per cent – from a physical dependence. After about 10 years, a catamnesis was carried out which concerned 80 patients. The methods applied in both parts of the study were: detailed interviews with the patients and their families; medical examination; and analysis of a variety of documents. For the estimation of the fates of the sample, the following issues were of the key importance: persistence in or abandonment of addiction; permanence of abstinence; and the extent of self-dependence achieved. This complexity of the examined persons’ situation taken into account, the following criteria of improvement have been adopted: a) medical (persistence in abstinence); b) psychological (psychological acceptance of abstinence and the resulting change of lifestyle); and c) social (active engagement in the appropriate social roles). Basing on the above criteria, the following categories were distinguished within the sample:1) persons who persisted in addiction; 2) deceased in consequence of addiction; 3) those who quit taking drugs but still had various problems resulting from their former addiction; and 4) those who quit and had no special problems. Against previous expectations, persons who kept taking drugs (26 per cent) did not constitute the mos tnumerous group. Their mean period of taking drugs was 13.6 years. Their interests and social contacts were narrowed to problems related to the taking and production or obtaining drugs. They were generally emaciated and had increasing withdrawal symptoms. Persons of this group went through several months’periods of abstinence due to treatment, imprisonment, or a favourable occurrence in their lives. All of them, however, relapsed into addiction quite promptly, particularly when faced with unavoidable difficulties. Family life or married persons in this group was unhappy, and most marriages broke up: only those between two addicts still lasted. Biographies similar to those discussed above were also found in the case of persons (9 per cent) who died during catamnesis in circumstances that pointed to their death’s relationship with the taking of drugs and with addiction, interpreted also as a certain lifestyle. All persons of this group had been taking drugs for a long time (over five years), and their death was due either to serious diseases combined with emaciation, or occurred in unexplained circumstances as a border-line case between accident, suicide, and homicide. 3.The largest group (46 per cent) consisted of persons who admittedly quit taking drugs but still had various health and social problems related to their previous addiction. Their main problems were as follows: in the sphere of physical health, chronic gastritis, entero-gastric disorders. diseases of liver, heart probiems, reduced physical endurance, disturbances of sleep, and in the sphere of mental health: anxiety, hypersensibility, difficulties in establishing relations with others, depression, low selfesteem, lack of self-confidence, high emotional instability, latent inward anxiety, etc. The most important and frequent social problems included leaving secondary school and the related subsequent lack of professional qualifications, a more difficult start into adult life, the need to relinquish certain professional aspirations and a more interesting job, and a lack of prospects of promotion. In most respondents, this caused a sense of instability and inevitably gave rise to frustrations, increasing their passiveness and apathy. This situation was particularly painful for persons whose intellligence had been rather high before they started taking drugs and who used to have various interests and aspirations. The coincidence of the ahove circumstances also negatively affected their family and marital situation. The fates of persons who quit after several years of taking drugs seem to indicate that those persons’ tolerance to stress and ability to overcome difficulties had been greatly impaired during the period of addiction: as a consequence, they were subsequently unable to cope even with everyday matters which they perceived as great problems. The last group consisted of persons (19 per cent) who had been taking drugs for a shorter period as a rule (not longer than five years in general), and who were not only able to persist in abstinence during catamnesis but also met the psychological and social criteria of improvement. A high proportion of girls in this group (over 50 per cent) seems characteristic. Moreover, nearly all those persons were married: their marriages, happy as a rule, were a great assistance to them. Therefore, the total of 65 per cent of the sample succeeded to quit addiction. What was crucial here was not exactly the form of dependence (social, psychological, physical) but rather the length of the period of taking drugs. If a person has been taking drugs for over five years, his prospects of improvement diminish greatly, and favourable results can only be obtained in the course of a prolonged rehabilitation. The reasons that made most persons in the sample abandon their addiction were seeked both in their personality traits and family environments. What is characteristic is that a considerable portion of respondents come from the intelligentsia, with an average or even high social status and good material situation (in which respect they differ greatly from e.g. juvenile delinquents or young alcoholics). There is in such families a rather small extent of pathology such as alcoholism, crime, or prostitution. In most cases, the parents’ attitude to their children’s taking of drugs should be estimated as proper. The parents played an effective role, fighting for their children to quit as a general rule. Aware of the dangers related to drugs, they took energetic steps which consisted among others in changing the child’s environment (e. g. moving with him to another town), inducing him to undergo treatment and organizing that treatment, supervising his leisure activities, etc. Parents’ improper attitudes such as scenes, turning the child out, etc., were most seldom. The analysis of the reasons which made about two-thirds of respondents quit addiction included their character and intellectual traits defined in the course of psychiatric examination. There was in the sample a rather large number of individuals with the so-called immature personality, who at the age of about 25 were still characterized by traits such as a passive attitude to life; inconsideration for their own future; a poorly developed critical attitude towards themselves and their situation; emotional immaturity; dependence on others (e.g. the mother or friends); inabitity to act effectively, to overcome obstacles and to achieve distant aims; easy discouragement when faced with difficulties, etc. It was only during catamnesis, at the age of about 25, that the respondents’ former, largely childish attitudes were transformed with delay into normal traits of young persons. This development and the crystallization of personality, connected with the parents’ activities and their proper attitude towards the children’s addiction, were conducive to abandonment of addiction by, a considerable portion of the sample. Other factors which played this favourable role in the respondents’ biographies were: a rather high intellectual level; the “psychological shock” caused e.g. by detoxification at a mental hospital or the death of a close friend due to overdose; and imprisonment and going through the withdrawal syndrome in such conditions, etc. To interpret the findings, the conception of American alcohologist J. Ewing has been used: it speaks of inducing and protecting factors in the development of alcoholism. According to Ewing, an individual who starts taking drugs regularly is influenced by a number of biological, psychological, and social factors, some of them conducive to the development of addiction and others protecting the individual against it. Despite the opinions of some researchers, “protecting” factors prove strong enough to hold back even an already addicted person and to contribute to his abandonment of drugs. With the prolongation of the period of taking drugs, the influence of protecting factors wanes, and that of the ones which induce the individual to continue the taking of drugs and thus foster a further development of addiction spreads. The following practical conclusions have been drawn from the study: – Intensified therapeutic and rehabilitative treatment, during the first years of taking drugs in particular. – Co-operation with the addicts’ parents who should be instructed (e.g. about the ways of soothing difficulties in adjustment); whose activity should be assisted, e.g. through the organization of parents’ self-help associations; whose contacts with specialist clinics should be made easier, etc. – Creation of possibilities of medical and rehabilitative treatment for various cotegories of young persons addicted to drugs (not all of them feel comfortable in the existing centres, e.g. of the MONAR movement). – Short-term hospital treatments are reasonable at the initial stage of addiction (several years of taking drugs), as in that period the addicted person’s power of resistance can be strengthened inherent both in his personality and the environment. Help and care should be provided for addicts who have already drugs but have life problems caused or aggravaquited by their previous addiction.

Analiza przestępczości wielokrotnych recydywistów

63%

Szelhaus S.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1969

issue IV

11-58

1. The first part of the paper deals with the data from criminal records, pertaining to the delinquency of all thb 440 prisoners recidivists who within a two-year period entered the Warsaw Central Prison and who corresponded to the previously mentioned criteria. 42% out of the total of these recidivists were aged between 26 and 30, 58% - between 31 and 35, their average age being about 31. Two-thirds lived in the Greater Warsaw area, 15% in small towns and settlements on the outskirts of Warsaw and 7% in nearby villages. The average number of convictions after 17, amounted to 6,7 in regard to 440 recidivists. 40% were convicted 4-5 times, 35 - 6-7 times, 25% - 8 times and more. As far as their stay in prison is concerned it can be stated, that 26%, of the recidivists stayed in prison only four times,44% - 5-6 times and 21% - 7 times and more. Investigating the age of recidivists at which they were first brought to courts after 17, it was established that 20% were first tried at the age of 17, 18% at 18 and 29% between 19 and 20. Only 33%, of recidivists were first convicted when they were 21 or older. The beginning of delinquency with respect to persistent recidivists was however much earlier; results of detailed investigations relating to 220 out of those 440 recidivists revealed a considerable percentage of subjects commiting thefts when they were not older than 17 (these data are quoted below together with the results of investigations on the 220 recidivists). Taking into account all the offences for which 440 recidivists were convicted and for the perpetration of which they were suspected (if they were remanded in custody awaiting trial), it can be asserted that 59%, out of 3,862 were offences against property of which thefts amount to as many as 75,6%. Offences against person constitute 15% ot the total of offences. Most of them did not involve any serious consequences for the victim, - minor assaults constituting 43%, light bodily injury 24%, maltreating his wife and children by an alcoholic recidivist - 17%. Assaults on public officers (nearly always committed in state of inebriety) constitute 12% of all the offences. Out of 3,862 offences only 201 (5%) may be classified as serious acts of aggression, 148 of which were robberies. Although 150 (34%) recidivists committed these 201 serious acts of aggression, the overwhelming majority were convicted only once for the perpetration of that type of offence. Only 41 recidivists (9%) committed two or more offences connected with aggression; out of those 41 offenders 23 were convicted for the perpetration of robberies. The 440 recidivists were divided into categories taking into account the kind of offences they committed; it appeared, that two-thirds of the recidivists were convicted for the perpetration of different offences. Only 24% were convicted for the perpetration of offences against property exclusively and only with 28% such offences distinctly outweighed any other offences. A category of recidivists (9%) convicted several times for offences against person exclusively and for insulting or attacking public officers (mostly policemen) is also worthy to be mentioned as well as such recidivists (16%) with whom these offences connected with aggression distinctly outweighed any other offences. By comparing the length of time during which, since they were 17, the persistent recidivists stayed in prison with that during which they were at liberty it has been established that about 30% of them stayed longer in prison than at liberty; nevertheless, about 32% stayed at liberty for at least three-fourths of the entire period after they were 17. The rate of recidivism is reflected in the data relating to the average stay at liberty of 440 recidivists. Almost half of them (46%) stayed at liberty for a relatively short time - less than a year - (with 13% it did not exceed 6 months). In 40% of cases the average stay at liberty lasted from one year at least to less than two years and only with 14% it lasted at least two years. Worthy of mentioning are also the following data on the longest stays at liberty, indicating that the rate of recidivism was formed in different ways. Only 12,5% of recidivists did not stay longer at liberty, between arrests, than 1 year while 23% stayed at liberty for 3-5 years at least once in their lifetime, counting from their release from prison until the new arrest. 10% stayed at least once at liberty for as long as 5 years. 2. The above data on delinquency of 440 recidivists, based exclusively on the information contained in registers, will be now completed by essential, additional data from judicial records, obtained during detailed investigations on 220 out of the 440 recidivists. In the beginning however, it is necessary to give the results of investigations concerning the origins of delinquency of recidivists when they were under 17. These results are based on data revealed in Juvenile Courts and on information received from the recidivists themselves and from their mothers. If only such cases are taken into account on which objective information could have been obtained from Juvenile Courts (136), it appears, that 63% of recidivists were found guilty by the courts already under 17 or else confessed to repeated perpetration of thefts for which they had not been tried. On the other hand, basing on the incomplete data on all the 220 recidivists it was ascertained that at least 57% committed offences (thefts) as juveniles, 37% were found guilty by the courts and 20% committed unrevealed thefts. The delinquency of 25% of recidivists began already under 13 (this percentage is in fact undoubtedly higher). Thus, the results obtained from investigations on persistent recidivists aged between 26 and 35 correspond to the results of previous investigations carried out on recidivists under 26, most of whom began committing offences also at the time of their juvenility On the basis of judicial records one may characterize the type of offences and the manner of committing them by the investigated 220 recidivists, after their 17th year. As far as thefts are concerned the percentage of burglaries amounts to 40% while burglaries into shops and stores do not exceed 25% and into houses 23%. Among thefts perpetrated without burglaries a fair number constitute thefts committed in private houses, petty thefts in places of work and stealing from drunkards. Pocket thefts are only 5%. The value of stolen property did not exceed 500 zł in 3% of the thefts and 2,000 zł in 61% of cases. Losses exceeding 10,000 zł were stated only in 10% of the total of thefts according to the material under investigation. It should be emphasized that the analysis of judicial records and investigations of recidivists have shown that a large majority of them commit various types of thefts and cannot be classified as thieves with a definite specialization. Even among recidivists who committed several burglaries only 5 could be classified as offenders committing a definite type of theft. The number of recidivists convicted for three or more burglaries is after all very small as it amounts to 29 (scarcely 16% out of the total of the investigated recidivists). Investigating robberies committed by the recidivists it was first of all ascertained that only 23% were committed by sober offenders (besides, the victim was sober only in 45% of cases). 65% of robberies were committed in the streets (or in parks). Only 21% of robberies were planned and carefully prepared (robberies in houses of well-off persons). 32% constitute robberies in the streets, parks etc. on persons unknown to the offender. Victims of the remaining robberies were persons with whom offenders were drinking alcohol before (the victims were often previously convicted). It should be mentioned that 80% of victims did not sustain any bodily harm whatever. Examining offences against person, committed by the investigated recidivists (90% of which constitute offences of no serious consequences to the victims) it can be asserted that almost all offenders acted under the influence of alcohol and that nearly half of the offences (46%) were committed by two persons at least. Regarding motives of those offences, there were no motives at all in 35% of cases; hitting a passer-by in the street or beating him up was done by an inebriate offender for no reason. There were some insignificant reasons in the remaining cases but the reaction of the inebriate offender was distinctly inadequate to the circumstances of the incident. Similarly, insulting or attacking the policemen was perpetrated by inebriate recidivists only. For the most part (47%) these offences were connected with arrests of the recidivists for some misdemeanours (i.e. drunkenness, disorderly behaviour), rarely for committing an offence (30%). In 23% of cases assaults on policemen were connected with establishing the identity of an inebriate recidivist in the street. Already the analysis of the material contained in judicial records testifies to the fact that frequent alćoholization plays an important part in the etiology of the recidivism and that individłals abusing systematically of alcohol appear in large numbers among the recidivists. 3. An attempt to isolate definite categories of offenders from among 220 of investigated recidivists gave the following results: A. 70% out of the total number of recidivists constitute those recidivists, whose offences against property (thefts as a rule) outweigh considerably any other offences they ever committed. B. 29% of them constitute such recidivists who either did not commit any offences against property at all or committed them only exceptionally. The first category of recidivists (A) comprising 152 prisoners could be divided into two separate groups of recidivists: A1 - a group of recidivists (93) who could be defined as professional offenders, since their chief or only source of maintenance were gains from offences, and A2 - a group of recidivists (59) who perpetrating almost exclusively offences against property, nevertheless have also other sources of stable income. Group A1 - could be divided into two sub-groups (of a similar number of men) consisting of recidivists who commit serious thefts (and robberies) and recidivists who commit only petty thefts as a rule. Recidivist from both sub-groups classified as professional offenders, began committing offences as a rule already in their juvenility (over 80%). As many as 59% abused of alcohol in large quantities already under 21. The percentage of alcohol addicts amounts to 42% in the first sub-group. and up to 69%, in the second. The highest percentage of recidivists (75%) who spent the larger part of their life in prison, appeals among recidivists classified as professional offenders perpetrating serious offences. They are characterized by a more rapid recidivism as compared with other groups of recidivists since their average stay at liberty between subsequent arrests did not exceed six months in 41% of cases and in 85% of cases lasted less than a year. Already these data testify to the fact that although these recidivists were classified as professional offenders since as a rule they had no other sources of maintenance than gains from offences they committed, they nevertheless differ substantially from genuine professional offenders, who usually stay at liberty for long periods of time. Besides, they differ substantially from genuine professional offenders also in that that there are no such recidivists among them (with a few exceptions) who would possess a definite specialization in stealing and would perpetrate a definite sort of theft (pocket thefts, burglaries etc.). Although this sub-group of recidivists were isolated because of the serious thefts they had perpetrated, nevertheless a majority of the thefts did not cause any considerable losses. The second sub-group of recidivists, also defined by the term of professional offenders, in even smaller degree resembles the type of a genuine, professional offender. There is not even one recidivist among them who would commit thefts of a definite type; they commit petty thefts as a rule and some of them live on gambling, illegal trade or fencing. In contrast to the recidivists of the first subgroup (professional offenders committing serious thefts), the recidivists committing petty offences against property stayed at liberty for a much longer time - only 36% stayed in prison for more than half the period of time which elapsed since they were 17. The rate of their recidivism is much slower as only in one-fourth of cases the average stay at liberty between subsequent arrests did not exceed 6 months (in the former group as many as 41%). Finally it should be mentioned that recidivists classified as professional offenders (from both sub-groups) committed, besides the offences against property, also offences against person and police when under the influence of alcohol. Offences against property amount to 75/" of the total of perpetrated offences in the first sub-group, while in the second they amount only to 59% The A2 recidivists committing offences against property, which does not constitute their main source of maintenance, do not form a uniform population of offenders. There are recidivists among thęm who work more or lęss systematically and who committed thefts not connected with the abuse of alcohol, as well as recidivists (and they constitute a majority among the A2 recidivists) who commit petty thefts connected with their alcoholism (the percentage of alcohol addicts in this group is the highest and amounts to 80%). With regard to these recidivists the beginning of their abuse of alcohol preceded the beginning of perpetration of offences and a considerable percentage of thefts is committed in state of inebriety. 56% ot these recidivists began abusing of alcohol already under 17. An altogether separate category of recidivists constitute offenders isolated as recidivists B (29% of the total of investigated recidivists) who committed offences mostly with the use of aggression (against total strangers as a rule), qualified as hooligan offences. Thefts, which they commit very rarely, constitute rather a secondary or even episodical phenomenon in their life, and are usually perpetrated occasionally, without any definite plans. The category of recidivists B now under consideration, contains a small (23) group of recidivists who committed several thefts (3,3 per person); almost all (83%) began committing offences and abusing of alcohol as juveniles (81% of them abused of alcohol already under 19). In general, their way of life could be defined as parasitic. The percentage of alcohol addicts amounts tp to 73%. Other recidivists belonging to the same category of offenders persistently committing aggressive offences (qualified as hooligan offences), against person or police, perpetrated almost exclusively offences of that sort (the average number of thefts per person amounting only to 1,5). They began committing offences much later (hardly 19% committed them as juveniles), and as many as 50% were first tried at 21 or later. The percentage of alcohol addicts amounts in this category to 50%. Almost all of them began abusing of alcohol early, only 32% started at 19 or later. This group contains recidivists with the smallest number of convictions - half of them were convicted only 4 - 5 times. Some 60% worked rather systematically. In this way, persistent recidivists constitute a vęry varied population of offenders. Recidivists committing exclusively offences against property do not exceed 27%. It is also significant that as many as 25 recidivists, committing thefts exclusively, can be found in 4 different groups of recidivists. A typical occurrence is the perpetration, under the influence of alcohol, of offences against person, not involving any serious consequences for the injured. Similarly, very significant is the fact that among the investigated persistent recidivists there are virtually no representatives of the type of a genuine, professional offender; most offences against property involved only trifle losses. Considering the intensity and rapidity of thę recidivism one is confronted with following questions: why penalties inflicted on the persistent offenders have proved ineffective; did recidivism occur as rapidly after short penalties as after the long ones; was long imprisonment inflicted on thęm also at the beginning of their delinquency, etc. This work could not dwęll at length on the above problems. We may merely content ourselves with quoting the following essential results of investigations concerning penalties inflicted on 400 recidivists. An analysis of their stays at liberty after they had served all the sentences which amounted up to 6 months, from 7 to 11 months, from 1 year to less than 2 years, from 2 years to less than 3 years and from 3 years upwards - revealed, that a long prison term of at least 3 years has not proved more effective than a short one up to 6 months. Moreover, it appeared that long prison terms are followed by shorter, on the average, stays at liberty than the short ones. Even in case whęn high penaities involving 2-3 year imprisonment were inflicted at the first, the second or the third trial, results were not any better than in case of short-term penalties. The analysis of penalties inflicted on 44 recidivists, classified as professional offenders committing serious offences against property, revealed, that although nearly half of them were sentenced, at least once, to 5 years or more, the rate of their recidivism did not prove less rapid than after much shorter prison terms. It should be recalled, that only 25% of these recidivists stayed longer at liberty than in prison after they were aged 17. Thus, the results of investigations confirm the experience of many other countries indicating, that with regard to those recidivists who were seriously maladjusted and anti-social since their juvenility, mere imprisonment which is usually resorted to, irrespective of its length, has proved as a rule disappointing.

Przestępczość nieletnich w Polsce w latach 1961-1967 (rozmiary, struktura przestępczości, orzeczone środki)

63%

Jerzy J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1969

issue IV

149-202

1. Problems related to juvenile delinquency have always been a subject of vivid interest of both scientific circles and the community at large. Consequently, juvenile delinquency has probably become a criminological problem given a most profound consideration and any studies which concern that type of delinquency get a vivid response also outside a nanow expert community. Among such studies, modest though and certainly not foreground place is occupied by analyses of statistical materials. Since the results of the analyses mentioned “grow old” much quicker than do the results of individual, more advanced studies, it seems purposeful, therefore, to make efforts in the direction of bringing them more up-to-date. At least one problem seems to demand such up-dating most specificaliy, i.e., the problem of the assessment of the general data obtained from the police and judicary statistics since such data can be one of juvenile the bases for determining the extent of delinquency. Having considered that within the meaning of the criminal law juveniles and adults are, in an arbitrary manner, demarcated merely by age limit (before or after 17 years of age at the moment an offence was committed) whose artificiality is somehow shocking from the criminological point of view, it seemed also advisable to-include in this study other questions related to the extent of delinquency of young adults as well as to consider its situation against the background of the adult population. Another group of questions discussed is connected with the structure of delinquency; also special attention has been paid to questions of place the suspects or those found guilty (and young adults, too) herd among the total numbers of suspected or convicted adults. Finally, there is the third group of questions given special consideration in this study, namely the educative and correctional means adjudicated upon juveniles. Although there is a good deal of information on that particular topic as well as more or less detailed papers concerning the analysis of these kind of data nevertheless the material in question has not so far been analysed in terms of an adequately long period of time which would permit to seize certain clearly-cut tendencies in adjudication of particular kinds of means, especially against the background of various fluctuations of numbers of juveniles appearing in the court. In that chapter of this essay, the studies have been considerably extended to include 1951-1967 instead of 1961-1967 as in the remaining ones. 2. 1. In analysing various kinds of contexts in which, particular authors mention the range of juvenile delinquency - especially when they are alarmed by its increase or whenever they are pleased to note its stabilization or decrease - one may easily see that the authors usually have different things in mind. Sometimes their opinions are based on more and sometimes on less founded assumptions or estimations concerning the number of juvenile offenders themselves, sometimes on the number of their offences, the importance of such deeds or their frequency rate, the degree of social depravity in juveniles appearing in courts, and finally, together - on a series of the abovementioned instances (and also on ones not mentioned there). Anyway, always where one or another adequately justified opinion on the extent of juvenile delinquency is found, the reader is able either to know at once or to trace back what in ęach particular case was the measure of the extent in question. The purpose of the present study is to show different ways for the determination of the detected extent of juvenile delinquency and to present certain groups of data which might serve as the most appropriate criteria for the evaluation of the dimensions of delinquency; furthermore, the intention of the present author is to show that at least some of the criteria are by no means of competitive nature but that they rather permit us to grasp different aspects of the problem of juvenile delinquency. It would be difficult therefore to forejudge about the superiority of one criterion over another as they concern different aspects of the samę problem and as such may have a different impact for our analyses, depedent on the line of our research. 2. A relatively large number of juveniles found among the total number of suspected or convicted individuals may sometimes incline us towards making certain far-reaching statements concerning the extent of juvenile delinquency. Some people hold the opinion that whenever juveniles (or sometimes juveniles and young adults) constituted a considerable portion of the total number of offenders, the range of their delinquency should be recognized as significant, if only on account of their share in delinquency. The author is doubtful about the rightfulness of such an opinion if it were only for a specific character of the juvenile delinquency structure, the importance of offences or also for other than in the case of adults, aims of prosecution (in the broadest meaning of that word). It does not mean, however, that it would not be worth while what is the place the known now in Poland juvenile offenders hold among the total number of individuals convicted. In 1961-1967, juveniles under 13 years of age constituted merely 2-3 per cent of the total number of individuals convicted (similar percentage was noted in the last decade 1951-1960). Together with 13-16 year-old offenders, the juveniles constituted only a group of several per cent - and in recent years - a dozen-or-so per cent group. The number of very young and young that had been found guilty (i.e., juveniles and young adults) was bigger but stin did not exceed 1/5-¼ of the total number of the individuals convicted out of which half were almost 30 or older at the time they committed the offences. It is fitting to note at this point that in a number of countries, persons under 21 years of age constitute 1/2 and sometimes 2/3 of the total number of the individuals convicted or suspected. It may then be said that from the point of view of a relative quantity of juveniles found in the total number of the individuals convicted, that juvenile delinquency in poland may still be estimated as a highly moderate one. 3. Out of all the available methods that can be employed for the evaluation of the extent of juvenile delinquency the simplest one is that which bases on the statistical data concerning the number of juveniles found guilty, or more broadly juvenile adjudgments, or even still more broadly - the number of cases in which a juvenile was suspected of an offence. The limitations involved in the use of such a criterion are quite evident since in applying such a criterion we fail to consider any consequences of the fact that the number of adjudgements or findings of guilt is hardly synonymous with the number of juveniles adjudicated or found guilty (which could after all be justified), but - and this is less acceptable - such a number does not bear any relation to the wider population - events or individuals - against whose background it occurs. However, from one point of view this criterion is important, namely it provides relatively accurate information about one of the quantitative aspects of risks faced by the police and the court of law, involved with the conduct of proceedings and with the adjudication upon the offences committed by juveniles. This criterion becomes particularly important whenever we tackle with organizational problems of courts for juveniles, or the needs for staff or institutions. For the last seven years, the total number of adjudgements increased from about 47 thousand to 71 thousand (i.e. by 52 pet cent). As compared with 1951 (abo 26 thousand), the total number of the adjudgements in 1967 was almost threefold. Close to the latter was the number of juveniles suspected by the police of offending the law (for the last four years past, it was 53 to 70 thousand a year). Out of the total number of the adjudgements, the findings of guilt held similar place (54 to 56 per cent) slightly lower than in 1951-1960 when the proportion was about 56 to 61 per cent. In the seven-year period discussed, the proportion of discontinuations of legal proceedings evidently increased: at the present moment, 33 to 34 per cent of juvenile cases are dismissed, in 1951-1960 on the other hand, the proportion having been 20 to 30 per cent. Various categories of juveniles are involved therein. Acquittals are a particular category of adjudgements; the absolute number of acquittals was on an approximate level (2,300-2,800) but owing to the simultaneous increase in the total number of adjudgements, the percentage of acquittals decreased to 4 per cent. Perhaps it is worth while remembering that acquittals were as many as 11 per cent of adjudgements in 1951, but already in 1952 and onwards, the proportion had been stabilized on the 6 to 7 per cent level. The fact that it is so low now should perhaps be recognized as a positive phenomenon; it seems to give evidence that magistrates, who but certainly conduct also preparatory proceedings, do not send cases too hastily for hearing where the juvenile's guilt seems insufficiently made probable to them. It may be asked upon how many juvenile suspects educative-or correctional means are adjudicated following a finding of guilt. A summary of the data obtained from the police or court statistics may supply an answer. As was said before, cases of almost 60 per cent of suspected juveniles end up with a finding of guilt, that proportion being slightly lower in boys than in girls and in lower age groups rather than in older. Very few suspects of 7 to 9 years of age are found guilty (7 per cent). Those proportions increase rapidly already in 10 year-old suspects (47 per cent) and grow up to 13 yearsage-group (62 per cent) showing then a stabilization on a similar level. According to the information mentioned, in 1961-1967 annual numbers of findings of guilt were 27 to 38 thousand. Those numbers included, of course, a majority of findings of guilt by juvenile courts and also sentences of ordinary courts. The latter were concerned with cases when a juvenile was 17 years of age prior to the beginning of the hearing or when he or she acted together with an adult and when according to the prosecution's decision “for the benefit of the administration of justice” their case should not be transferred to the juvenile court. The proportion of findings of guilt by ordinary courts of law was about 9 to 11 per cent in 1961-1967, having been slightly lower than in 1951-1960 when sometimes it reached even 13 per cent. This is probably connected with some lowering of the mean age of juveniles found guilty for the last few years as compared with that observed in 1951-1960. 4. The number of juveniles upon whom judicial.educative or correctional means had been executed provide information about another side of the quantitative aspect of work facing the juvenile courts. The number of juveniles under court control due to a committed offence increased from 34,520 in 1951 to 58,005 in 1967 and that is by 68 per cent. This seems to be an effect of not only an increase in the number of juveniles found guilty but also of a prolonged average duration of execution of means. That considerable number of juveniles upon whom means were executed should perhaps be further increased. So, for instance, in 1965 45.055 children and youth were placed under juvenile court control, established according to civil proceedings, and under ordinary court control there were another 23,699. As for some portion of the number of such juveniles, court control was certainly connected with manifestations of their social maladjustment, with behavioural disturbances not varying in nature from those for which other juveniles were found guilty. Also in some of those cases, the way of carrying out the control did not differ significantly from the means usually applied, such as supervision order, probation or approved school. 5. Since in the hitherto discussed ways of understanding the range of the detected juvenile delinquency the main stress was laid on absolute numbers, in the present analysis of the standards some attention may be paid to relative numbers resulting from a reference of the number of findings of guilt to some population of individuals concerned or of the number of juveniles found guilty to some broader population of which they were a portion. The objective of such an analysis is to illustrate the degree to which the phenomena of delinquency have been spread throughout the juvenile population. This will lead to quite a different manner of appreciating the juvenile delinquency range. It will not be considered weighty e.g., when the number of findings of guilt will reach some definite level but when the number of juvenile offenders in the juvenile population will be sufficiently high. The most common standard of that kind is represented by delinquency which, if applied for analysing data of court statistics with regard to juvenile delinquency, is represented by the number of findings of guilt as one pro mille of the entire juvenile population. As compared with absolute numbers, the above listed rates give the following picture: between 1961 and 1965, a slight (a few-per-cent) increase in the number of findings of guilt was observed, however, considering that this was accompanied by a much higher increase in the number of i0-16 year-old juveniles, the rates showed a decrease. During the following two years; there was a significant change of that situation, the increase in the number of findings of guilt was then so high that it brought about also an increase in rate values which in 1967 became 15 per cent higher than those in 1961. The increase in rates was by no means equal in all age groups of juveniles concerned, some were not involved at all. The rates in all age groups of girls were found on similar level as in 1956-1960. Thus, the increase in the number of findings of guilt in girls was proportional to the increase in the total population of 10-16 year-old girls. The annual average was one finding of guilt per 1,000 girls in that particular age group. With boys, the situation was different; here we had to deal with a general increase in rates as compared with that observed in the preceding five-year period. The increase in rates was very high in 14-16 year-old boys (by 19-23 per cent), approximate level was maintained in12-73 year-old boys and a decrease was observed in 10-11 year-old ones (by 5-10 per cent). An average rate of 196l-1967 for the total population of boys was 12,2 and showed that an annual average in the discussed seven-year period was one finding of guilt per 82 boys between 10 and 16 years of age. In our earlier discussion of the rank that the findings of guilt in juveniles held among the total number of such findings in 1961-1967, also young adults were mentioned. There were more findings of guilt in young adults although the latter belong only to four age groups (17, 18, 19 and 20) while the juveniles - to seven age groups at least. The above listed findings show first of all a systematic decrease in numbers of convictions in young adults (1961 -1964) followed, as compared with the 1961 level, by an increase (1965-1967) by 9 per cent in made and by 2 per cent in female offenders. This movement of absolute numbers of convictions in young adults was accompanied by simultaneous but considerable decrease in rates which although failing to increase after 1964, have maintained thę level of that year. Consequently, the relevant rates, as compared with 1961, were in 1967 - 30 per cent lower in men and 33 per cent in women. These changes were caused by a few independent agents whose effects were partially accumulated. Therefore it must be said that the rates in young men and women in 1961-1963 were on an approximate level. Its rapid decrease took place in 1964, which was undoubtedly connected with the Act of Amnesty of 20th July 1964 whose bearing on the number of convictions was certainly felt in 1965, too. At the same time, the effect of another diminishing agent was felt: according to the Decree of 28th March 1963, a certain number of young adults ceased to be subject to ordinary court proceedings since the conscription age limit was lowered to be 19 instead of 20 Years of age. In 1967, a successive agent appeared on the scene to have a bearing on the number of convictions in that category of individuals concerned (as well as of the adult population, too). Namely, in accordance with the provisions of the Decree of 17th June 1967, a series of minor offences were classified as non-indictable offences having at the same time become subject of administrative and not judicial proceedings; minor speculations or theft had been involved. As far as the rates were concerned, an additional element started functioning; it was a process of leaving the young adult age group by individuals born during the war (law quantity year groups) on one hand and of entering into that particular age of very numerous year groups of those born after the war, on the other. Prospectives for an extent of young adult convictions for the next few years to come should perhaps be worth while mentioning now. As a result of a thorough analysis of the young adult conviction rate in 1961-1965, of legislative changes and of foreseen changes in numbers of the total young adult population (which will still be increasing for another few years) - the author had drawn the following conclusion. In 1970, the number of convictions of male young adults will probably be about 38 thousand while the rate will reach about 28.0; the relevant figures for females will be 5.5 thousand and 4.0 respectively. In closing our remarks on an evaluation of juvenile and young adult known delinquency extent, made in terms of rates, it might be said that analogically to earlier rates based on the numbers of convictions, also other ,,rates" might be established, where data on numbers of juveniles on whom educative or correctional means had been executed by juvenile courts, could be utilized. A reference of the number of such juveniles to the total number of 10-16 year old ones would lead to the following findings: in 1961, they were 8.7 pro mille of all juveniles of 10-16 years of age but after 7 years - they were 11.8. Thus, as per 31st December 1967, out of each 86 juveniles of 10-16 years of age group, one was under a juvenile court control a subject of executed educative or correctional means. 6. So far, analyses of a degree, to which known juvenile delinquency had spread among youth, were based on information about findings of guilt, however, there is also a possibility to define it by reference to the number of juveniles found guilty. To do so, one has to know how many juveniles, out of those born during one calendar year were found guilty for offences committed by them at thęir juvenile age, exclusively between 11th and 17th years of age. By making use of the data on findings of guilt in 1950- 1960, one could see that for each year group of juveniles born in 1941, 1942, 1943 or 1944, the number of individuals found guilty were 14.1 to 14.9 thousand; their percentage, related to the total number of those born in the said year groups' was 3.5 to 3.8 per cent (for boys only - 6.3 to 6.8 per cent). Thanks to the fact that complete data on findings of guilt have now been available for 1961-1967, an extention of the analysis with respect to few further year groups could be possible. As it may be seen, the numbers of juveniles found guilty, born in the successive years just after the war, increased rapidly (from about 15 to 28 thousand). That increase, however, took place with a simultaneous considerable increase in general quantities of those particular year groups. In the entire population of those of 17 years old, the percentage of juveniles found guilty was approximately on similar level (on a slightly.higher levęl than in the case of those born during the war). Although such a percentage was low in girls, in boys it grew up as high as 6,7 to 7,5 per cent. This means that approximately every thirteenth - fourteenth young adult of 17 years of age born between 1945 and 1951 had already been found guilty for an offence committed at his juvenile age. Analogical attempts to define the number of found guilty within some longer period of time, where findings of guilt could be referred to not only to one but to a sequency of years - in young adults - are more difficult than in juveniles. It is because of relevant shortage of statistics in Poland. By way of analysing data on convictions in 1951 -1963, I had defined some approximate number of young adults, born in 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942, covicted, at whatever moment of the entire four-year period when they were young adults (between I7 and 20 years of age). In the population of 21 year-old men (born in the above mentioned years) there were about 15 per cent of those who had once been found guilty at their young adult age. This means that approximately every seventh man at that particular age had been convicted at his young adult age. Should the entire eleven-year period between 10th and 21st year of age be taken into account, one would have to accept that every sixth had been found guilty. The above mentioned figures seem very high, indeed. This calls for a thought to be given as to whether or not the penalization extent in this country is not too much expanded or whether or not penal means are too hastily applied when - without prejudice or even to some purpose - they could be given up. 7. So far, data of twofold nature were used for defining standards of known juvenile delinquency extent: numbers of individuals (found guilty) or numbers of events, such as findings of guilt, adjudgements or cases in which a juvenile was a suspect. Let us mention another type of dates which in its character is approximate to the latter category: numbers of offences where juveniles were suspects. Relevant information is provided for by police statistics. According to data of that kind, numbers of offences where juveniles were suspects were 99,588 in 1956 and 110,892 in 1967. 8. Also various ways of interpretation of known juvenile delinquency extents as well as various standards of such extents were discussed. In dealing with legal order endangered by juveniles, attention will first of all be paid to the numbers of offences where juveniles were suspects, especially, so if that standard would adequately be enriched by data concerning the kind or importance of such offences. If interest is taken in quantitative aspects of tasks facing ouf courts of law, the juvenile delinquency extent will be looked at through a prism of the number of adjudgements (especially - of findings of guilt) as well as of the number of subjects under the juvenile court control due to execution of educative or correctional means adjudicated. In that particular area, the extent of juvenile delinquency for the recent seven-year period considerably increased, what might to a certain degree be related to a general increase of the youth population in this country in that period. If one wants to know the degree to which manifestations of known to the police major juvenile depravity has bęen spread, delinquency rates should be used or - what even allows for a broader look at that problem - the percentage of those found guilty for offences committed at their juvenile age in relation to the young adult population born in particular year groups. The abovementioned rates as well as - though to a minor extent - the percentages seem to show that the known juvenile delinquency in this country increased, especially for the last few years. 3. A definition of the delinquency structure is usually understood to include the elements delinquency is composed of and the numerical ratio of delinquency groups differentiated either from delinquency as a whole or from its particular categories. If so understood, in analysing the delinquency structure it is only natural to use a body of information in which offence is a unity. This may be data on the total number of offences committed in a selected area at a certain definite time, irrespective of the method of its evaluation; this may also be a body of data on known offences, on offences where a suspect had been determined in the course of preparatory proceedings or, finally, a body of information about offences where offenders had lawfully been convicted or found guilty. In most cases no such data are available (except perhaps for the second of the mentioned bodies of information which is a fundamental section of police statistics). However, where interest is taken in the delinquency structure, related to a definite category of offenders - to juveniles, the analyser is as a rule compulsed to search for material of different kind. Such material would usually include data on findings of guilt, enriched as they are with information about the nature of offences concerned. An analysis of such data leads to the following conclusions: A considerable increase in the number of findings of guilt in 1961-1967 failed to produce any substantial changes of the juvenile delinquency structure. It is still offences against property (86 to 89 per cent) which are dominant in juvenile delinquency - mostly including theft of things of minor value. Besides, a somewhat numerous group embraced offences against the person (5 to 7 per cent), in which slight bodily harm (about 1/3 of cases), assault (1/5 of cases) and battery or grievous bodily harm dominated. Annually, there were 5 to 11 juveniles found guilty for murder and 21 to 35 for manslaughter. In 7967,614 juveniles were found guilty for sexual offences (1.7 per cent of the total number of findings of guilt in that very year); rape was found in more than a half of cases, the remaining ones having been fornication with juveniles below 15 years of age. About one per cent of cases included offences against public order officers. Offenders of other categories were few. A higher than average increase in the number of findings of guilt for housebreaking or burglary, for damage done to property, a series of offences against the person and for rape has been noted since 1961. This was accompanied by an increase of the mean age of juveniles found guilty annually - from 13,8 years in 1961 to 14,3 years in 1967. It is no wonder then that first of all an increase in the proportion of offences committed by juveniles of older year groups has been observed. A peculiarity of the.juvenile delinquency structure becomes clearly-cut, indeed, when compared with the young adult and adult delinquency structures. Differentiation of only 4 delinquency groups (against property, against the person, sexual offences and those against public order officers) is sufficient to embrace a) almost the entire juvenile delinquency (93 to 96 per cent), b) a considerable proportion of young adult ddlinquency and c) but only below 60 per cent of adult delinquency. The fact that a great majority of juvenile delinquency are related to offences against property (chiefly theft) of minor importance must by no means stipulate that such a delinquency should be neglected. On the contrary, the effects of commitments of various, often slight, offences turn out too often to be serious. This may not be clear when only single cases are considered but when the developing process of juvenile social depravation is taken into account whose that sort of offerences are but a fragment only. According to findings of individual studies, the extent of juvenile offenders demoralization shows either a slight or no connection with the objectively evaluated specific gravity of offences ascribed to juveniles. 4. The activities of juvenile courts or of ordinary courts of law with regard to the adjudication of educative or correctional means upon juveniles in 1951-1967 was the last question discussed in the study. A salient feature of the adjudication by our courts upon juveniles is their very considerable caution in applying means connected with separation of a juvenile from his or her familial community and sending them to an institution. The percentage of juveniles upon whom approved school or borstal had been adjucated was between 10 and 14 per cent, in recent years having been stabilized as l0 to 11 per cent. From that fact a conclusion can hardly be drawn that it was only every 9th or 10th juvenile upon whom an institutional order was considered necessary. Because it should always be remembered that the adjudication in that particular subject is influenced not only by an evaluation of the degree of juvenile social depravity, of educational valours represented by the juveniles' environment, of needs of the juvenile's himself, but also by the realistic possibility of execution of such an adjudication since there is chronic lack of placements in approved schools and very often felt lack of placements in borstals. With respect to further 15 to 24 per cent of juveniles found guilty, eventual need for applying institutional treatment must have been felt by the courts since executions of relevant adjustications had been suspended and 3/4 of cases were placed on probation. Probation was the most frequently applied means with respect to juveniles. That particular means was applied almost in 1/3 of all juveniles found guilty, the proportion of such adjudications having considerably increased in 1951-1967, i.e from 23.2 per cent to 32.2 per cent, so that the yearly number of juveniles placed on probation augmented threefold. Supervision order is another kind of means which used to be more frequently adjudicated early in the fifties and now it is adjudicated upon every 4th-5th juvenile. Most probably, the observed changes regarding preference of adjudication of probation is caused by development of such services enabling probation of increased numbers of juveniles found guilty. Admonition was a mean whose application seemed to be decreasing (it was adjudicated upon 23 per cent of juveniles in 1951 and only upon 14 per cent in 1967). A rapid decrease in the number of juveniles upon whom the courts were satisfied by applying that particular single act a few years after 1951, was probably due to a simultaneous rapid growth of the mean juvenile defendant age progressing according to a rise of the age limit of juvenile responsibility from 7 to 10 years of age (1954). On the other hand, the recently observed considerable decrease in proportion of such adjudications is undoubtedly closely connected with advising the courts in terms of limitation of means to be adjudicated upon juveniles of younger year groups. The choice of adequate educative or correctional means was no doubt influenced not only by the court having been convinced as to which was the best mean for the juvenile's re-education but also what were the realistic possibilities to get the mean executed. An open question is to what extent the changes of the structure of adjudicated means are a result of changes in categories of juveniles appearing at the courts.

Wielokrotni recydywiści o wczesnym i późnym początku karalności

63%

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.

Młodociani sprawcy przestępstw przeciwko mieniu

51%

Paszkowska H.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

403-445

The new Polish penal legislation of 1969 introduced special rules of criminal liability of young adult offenders' aged 17-20. In 1972 criminological research was undertaken in order to characterize this group of offenders, i.e., its most numerous category - those found guilty of offences against property. The research ended in 1975. In 1980 a follow-up of convictions of the persons, under observation was carried out. The object of the study of young adults found guilty of offences against property was to analyse the psycho-social factors connected with their social maladjustment and demoralization, particularly their family and school environment, personality, extent of drinking and offending. It was also the object of the study to compare two groups of young adult towards whom different measures had been adjudicated. As the most typical offences of young adults are those against property, a group of young adults convicted for this very type of offences was included in the study. There were 100 persons under examination who had been sentenced to immediate imprisonment. This group consisted of all prisoners of two Warsaw prisons in the years 1973-75 (group A). The group of young adults (group B) consisted of 100 persons conviced in 1973 for offences against property and sentenced to fine, limitation of freedom, imprisonment with suspension of execution, or educational-corrective measures. The two groups of convicted persons that were selected for the study, different as regards the adjudicated and executed measures, were compared in many respects in order to ascertain the distinctions between them as regards the degree of intensity of the process of social maladjustment which had been related to the application of various penal measures. Empirical research consisted in gathering detailed information on the persons under scrutiny concerning their previous convictions, their school career and the course of work. Also interviews were carried out with them and separately with their mothers, by means of a detailed questionnaire. Three psychological tests were also employed towards each person, that is Raven’s intelligence test, Eysenck’s questionnaire to measure extroversion and neurotism and Buss-Durkee inventory to measure aggression. 3.1. Offences against property constituted the criterion for selection to the study. The most numerous group were convictions for larceny qualified as “stealing in a particularly audacious manner or by a breaking and entering” (Art. 208 of the Penal Code), though the “audacious theft” was extremely rare as compared with the second choice. 64% of the persons of group A had been convicted for offences described in this article, the percentage as regards group B being 35%. Many persons also committed thefts of social property, while the receiving of stolen goods was the least frequent. Generally, the persons of group A had been active for a longer time than those of group B, and their offences were more frequently qualified as continuous. It should also be emphasized that the mean value of the objects stolen by the persons of group B was considerably lower than it was the case with the young adults of group A. It also happened (16% of cases) that the act of the young adults of group B ended as a mere attempt at committing an offence. To sum up, the offences against property committed by the persons, sentenced to immediate imprisonment were more serious than those committed by the young adults towards whom other measures had been adjudicated. 3.2. 69% of the persons of group A had cases in juvenile courts, while as many as 84% admitted having committed offences, mostly thefts, at that age. On the other hand, 44% of the persons of group B had committed offences for which they were brought to court as juveniles. The difference between both groups is significant (p < 0.00l). The origins of delinquency dating back from before the age of 13 were found in as many as 23 persons of group A and 10 persons of group B. The earlier they started to commit offences and had their first case in juvenile court, the more numerous were their subsequent convictions in that period. The mean number of convictions in juvenile court was 2,2 in group A and 1,6 in group B. The structure of delinquency of the persons under examination is hardly differentiated: they committed first of all offences against property (85.7%), mostly larceny. The juvenile court, had employed such measures as admonition and charge of parents in the case of persons of group B considerably more frequently than towards those of group A (25% and 8.7% respectively). On the other hand, the persons of group A had been much more frequently sent to children’s homes and to corrective schools (44.9%) than those of group B (25%). 3.3. In the period discussed below all the persons were young adults, with the mean age similar in both groups: 19 in group A and 18.9 in group B. The mean number of convictions of the persons of groups A from the age of 17 was 1.7, and in group B 1.2. Each member of group A was responsible for 3.3. offences, while in group B the mean number of offences was 2.2. It should not be forgotten that many persons, particularly those of group A, were repeatedly imprisoned in the discussed period. A considerable majority of the persons of both groups who had committed more than one offence, were convicted for offences against property only. The data quoted above illustrate the whole of delinquency of the persons under examination and recidivism among them. Taking into account both the period of minority and the later period from 17 years of age on, there were as many as 4 per every five persons of group A who had already been convicted before, and in group B nearly every second person had had a conviction previously (the difference is significant, p < 0.01). These data confirm the conclusion as to the more advanced process of demoralization of the young adults of group A as compared with group B. 49% of the persons guilty of offences against property of group A came from unbroken homes; the respective percentage in group B was 71% (difference significant, p < 0.001). Broken homes resulted mostly from the death of one parent (23% of cases in group A and 15% in group B), or from divorce (28% of cases in group A, 14% in group B). A majority of the persons came from workmen’s families (90.5% in group A, 70.7% in group B). The level of professional qualifications and education of parents of the persons examined is significantly lower (p < 0.01) in group A as compared with group B. Approximately 60% of families of the persons of group A and 67% of group B had been living in poor financial conditions, which was connected, among others, with excessive drinking of the fathers. 56.3% of fathers of the persons of group A had regularly been drinking excessively, that is drinking vodka at least twice a week. This percentage was only 26.3% in group B, it was lowered, however, as the examination of young adults of young adults of group B was carried on at home, often with the fathers themselves present. 37% of fathers in group A and 19% of those in group B had been taken to a detoxication centre, including 21% and 14% respectively taken at least three times. As in other criminological studies, in the present one young adults have not been found to live in criminal family environment. It was extremely rare that the fathers of the persons examined had criminal records. To sum up, certain negative phenomena were more frequent in the families of young adults of group A (for instance, broken home, excessive drinking of fathers). However, the cumulation of a number of negative factors could have influenced in a particulary unfarourable way the process of socialization of the persons under examination. 5.1. There were 37% of the persons of group A and 23% of those (p< 0.001) of group B with elementary education, and 18% and 5% respectively with incomplete elementary education. The difference is significant (p < 0.001). School retardation which appears more often among delinquents than among non-delinquents is connected with a lower level of education of young adults. Among the young adults of group A as few as 17% revealed no retardation, the percentage as regards group B being 46.5%. The difference is significant (p < 0.001). The retardation of the persons of group B usually amounts to one year only, while it is often 3 years or more among the persons of group A. School problems are also connected with truancy (group A - 78%, group B – 66% of the examined persons), which begins in the very first grades of elementary school. Early and regular truancy of the persons of group A was one of the symptoms of their maladjustment. Truancy is conducive to running away from home. The persons under scrutiny, particularly those of group A, had been running away from home considerably often and for longer periods. 2. Among those who were employed, every second person in group A and every fifth person in group B worked casually only. They usually took jobs requiring low professional qualifications, as only few of them had any professional training (group A-38%, group B-62%). 6.1. Raven’s test was employed to estimate the level of intelligence of the persons examined. 53.6% of young adults of group A and 31.7% of group B scored low and very low (up to 25 centile). 10.3% of group A and 29.3% of group B scored high and very high (centile 75 and more). The mean score was 35.4 in group A standard deviation: 9.87, and 41.1 in group B (standard deviation 10.09). The difference between both groups is significant (p < 0.01). Low scares on the Raven’s scale were often found among those persons whose level of education had been low, which was accompanied by a considerable school retardation. 2. To measure the level of extroversion and neurotism, Eysenck’s MPI scale was employed. The level of extroversion and neurotism among the young adult perpetrators of offences against property was not found to be higher than that of the average youth. 6.3. The level of aggressiveness was examined by means of the Buss-Durkee questionnaire. None of its scales differentiated significantly the persons of both groups. The mean total score was 61.7 (standard deviation 21.4) in group A and 61.06 (standard deviation 23.6) in group B. The data given below concern the persons of group A only, as the information obtained from those of group B as to the volume and frequency of drinking among them do not seem reliable. The analysis of statements of the subjects reveals that the percentage of teetotallers diminishes with age. The persons examined have been drinking large amounts of alcohol from their earliest years. 36% of them stated that they had drunk such quantities of various spirits at the age of 15, which converted to 40 proof vodka would amount to 2.5 litres a month. From the age of 17 on, 60% of the persons drank over 2.5 litres of 40 proof alcohol a month. They drank vodka as well as wine and beer, which leads relatively quickly to the “treshold of intoxication”. Mean yearly consumption of alcohol per 1 examined person was 34.2 litres at the age of 15, and increased sed from year to year to reach 113.7 litres yearly at the age of 19, which means that approximately 9.5 litres of 40 proof vodka were consumed monthly; this quantity goes far beyond the mean level of drinking by men at this age. 3/4 of the subjects can be recognized as excessive drinkers. A significant correlation was found between the excessive drinking among the persons under scrutiny and their early delinquency and recidivism. The highest percentage (40%) of the persons who did not drink excessively was found among those convicter once only, while the lowest (14.8%) was found among those who had 5 or more convictions. The analysis of the young adults’ information as to their , peer groups revealed that also their closest friends had been drinking excessively and often intoxicated. In February 1980, further convictions of the persons examined, then aged 25 on the average, were checked up again. As revealed by the analysis, the persons of group A (60%) still continued to commit offences and indeed many of them become multiple recidivists. The difference between the persons of groups A and B is significant (p < 0.001). 40% of the persons of group A and 67% of those of group B have not been convicted within the period of the follow-up. The majority of the persons under observation continued to commit offences against property. The courts have mainly adjudged the penalty of immediate imprisonment (group A - 92.3%, group B - 78.2%). Among those sentenced to immediate imprisonment there were in group A 57.1% sentenced to 2 years or less of imprisonment, and in group B - 93%. There was significant correlation (p < 0.01)between the convictions in juvenile courts and further convictions in the period of the follow-up. As the data reveal, group B towards which the sanctions other than immediate imprisonment were adjudicated, differed from the imprisoned group A as to the smaller extent and intensity of their offending - also during the follow-up - and their lower degree of progress in the process of social maladjustment. However, there were quite many persons in group B as well (though less than in group A), who had been convicted as juveniles; they had yet no convictions during the follow-up in a much highter percentage of cases than the subjects of group. A who had been convicted by the juvenile court previously. On the basis of the above information, criminal policy can be discussed as regards young adults found guilty of offences against property. One should not postulate a total abandonment of the penalty of immediate imprisonment, and yet, as shown by the above data, its adjudgement should be considerably limited. The limitation in question should concern first of all young adults convicted for the first time and socially demoralized to a small degree. Within the years 1970 -76 imprisonment was the measure most frequently adjudicated towards young adults. In the years 1970 - 1974 the percentage of young adults sentenced to immediate imprisonment increased regularly. It is only since 1975 that a favourable phenomenon of regular decrease of the percentage of adjudicated penalties of immediate imprisonment can be noticed, with simultaneous increase of the percentage of measures which are not connected with deprivation of liberty. As it seems, the application of immediate imprisonment towards young adults should undergo further limitations. When postulating the re-orientation of the criminal policy of the courts towards a maximum realization of the instructions of Art. 51of the Penal Code, one should also demand changes in the stage of execution of penalty. As indicated , by many studies of readaptive effectiveness of corrective schools and prisons, their influence is minimal and sometimes their resocializing activities are destructive for the convicted persons. Imprisonment causes a state of deprivation of essential physical and mental needs, destroys the ties of those convicted with their family, gives rise to socially negative patterns of prisoners’ subculture. In the present study also the offenders of group A were described, the considerable part of whom had been changing various types of institutions and prisons, first as juveniles, then as young adults, and the effects of these imprisonments were negative as measured by further convictions within the period of the follow-up. The information presented in this study concerning the family background of the persons of group A (particularly the alcoholism or excessive drinking of the fathers, which is frequent in these families), and information concerning the early and large social maladjustment of these persons, indicate a need to consider the problem of young adult perpetrators of offences against property not only in relation to the measures that should be adjudged and their execution. It is also of almost importance to consider the prevention of social maladjustment of this category of youth.

Przemiany polityki karnej sądów powszechnych rozwijanej na tle przepisów nowej kodyfikacji karnej (1970-1980)

45%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

1982

issue VIII-IX

25-150

We are now entering in Poland into the second decade of the new penal system in force. The period of time which has elapsed: since the introduction of this system is long enough to enable us to take a close look at the new legal institutions envisaged in the system, at the practical value of these institutions and trends observed in their application. This paper is devoted to the above considerations, or to be more exact, to the part played by the application of penal measures. In order to characterize roughly the guidelines underlying the above penal codifications it should first be stated that what the legislators had in mind was a need to treat serious and petty offences in a different way. Those who were guilty of serious crimes were to suffer from penalties of immediate deprivation of liberty, and, exceptionally, that of capital punishment. Some categories of offenders regarded as dangerous, repulsive or persistent were to meet augmented penal repressions. Among these were perpetrators of hooligan, type offences, and recidivists some of whom, after completing their sentences, were to be treated with special penal measures, such as protective supervision and/or placing in a social readaptation centre. At the same time various lenient penal measures were to be imposed against perpetrators of petty offences. Sometimes proceedings against such persons were to be discontinued. Besides, some petty offences became depenalized (for the first time in 1967 and then on a larger scale in 1971) by considering them to be transgressions and getting them transfered from the courts to the Penal Administrative Commissions. The Penal Code, the Penal Executive Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure have been in force since 1st January, 1970. However, it should be borne in mind that penal legislation is not confined to the above mentioned codes. It also embraces some statutes with two very important ones issued in the early seventies: the Code of Transgressions included in the set of acts of 20th May 1971 (Dz.U. no. 12, para 114- 118) making up a codified system of transgressions law and the Financial Penal Code of 26th Oct. 1971 (Dz.U. no. 28, para 260). It is only after the above acts had been passed the process of codification of the Polish penal legislation was completed. If one takes into consideration the need to have a minimum period of time necessary for learning how to make use of new regulations and the date when the previously mentioned acts came into force, as compared with the 1969 codes, one should take the year 1972 as a starting point for the analysis of the penal policy as determined by the new penal codification in the full form. The problems of the applications of penalties by courts arising from the 1969 penal code regulations are among the most complex ones and bear evidence of the fact that at this particular issue, the regulations of the present code are not exceptionally successful. For the purposes of our discussion we should try to introduce some order into this complex subject. Therefore, we shall distinguish three groups among the regulations of the imposition of the penalty by the courts. The first group will include the regulations from the special part of the penal code (and other penal acts), which describe the kind and limits of penal sanctions provided for the perpetrators of crimes envisaged in the regulations. The second group shall include the regulations from the general part of the Penal Code (or statutes with general part, such as the financial Penal Code or Chapter 37 of the military part of the Penal Code) which modify the norms found in the regulations belonging to the above first group. The above modifications concern the changes in the limits of sanctions, rules of the order of choice: among the alternative sanctions, or possibilities of application of penal measures which are not provided for a particular offence. The third group will encompass the regulations specifying the principles to be used by courts in choosing the kind and extent of penal measures against offenders. The essential feature of the above legal system is that it lacks rules which would provide one strictly defined penalty for an offender of a given offence. The court is always faced with the necessity of making a choice of a penalty: first of all, whether to apply any punishment at all, or to confine oneself to a conditional discontinuance of the proceedings (arid sometimes, if the statute makes it possible, to renounce the execution of the penalty). If a sentence is passed, what kind of penalty is to be imposed, whether it should be combined with another basic penalty, or additional penalties, punitive financial award or preventive means should be made use of. What then should be the directives for the court in making the choice? The answer to this question is provided by the Penal Code, above all in Art. 50. In this article three different directives are included for the court in imposing a penalty at its discretion: (1) the degree of social danger of the offence, (2) regard for the social effectiveness of the penalty, and (3) the preventive and educational effect on the person convicted. These directives, dressed as they are in a new wording, correspond, as it were, to the classical purposes of punishment. The first of these is to give justice, i.e. to mete out retribution for the "evil" done by the offender in the form of suffering proportional to this "evil". The second purpose is general prevention, i.e. a tendency to punish the offender in order to prevent others from committing offences. The third purpose of punishment is special prevention, i.e. the effect on the offenders themselves in order to prevent them from committing further criminal acts. The difficulties involved in the implementation of the principle of justice once it ceases to be understood literally as that of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth”, are well known and need not be mentioned here. One ought, however, to point out that there is no "objective" or "invariable" scale of translating the degree of "evil" committed by the offender into the suffering caused to him, This scale is arbitrary and variable. Its variability can be seen both when the degrees of penalties imposed for the same offences at various times are compared, and, what is even more significant, when the comparison is made of penalties for the offences against various values protected by the law. It is thus clear that various penal policies can be pursued based on the principle of just retribution within the framework of the same legal system. The fact that § 1, Art. 50 of the Penal Code makes a mention of the social effect of a penalty rather than of general prevention was not accidental. However, from the argumentation included in the Introduction to the draft of the Penal Code it can easily be seen that what the authors of the draft really had in mind was that social effect meant instilling fear for the punishment in the prospective offenders. In the statements concerning special prevention only two forms of such effect on the convicted persons were distinguished, i.e. prevention and education. The first term refers, as may be judged from the argumentation in the Introduction to the draft of the Penal Code, to making it impossible for the convicted person to pursue crime by physically isolating him from the society in a penal institution or to ultimate exclusion from the society by the application of capital punishment. The second term is self-explanatory: education means that the attitudes and motivation of a convicted person are to be transformed in such a way that he will comply with the requirements of the law in the future. An essential draw back in Art. 50 of the Penal Code is that it includes three separate recommendations as to the court’s decisions on the way of dealing with the offender on the assumption that each of these recommendations would lead to the same result without any collisions between them. Had such a possibility come to the notice of the legislator at the proper time, the above directives would have been classified according to some order of importance or a regulation would have been introduced to solve any collision between them. As the main interest in this work is centered on the penal policy of the courts, of particular importance are the statements made by the Supreme Court concerning the content and interpretation of § 1 Art. 50 of the Penal Code rather than the opinions formulated in the doctrine of the law. Initially, the Supreme Court’s position was that the directives of § 1 Art. 50 of the Penal Code were all equal. But in 1975 for offenders convicted for the misappropriation of social property of high value the Supreme Court recommended the use of the directive of retaliation and general deterrence without mentioning the special prevention directive, thus making some distinction between them. Finally, in 1977 it became clear that the Supreme Court had accepted "just retaliation" as a priority directive in imposing penalties. Within the directive of "just retaliation" (social danger of the act) some shift in the emphasis can be noticed. At first the social danger of the act was regarded to be a synthesis of objective and subjective elements, and finally, the main importance was stressed of one of the objective elements, i.e. the extent of the damage caused or the benefit gained by the perpetrator. Thus a problem arises what value should be attached to these modifications in the positions taken by the Supreme Court. In anticipating further conclusions one is tempted to say now that these modifications were associated by significant augmentation of the penalties imposed by the courts. At least two explanations may be offered here. One is that the reason for the stiffening of the penal policy can be traced to the courts' making a greater use of the "retaliation" directive in the imposition of penalties. This may have an additional support in the fact that the penalties became more severe at the very time when the shift occurred in the emphasis from recommending the taking into consideration of all the three directives of Art. 50 of the Penal Code to "retaliation". Simultaneously special stress was to be put on making the responsibility more objective in the form of close relationship between the fine and the extent of the damage caused. In the second explanation both the above mentioned reasons, i.e. emphasis on retaliation and stiffening of penalties, would be regarded as caused by a third party. They can arbitrarily be called a process of making the legal values more rigid in the circles providing directives for the criminal justice system apparatus. The rigidity would manifest itself either in regarding the offences committed in this country to become more socially dangerous or the offenders to deserve a more severe treatment. It should, therefore, be noted that none of the directives mentioned in the Art. 50 of the Penal Code is unequivocally leading to a lenient or to a stiff criminal policy. Uniter the banners of either of the directives some offenders, some offences, may be considered as calling for lenient penal measures, whereas other offenders, other offences - may be thought of as deserving severe penalties. Thus, the final shape of the penal policy depends on how the line is drawn between those "calling for" lenient treatment and those "deserving" punitive reaction. Taking all the above into consideration the present author thinks of the second explanation as more probable than the first. It should be noted that only the penal measures imposed for offences dealt with by public prosecutor are analysed. Thus the analysis will not include a decreasingly small number of convictions for offences prosecuted by the complainant himself (about 8 thousand in 1972 and 3 thousand in 1980). Although the capital punishment, as seen from Table 1, is imposed in a few cases only, its very existence in the Polish criminal law is strongly criticized by some lawyers and criminologists. Among penal measures used by common courts the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty takes the second place after the capital punishment on the scale of severity. It is imposed in months and years (Art. 32 §2) and may range from 3 months to 15 years (art. 32 §1) and 25 years. If one analyses information on the duration of the above penalties, four characteristic elements have to be noted: (1) In 1980 for only one in 11 persons the immediate deprivation of liberty was shorter than one year (in 1975 - one in nine and one in four or five in 1972); (2) the immediate deprivation of liberty was most often imposed for the period between one and two years: over 40 per cent and in some years nearly 50 per cent of all persons had such a penalty imposed on them; (3) a long-term penalty (i.e. 3 years and more) was imposed on one person in five over the period 1975- 80 (in 1972 it was one in seven); (4) the absolute number of most severe sentences (over 10 to 15 and 25 years) was on the increase systematically till 1976. It should be particularly emphasized as from 1975 a decrease has been observed in the total number of imposing the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty. The most commonly used penal measure was deprivation of liberty with conditional suspension of the execution (Art. 73 of the Penal Code). According to Art. 75 of the Penal Code the court when suspending the execution of the penalty of deprivation of liberty can, among other things, impose one or more obligations provided for in the above article. These obligations were imposed on the persons sentenced to the penalty of deprivation of liberty more and more frequently. The courts most often obliged the sentenced persons "to refrain from abusing alcohol", "to perform specified works or render specified contributions for social purposes" and "to perform remunerated work, to pursue education or prepare himself for an occupation". What is also interesting is that the courts have ordered more and more obligations, or to put it differently, they have less and less often confined themselves to ordering one obligation only. Thus the court’s action in this respect has been intensified. Irrespective of ordering the above obligations the court suspending the execution of penalty of deprivation of liberty may, for the test period, "place the sentenced person under the supervision of a designated person, institution or social organization" (Art. 76 § 2). The fraction of those placed under supervision in the totals of liberty was stable in the early seventies (30- 31 per cent), it began to rise in 1974 and reached nearly 40 per cent in 1980. The court may conditionally suspend the execution of a penalty of deprivation of liberty of up to 2 years when sentencing for an intentional offence and of up to 3 years when sentencing for an unintentional offence. (Art. 73 §1). Over the period 1972-80 certain changes were also observed in the extent of these penalties. They were similar to those of the extent in the penalties of immediate deprivation of liberty. They can be summarized as follows: (1) a very significant fall occurred in the fraction of penalties below 1 year (from 45.7 to 12.3 per cent); (2) the most often suspended penalty of deprivation of liberty was that of 1 year (36.6 to 44 per cent); (3) the percentage of suspended penalties over 1 year and up to 2 years increased markedly (from 17.7 to 44.1 per cent). The imposition of a penalty of deprivation of liberty, both immediate and conditionally suspended, is associated with the possibility (and in some cases - an obligation) of imposing a fine in an amount from 500 to 1 000 000 zlotys (Art. 36 §2 - 4. Unfortunately, the judicial statistics do not distinguish (except for some offences) whether the fine is imposed together with immediate or suspended sentence of deprivation of liberty. It turns out that the persons sentenced for the above penalties suffered from a fine quite often and this additional burden became more and more frequent: in 1972 the percentage of penalties of unconditional or suspended deprivation of liberty was 61.1, and in 1980 - 68.1. In the period of only 8 years 1972 - 80 almost no fines were imposed up to 1 000 zlotys, their number having decreased from 13.6 thousand to 82 and the respective contributions from 15.0 to 0.1 per cent. The penalty of limitation of liberty is among the new penal measures which after some hesitation have become accepted in practice. In the period under discussion the contribution made by sentences of this penalty increased threefold: in 1980 they amounted to 18.0 per cent of all sentences. In other words, one in six persons sentenced in cases initiated by public prosecutor is punished by limitation of liberty. This penalty imposes some limitations on a person sentenced, e.g. he may not change his place of abode (Art. 33 §1), and can take three forms. One of them is an obligation of "performing unremunerated supervised work for public purposes from 20 do 50 hours per month" (Art. 34 §1). The penalty of limitation of liberty in this form was applied to 41.4 per cent of sentenced persons in 1980 as compared with 38.1 per cent in 1972. The second form is applicable only to persons employed in a socialized work establishment and consists in deducing 10 to 25 per cent of the remuneration for work for the benefit of the State Treasury (Art. 34 §2). It was applied to 46,4 per cent of sentenced persons in 1980 as compared with 58.8 per cent in 1972. The third form - most seldom applied - is used when the court directs a person not being in an employment relation to an appropriate socialized work establishment for the purpose of performing work there and deduces from 10 do 25 per cent of the remuneration for work (Art. 34 §3). It was, however, applied in 12.2 per cent of cases in 1980 as compared with 3.1 per cent in 1972. Although the penalty of limitation of liberty may be not less than 3 months and not more than 2 years (Art. 33 §1), its minimum duration of 3 months has lately been imposed in 1.1- 1.3 per cent of sentenced persons as compared with 5.2 per cent in 1972. The most commonly imposed duration was over 6 month to 1 year. In 1980 nearly one person sentenced in 3 had it imposed on for a period from 1 to 2 years while in 1972 this happened to one person in 25. Again, like the penalty of unconditional deprivation of liberty, deprivation of liberty with suspension, fine imposed together with deprivation of liberty, the penalty of limitation of liberty shows an ever marked tendency to be imposed most infrequently in its lower extent and most often in its high and highest extent. The same applies to the fine (Art. 36 §1). It can be adjudged in an amount from 500 to 25 000 zlotys, i.e. within much narrower limits than that imposed together with a penalty of deprivation of liberty. The changes which took place in the years 1972- 80 as regards the extent of the fine, resemble those which occurred in the case of a fine adjudged together with deprivation of liberty (Table 1). We shall finish our discussion of basic penalties with two pieces pf information. The imposition of the supplementary penalty only (Art. 55) was confiscation of property in 90 per cent of cases, and prohibition of operating motor driven vehicles in the remaining 10 percent. Educational and corrective measures applied (Art. 9 §3) consisted in placing in a borstal in some dozen percent of cases, which is a kind of deprivation of liberty. The largest group, about half of all on whom these measures were imposed, was placed under the supervision of a probation officer. We shall now try to formulate some general conclusions drawn from the date on the structure an extent of penal measures. We shall use four groups of indexes to present the conclusions in most concise form (Table 2). These indexes will describe the most important statistically determined aspects of Poland's penal system. The first group of indexes refers to the extent of crime known to the police. Traditionally the penal measures applied are thought of as a response to this crime. Therefore, if one wants to understand their evolution one has to look into the nature of the evolution of crime. The determination of the extent of crimes known to the police can be carried out in several ways. It can be based on the data on the offences (taken from the police and public prosecutor’s statistics) or on the data on the offenders supplied as a rule by the judicial, statistics. The data on the serious offences known to the police encompass acts chosen in an arbitrary way limited by the extent of those published in the Statistical Year Books for the years 1971- 80. The number of sentences can be determined more simply from the number of sentences for acts regarded as the most serious ones by the legislator (Art. 5 of the Penal Code). All this information is presented in the form of rates per 100 000 total population (data on the offences known to the police) or per 100 000 adult population (data on sentences). By comparing the changes in these rates two conclusions can be drawn. First, the number of serious crimes known to the police as well as that of the crime perpetrators brought to trial during the seventies was at a similar level although it showed some variations. The general rate of offences known to the police was measured in three different ways, namely the rate of crimes known to the police, the persons found guilty and the sentenced ones. It proves the relevance of two well known observations: the first one is that when the criminal case passes along the subsequent links in the chain of the justice system (police, public prosecutor’s office, court) the size of the crime known to the police becomes smaller. The second observation is that serious crimes are less susceptible to such fluctuations. The second conclusion drawn from the comparison of crime rates introduced above is that it he statement about the stable extent of crime first of all, that of most serious crime, is of greatest importance for further discussion. This statement warrants the opinion that the observed changes in the structure and intensity of penal measures cannot be accounted for by the corresponding changes in the extent and character of the crime known to the police. The reasons of these changes should be traced to changes in legal values, i.e. in the evolution of the opinions as to what kind of penal reactions form the "proper" response to definite offences against the law, what penalty is "adequate" to the amount of social danger involved in the offence and, the belief in the general deterrent effect of severe penalties. The data on the application of preliminary detention show that about one in four persons at the time of being convicted had experienced deprivation of liberty. As expected, this experience was specially common among the persons on which the court had subsequently imposed the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty. The data collected in the third part of Table 2 on the structure of the penal measures imposed provide a remainder of the changes in these measures. Among them one can observe a certain limitation of sentencing to immediate deprivation of liberty, and a much more marked decrease in the number of sentences to a suspended deprivation of liberty. The former change may be regarded as a symptom of what is so much needed in the Polish criminal justice system, i.e. of eliminating penalties associated with deprivation of liberty and the ever increasing application of penalties without deprivation of liberty in the sentencing practice, not only in verbal statements. As for the latter change it is difficult to take an unequivocal attitude. It is because one should remember that period 1972 - 80 was not only characterized by a fall in the per cent contribution of sentences of suspended deprivation of liberty but also by a rise in the per cent contribution of placing under supervision, ordering obligations, increasing the number of such obligations, imposing fines together with deprivation of liberty, the extent of which is also increasing. We shall now consider the indexes to determine the rate of the application of penal measures. Table 2 shows two such groups chosen out of a variety of others. One group is made up of the numbers of persons sentenced to deprivation of liberty per 100 thousand adult population. The second group constitutes the mean values of various penalties. The above indexes help us to focus our attention on two contradictory, in the author’s opinion, trends. One trend, to limit the imposition of the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty, is best seen in the fall in the number of sentences to this penalty (per 100 000 adult population) from 272,7 in 1972 to 172,1 in 1980, i.e. by 37 per cent. The other trend, in the opposite direction, is seen in the ’"rates" of sentences to long penalties of deprivation of liberty, i.e. 3 and over years, and particularly, 5 and over years. During only 4 years the mean penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty became longer by nearly 6 months from 19 months in 1972 to over 25 month in 1976. The tendency to augment the penalties has also manifested itself in the rise by as much as 25 per cent of the mean penalty of suspended deprivation of liberty: from about 12 months ip 1972 to about 15 months in 1980. This augmentation seems quite Irrational as it is a well-known fact that for a large majority of such penalties there is no need to have them executed. At the same time there is no evidence that the penalties imposed in the previous extent were ineffective or their lengthening had led to higher effectiveness. The next pair of mean values given in Table 2 provide information about the extent of both kinds of fine. These values must be analysed in close relation with significant devaluation of money in Poland in the seventies. Therefore, the table contains information about the mean monthly salary in the socialized economy in this country (the last line). During the period 1972- 80 the salaries increased more than twofold, but the fines increased fivefold. As early as in 1972 the mean value of either of the above fines was equal to a little over one month salary, in 1980 the fine was equal to more than a two-month salary, and the other fine amounted almost to a three-month salary; the repressiveness of the above penal measures increased markedly. We shall complete our discussion of Table 2 with one general remark. When observing the evolution of penal policy in Poland in the span of the last 25 years, two features may be distinguished. One constant tendency, though not without some hesitations and obstructions, to augment the impact of individual penal measures based almost exclusively on imposing one type of punishment. The second feature is a tendency to combine these effects by simultaneously using various kinds of punishment imposed on a sentenced person. This tendency was noticeable in the sixties, but it became more marked in the light of the present-day regulations which have opened up new and greater possibilities in this respect. The tendencies like the above in the penal policy raise some doubts as to their effectiveness and moral validity. They seem to convey impression that the penal measures in Poland have been undergoing a process of accelerated devaluation. It looks as if in order to attain the same aims of penal policy simultaneous application of the ever increasing measures in ever increasing doses should be resorted to. It is most doubtful whether such a devaluation really takes place as similar results were obtained earlier by means of less severe penal measures. One cannot escape the impression that the present penal policy in Poland is characterised by a certain extravagancy manifesting itself in the above accumulation of various forms of repressiveness instead of making an attempt to use them in an alternative way. The future development of Polish penal policy calls for a fundamental analysis and gradual reorientation.

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