Archiwum Kryminologii (Archives of Criminology)

7-108

Authors: Andrzej Siemaszko

In the years 1978-1979, a study of the extent and causes of deviant behaviour in older schoolchildren was carried out in Warsaw which included three thousand persons. boys and girls. Since there was a lack of comprehensive studies of the extent and causes of social maladjustment of the rural, youth in Poland' it was decided that this study should be repeated in typically agricultural regions. The study, carried out in late l981, was aimed at the following: to construct a Polish version of the self-report delinquency scale, to estimate the extent of deviant behaviour in the analyzed populations, and to determine the variables particularly closely related to deviant behaviour. The stratified random sample consisted of 2,144 persons (1,7O2 boys and 429 girls). They were students of 86 different grades of various secondary schools, and were aged 14- 19. The study was carried out by an anonymous questionnaire which contained 124 questions; among them. there were 42 questions - about the various types of deviant behaviour, while the remaining ones concerned the separate groups of independent variables. The data on the following groups of independent variables were collected:1. the attitudes towards the family, the past and present and future family situation, and the character of interactions within the family; 2. deviance in the environment; 3. the attitudes towards friends, the character of interactions with friends and the intensity of bonds with the reference groups; 4. the attitudes towards school and the learning progress; 5. attitudes towards the legal norms; 6. the appraisal of life prospects and of the chances for fulfilment of aims and aspirations by means of legitimate methods; 7. the system of values, outlook on life and attitude towards moral norms; 8. engagement in social, cultural and sports activities and the like. A distinct group were the so-called alcohol variables, analyzed separately and the socio-demographic variables. Moreover, the questionnaire contained a ninc-question lye scale. The dependent variable was an index of 42 questions about various types of deviant behaviour. The possible answers to all the questions were indentical: "never", "once or twice", "several times", "a dozen or more times" and "more often". The sum of the respondents' affirmative answers to the questions about deviant behaviour formed the so-called variety scale. The frequency scale resulted from summing up all types of answers to each of the questions. Since the correlation between the scales of variety and frequency exceeded r :0.90, the variety scale was used in the analysis. This was due to its simplicity and a greater easiness of statistical interpretation. Three groups of deviant behaviour were distinguished for the purposes of the analysis. The first of them were manifestations of behaviour given a working term of insubordination. Though not forbidden by the law, such behaviour is improper in consideration of age or represents a challenge to the authority of the parents" guardians. teachers etc. For instance. the following types of behaviour were included here: staying away from home all night without the parents' consent. running away from home, or smoking before the age of 14. The second group were acts of "dishonesty" also not penalized as a rule– e.g. failure to give a lost thing back to its owner, or steadling rides. The third and most important group were acts that bore the character of transgressions or offences. Among others, this category included brawls. beatings and other offences against person. robbery thefts. breaking and entering, receiving stolen property, and other offences against property. The examined young persons committed the following acts, most frequently: smoking before the age of 14. stealing rides. failure to give the change left from shopping back-to the parents (over 80f of affirmative answers), failure to give the change back to a shopkeeper, failure to give back a found object (over 70% of affirmatie answers). misdemeanour at school. beating. participation in a brawl (over 50% of affirmative answers). Most seldom they admited taking drugs, picking public telephones and slipping out of a pub without paying the bill (less than 10%, of the examined persons). Generally, about 35% of the examined boys (i.e. 583 persons) admitted having committed at least once a half of the, 42 acts included in the questionnaire. over 20% of boys had a high, and 7.7% a Very high level of deviance. In the Warsaw study. a very high level of deviance was found in 6.1%, of boys. Therefore, the percentage of boys with a high level of deviance is similar in both studies and nearing other Polish estimates of the extent of social maladjustment of the school youth. In the present study, hypotheses were verified which were derived from some of the most popular theories of deviance: i.a., Sutherland's theory of differential associations, Hirschi's control theory, Merton's aims – means theory, (and the related conceptions of Cloward and Ohlin), Sykes and Matza's theory of neutralization. Also certain hypotheses were verified indirectly that were derived from the Gluecks' multifactor conception and the labeling theory: The major findings were as follows: Family situation Four items of the questionnaire made together the scale of ties with the family. These were the following questions: "Do your parents try to understand your problems?'', "Do your parents trust you?, ,,Do you generally like to discuss your plans with your parents?", "Do you trust your parents?". The scale of family ties revealed a rather high negative correlation with the deviance scale (r = -0.34 for boys and. R = -0.28 for girls). It appeared that the lesser the sense of ties with the parents. the higher the tendency to deviant behaviour. Two questions concerned the general apprasal of the atmosphere at home and the degree of the respondents' identification with their families. A strong interdependence was found between the way of defining the atmosphere- at home and the level of deviance. .The respondents who scored highest on the deviance scale, defined their atmosphere at home as bad several times more frequently, and much more seldom as good or very good, as compared with the others. As regards the question whether the respondents would like their own future families to be similar to their parental homes, the distribution of answers was alike. Among the respondents who would not like it at all or rather would not like it, there were nearly three times more of those who scored highest on the deviance scale. The global index of the attitude towards the family (constructed with the answers to all questions concerning the ties and identification with the family) revealed a negative and rather high correlation with the deviance scale, both in the case of boys (r = -0.30) and of girls (r = -0.26). Thus it appeared that deviant behaviour is inversely related to family ties and identification. Those of the examined persons who revealed a nelative attitude towards their families scored significantly higher on the scale of deviance as compared with those whose appraisal of their homes was favourable. Deviance of the environment and attitudes towards friends There were four questions that concerned deviance in the environment, one of which ("Has any member of your closest family ever been convicted by the court?'') concerned the perceived intensity of deviance in the family. Both the boys and the girls whose family member had a criminal record had the highest level of deviance. This finding is of a great theoretical as well as practical value since it demonstrates the groundlessness of the frequently accepted assumption that the family is always the source of pro-social patterns of behaviour. Three questions concerned deviance of the environment, their construction aimed at reflecting various aspects of the problem both as regards the subjective and the objective point of view: the different intensity of deviance and range of environment. The questions were: "Did you ever happened to have problems at school, boarding-school or at home because of your friends?'', "Did any of your acquaintances have a case in a juveni1e court or court of general criminal jurisdiction?", "Are there many young persons in your environment who have troubles with the police?". The distribution of answers to these questions markedly differentiated the examined populations in respect to deviance. In the groups distinguished according to their level of deviance significant differences could be found as far as the deviance of the environment is concerned. The respondents whose level of deviance was the highest appeared to move significantly more often with decidedly negative circles. A scale of deviance in the environment was constructed of the above questions. Of all the scales included in the study, this one showed the highest correlation with deviant behaviour, both in the case of boys (r = 0.56) and of girls (r = 0.36). Instead, the distribution of answers to the questions about emotional ties with the reference groups, the degree of identification with these groups and the emotional stability failed to differentiate the examined populations in respect of the degree of deviance; this finding was a surprise. Attitudes towards the law There were three items in the questionnaire that concerned the attitude towards the law: "The law should be observed"; "Most of the acts people term offences actually cause no harm at all to anybody''' and "In order to get a position in life, lawless behaviour is indispensable"; the latter two were at the same time an operationalization of the Sykes and Matza's techniques of neutralization. Opinions denying or aggreeing with the statement concerning the harmlessness of offences were the 1east important in the differentiation of the examined populations in respect to the level of deviance. This variable was also least correlated with the general scale of altitudes towards the law. On the other hand, the remaining two variables of this groups did differentiate the respondents well in respect of the level of deviant behaviour. The most discriminating was the question in what situations the law should be observed. The respondents who were\of opinion that "law should always be observed irrespective of the situation'' appeared to reveal the lowest level of deviance. Instead, among the resolute legal nonconformists (,,you can break the law whenever you are certain that you will escape punishment"), those prevailed who scored highest on the deviance scale. The scale of attitudes towards the law was moderately but significantly correlated with the deviance scale, though the relationship of the presently discussed scale with that of deviance was less marked than it was the case with the scales of deviance of environmental and of the attitudes towards the family. The perceived life-chances and material situation Two of the questions concerned the perceived life prospects that can be fulfilled by legitimate means: "what is your estimation of your life prospects as compared with those of the others?", and "Will you be able to get a good job after school?". The differences in the distributions of answers to the above questions in respect of the level of deviance were not great; however. they were significant. The "worst" respondents somewhatimore often had pessimistic, and the "best" ones - optimistic views. However, the constructed index of legitimate opportunities (which consisted of the above two questions failed to reveal a significant relation to deviant behaviour. This means that the sense of blocked opportunities for promotion and success (operationalized as above) is not related to deviant behaviour. The more so as the question about the respondents' estimation of their family material standing - though it differentiated the answers in respect of the level of deviance - also revealed a very small correlation with the scale of deviance (about 0.10). Perception of life prospects and opportunities was also analyzed from a somewhat different point of view. Namely, the respondents were asked whether in their opinion connections were necessary to get a god job. and whether it was possible to succeed in life through good honest work. These questions composed the variable "illegitimate opportunities". Constructed so as to make it complementary in relation to the variable "legitimate opportunities". An attempt was also made to ascertain to what degree this variable was correlated with the attitude towards the law. The questions about the chances of fulfilment of success goals through illegitimate means differentiated the examined populations in respect of the level of deviance. The "worst" respondents stated significantly more frequently that honest work did not lead to success in life. and that connections were necessary to get a good job. It was interesting to find that the variable "illegitimate opportunities'' was moderately correlated both with the attitude towards the law and with the "legitimate opportunities''. It was a moderately good predictor of deviant behaviour since it was correlated with the deviance scale at about 0.20 for boys as well as for girls. Values, moral principles and outlook on life. Values treasured most frequently (love, friendship. happy home - over 75% (of all choices) failed to differentiate the examined populations in respect of their deviance. Of the remaining ten values, deep religious faith was chosen most frequently by the "best'' respondents, and acquiring individuality as well as learning to "be oneself' - by the ,,worst'' ones. The question about the stability of moral principles (three "types" of morality were distinguished: strict, situational and nihilistic) completely failed to differentiate the group of respondents Separated according to their Scores on the scale of deviance. There were among the moral nihilist as many of the "worst" as of the "best" respondents. The possible answers concerning the attitude towards religion ranged from: "I 'm a decided adherent of secular views" to: "I'm deeply religious". Generally speaking. This question provided but a poor differentiation in respect of the level of deviance. Since nearly 90% of the examined persons were at least "not-Church-going believers". Those of the examined persons who were deeply religious were an exception. In this group, the level of deviance of this group was decidedly the lowest. Involvement in conventional activities Of the three questions about activities consistent with the norms (active participation in youth organizations, hobbies, participation in organized leisure activities), none appeared to differentiate the examined group in respect of the level of deviance. Instead, the questions about school achievements ("Are you a good, bad or average student?") and about learning motivation ("What is for you the importance of being a good student?") were strongly related to deviance. The "worst" respondents much more often declared themselves to be bad students and admitted not caring about learning. At the same time, the variable of motivation was a much better predictor of deviance (r= -0.27) than the actual learning achievements (r= -0.11). Of the considered models of deviance, the most strongly confirmed was the theory of differential associations. This may be concluded from the following premises. Firstly, the variable of "devince of the environment'' and its separate elements revealed the highest correlation with the deviance scale. The test of significance of the differences of the value of correlation coefficients justifies the rejection of the null hypothesis as to their random character. Both the question about deviance among the closest friends, and those about deviance in a broader surroundings. revealed a much stronger correlation with deviant behaviour than the remaining variables. Also the question about deviance in the family appeared relate to deviant behaviour. In the light of the results obtained, not only a deviant peer group, but also a deviance in the family seem to be conducive to deviance. The adherents of the opinion that deviance precedes deviant associations would find it difficult to argue that it was the deviance in the examined persons that led to deviance in their families. Also the way in which the variable ,, deviance of the environment" is correlated with other variables speaks against the opinion that deviance precedes deviant associations since this variable a also revealed rather high correlation with deviant attitudes, the attitude towards learning at school and towards the family. Moreover, the relationship between the variable "deviance of environment" and ,,deviant behavior” was found to increase with age which is consistent with the known of importance of peer groups in the life of youths and their growing effect. On the other hand the result in question is difficult to interpret in the terms of alternative hypotheses: the "criminal tendencies" or ,.deviant impulses’’ should after all be constant and do not change with time. Still another finding should be mentioned here. In spite of the fact that girls generally have stronger ties with their parents as compared with boys, the correlation of the attitudes towards the family with deviant behaviour was found to be smaller in the group of girls than in the group of boys. Instead, against expectations, the deviance of the environment also revealed the highest correlation with deviant behaviour in the group of girls. Hirschi's control theory was much less confirmed by the findings of the present study. Of the four elements of bonds only the attachment to the, parents were rather strongly supported. On the other hand, hypotheses derived from the remaining elements of Hirschi.s conception were not confirmed at all (e.g. no confirmation at all was found of Hirsci’s argument that high degree of involvement in conventional types of activity is negatively related to deviance) or confirmed but to a small extent (e.g. the relationship between the school achievements and deviance). Besides the attitudes towards the family, only the attitude towards learning at school proved to be consistent with Hirschi's theory. On the other hand, in spite o| the principal hypothesis of the control theory the most isolated respondents failed to reveal a significantly higher level of deviance. Thus the conception of a solitary deviant promoted by Hirschi appears not tanable in the light of the obtained results. To sump up, if one had to decide basing on the findings of the present study which of the discussed theories was confirmed to a greater degree, it could be concluded that the theory of differential associations was confirmed to greater extent than Hirschi's control theory. On the other had, the results of the study do not seem to speak for Merton’s aims-means theory or the conception of differential opportunities of Cloward and Ohlin. Also some of the statements of the labelling approach failed to find confirmation.

141-172

Authors: Michał Porowski, Andrzej Rzepliński

A reform consists in the intention to introduce changes into a given system of social institutions which would not be aimed at its radical and qualitative transformation but would resolve themselves into improvement or rationalization. The reformatory thought may be inspired by conservative, liberal or radical attitudes which determine the motives, limits and profoundness of the changes. In the present paper, a conception of a reform of the prison system has been presented which would assimilate its contents to the substance of punishment, i.e. retribution in its humanistic interpretation and the values that come to the foreground of the axiological system of our times. These values are included in the notion of the dignity of a human being which results from treating man as the aim in itself and a being endowed with free will. The authors have assumed in the present paper that when reforming the prison system, all of its elements can be manipulated with the following exceptions: deprivation of the isolated person of his right to decide about his place of abode, and his duty to stay in a place determined by the authority which executes the penalty. Therefore, the following things can be changed: the ideological grounds of the system, i.e. its aims, functions and the role it plays in the global system of interests; external organization of the system, i.e. its -management regulation of interactions between the isolated and the isolating communities, organization the staff; material equipment of the system, i.e. buildings and their architecture, the arrangements concerning security, economy nd production. The authors oppose the conception which has been called here the reason of humanized retribution to the two contemporary variants of the prison policy. Ideologists of the first of them (the variant oriented at a psycho-social corrective treatment) model prisons having in view the future law abiding functioning of the offender in the society. An individual is here but a ,.human material" which is to undergo transformation as a result of the application of adequate measures. Ideologists of the second variant (one oriented at education through work) emphasize the social needs not connected with the prisoner who is treated as a quantum of man power that can be used. Retribution is inherent in the prison policy irrespective of the intention of its promotors and executors. After all it is one of the elements of the execution of penalty. The moral value of retribution resulting from a just punishment was recognized in the philosophy and dogmatic assumptions of pastoral theology. Recognizing punishment to be the offender’s personal right, we at the same time recognize his dignity due to a rational person. Therefore, punishment based on retribution certifying to the subjectivity and dignity of an human being, is tantamount to the humane attitude. To render possible the realization of the reason of humanized retribution, definite conditions have to emerge. These are: consistently grounding the punishment on the responsibility for the commission of a given act: this excludes the use of the perpetrator’s way of life, state or personality, and opinions as the essential criteria for meeting out punishment, and leads to the imposition of prison sentences for the most serious crimes only; stopping both the building of new prisons an the artificial increase of the capacity of the existing ones; overcoming the barrier of functional connections between prisons and state enterprises which use the immates cheap and first of all easily disposable man power. The reform of the prison policy inspired by the reason of humanized retribution can be expressed in three fundamental postulates which are: (i) the principle of the rule of law and that of mutual respect for the legel status of the prison staff and of the inmates; (ii) the principle of respect for the prisoners dignity; (iii) and the principle of minimalization of isolation of the prison system and of increasing its integration with the outside social environment. The rule of law which is the content of the first principle is the order not only of an absolute observance of the law, but also of the consistence of its contents with the achievements of civilization and morals of the global , society. Thus, on the one hand, the importance of the law as an instrument to eliminate arbitrariness of decisions from the process of execution of penalty is emphasized here, and, on the other hand, the postulate acquires justification that the prisoners' rights - instead of resulting from discretional decisions - be the articulation of the socially accepted values and their realization in accordance with the spirit of times. Thus the prisoners rights become the content and at the same time the safeguard of an humane attitude towards him. The recognition of the rule of law as the central principle of the prison policy is justified by the very reason of humanized retribution. According to this principle. the process of execution of the deprivation o [ liberty is treated as a sui generis legal relationship between the prison management and the prisoner. the safeguard o[ which is the principle of mutual respect for the both parties legal positions. The construction of a definite catalogue of these rights is the task of the legislation. In any case, the prisoner retains his rights to the extent appropriate of any citizen in barracks. The only thing the penal isolation eliminates is the personal participation in the outside social life. A specific prison right is the inmates' right to use the period of isolation in the way that would be most helpful for their evelopment, which means, among other things the opportunity to participate in treatment alternatives offerred to them, or the conditions for individual development. For the principle of mutual respect of legal statuses to be realized, the prisoner should be equipped with effective means of execution of his rights. This is dictated by two reasons. Firstly, the conception of the process of execution of the penalty of deprivation of liberty as a legal relationship between the prisoner and the management naturally brings the normative factor. to the fore; secondly, prison-as an extremely dense social environment-releases tensions increased by the particural susceptibility to aggression on the part of both of its communities. The prison policy is a negation of the principle of respect for the prisoner’s human dignity in the present interpretation, its contents being adjusted to the Spartan attitude towards men in which an human being has an instrumental Value only. Therefore, he may be modeled after a freely chosen pattern by means of open repression, behavioural conditioning and other kinds of manipulation. On the other hand, the opposite Socratean model of influencing the individual is consistent with the authors assumptions. According to this model, the principal means of the so-called prisoners resocialization are discussed in the paper (work, education, access to culture, as well as punishment and award), in the effort to define them in such a way as never to disturb the ideological contents of the Socratean attitude towards the development of the individual. Prisons are social institutions for which everybody is responsible, though to a varying degree. This gives significance to the principle of minimum of isolation and integration of the prison with the outside social milieu. In this connection, a detailed discussion has been included in the present paper of the forms of isolation (internal, external), the effects of its accomplishment (material and social), and the effects of alienation of penal institutions ( totalitarization, prisonization, exlusion of social control, strict control of contacts with the outside social milieu). To sum up, the approach presented in the present paper is aimed at overcoming the stereotype that consist in a critical analysis of the separate elements of the prison system without a comprehensive appraisal of its theoretical and practical values. This stereotype does nothing but consolidate the system the value of which has never been verified, and results in the prison policy becoming more and more eclectic.

223-260

Authors: Jan Nelken

Both the anthropological school of Lombroso, established in the late half of the 19th century, and the sociological school established by Ferri and other criminologists ( Liszt, Prins, van Hammel, Tarde) met with a keen interest in Poland. However, the anthropological school was criticized, as it was the case in other countries too, both by the classical school of penal law, and from the sociological point of view. A critical analysis of the views of Lombroso and his successors was made by the leading representative of the classical school of penal law in Poland in those days Krzymuski who postulated that recognition of the individual’s free will to be condition of his penal liability, Krzymuski opposed free will to be conception of a born criminal propagated by Lombroso. Lombroso’s theory was also criticized by Krzywicki, a sociologist and anthropologist who considered the former’s approach towards the conditions of crime to be too narrow, leaving out of account those resulting from the social and economic conditions. On the other hand, Polish criminologists considered it to be Lombroso’s unquestionable merit that he had called attention to the necessity of studying the offender's personality, and in this way initiated the modern criminology. Opinions of various sociological schools were discussed in the Polish literature and accepted by the majority of authors starting from the close of the 19th century. In particular, the most accepted one was the opinion that offence is a result of both individual and social factors, and the aim of punishment meted out by the court should be not only to deter. the perpetrator from committing offences, but also to reeducate him. Due to the fact that in the 19th-centuiy judicial practice the sentence depended on the extent of damage caused by the offender, it was emphasized in the Polish literature that punishment should take into consideration also the offender's individual features, as it is only then that it can fulfil its tasks (Stebelski). With the accepted division of offenders into professional and causal, the fact was stressed that - if the offender reveals a tendency to relapse into crime- the measures the society applies towards him should be more drastic since the society has to defend itself against incorrigible criminals in an effective way. Instead, more lenient measures should be applied towards causal offenders, such measures being sufficient for their reeducation. In the period between the two world wars, criminology in Poland became a separate branch and extended its range; the establishment of the Polish Criminological Society in 1921 and of the Department of Criminology at the Free Polish University in 1922, later (I932) transformed into the Criminological Institute, contributed to this situation. The Polish criminology of that period faced the task of studying and defining in detail the basic factors of crime: individual (endogenous) and social (exogenous). This was related to the necessity to learn about the sources of crime with the aim of its effective control by means of preparing a Penal Code and properly shaping the criminal policy (Wróblewski). When studying the individual factors of crime, particular attention was paid to the psychopathic personality. Criminal psychopaths were believed to suffer from a pathological moral defect resulting from their underdevelopment in the sphere of emotions. It was stated that psychopaths who committed an offence should not be recognized as mentally irresponsible (Nelken). Psychopathy cannot be treated psychiatrically; on the other hand, intensified resocialization of the offender is necessary here, conditions for this treatment created during his prison term. At the same time, an adequate segregation of prisoners should be applied based on the psychopathological criterion (Łuniewski). The science of the offender's personality was called criminal biology; it dealt with the physical and mental structure of the offender. Criminal biology was to make use of the general anthropological, psychological and psychiatric data as well as those gathered by means of other clinical methods. Aimed at gathering comprehensive data concerning the whole of the offender’s mental and physical properties, criminal biology should not confine itself to a mere specification of his various traits: it should also study their origin, methodically examining the development of these properties in the milieu in which the offender’s personality was formed. Thus the criminal-biological research must be made from the psychological and medical as well as sociological points of view. Particular importance was attached to detailed environmental research in the study of juvenile delinquents (Batawia). In the early Thirties, the Ministry of Justice initiated criminological- biological research in prisons. The research was carried out by special commissions with the use of a specially prepared comprehensive questionnaire . The greatest part was played by psychiatric and psychological examination. The criminal-biological research in prisons was interrupted by the outbreak of the war. In connection with the criminogenic role of alcoholism, criminologists spoke for a considerable reduction of production and sale of spirits. Moreover, an opinion was expressed that a commission of an offence in the state of a normal (the so-called physiological) intoxication should not result in the recognition of the offender as mentally irresponsible. Only pathological intoxication may be considered from the point of view of irrespossibility. The offender should not avail himself of his intoxication as a mitigating circumstance (Nelken). The scientists opposed the introduction of compulsory sterilization which was to be applied toward persons whose children could inherit serious pathological traits from them. The opposition had both scientific and humanistic grounds (Łuniewski, Nelken). Compulsory sterilization was not introduced. The main trend of the Polish criminology in the period between the wars corresponded with the sociological school which took into account the relationship between the endogenous (biological) and the exogenous (social) factors in the origins of crime. A vast majority of Polish criminologists opposed the conception of a “born criminal” put forward by Lombroso. Some of the Polish scholars of the period between the wars who used the term “criminal anthropology” (e.g. Rabinowicz), emphasized the evolution of this science which differed from the Lombroso’s doctrine, and postulated the social milieu as a factor be largely taken into consideration in the studies on the causes of crime. In the Polish criminology of those days, the stress was laid principally on criminal biology due to the fact that the internal factor is usually less conspicuous and more difficult to prove than the external one in the etiology of crime. It was emphasized that not all of persons who found themselves in unfavourable social conditions turned offenders (Neymark, Lemkin); therefore, the biological (somato psychological) factor determines the individual’s moral resistance to the unfavourable external conditions. On the other hand, also the social factor, in addition to the biological one, was included in the causes of crime, due to the considerable impact of living conditions on the human mind. The opinion was that - though the etiology of an offence is usually determined by a combination of the external and internal factors - in each case one should attempt to find out which of these factors prevailed in the origin of a given act; this should also be taken into account in the criminological prognosis. In general, the chance for correction is smaller in the case of an offender of the endogenous type who requires a more thorough and longer resocialization as compared with one of the exogenous type; this should be taken into account by the court when meting out punishment (Rabinowicz, Lemkin). The Polish Penal Code of 1932 (in force till 1969) was an expression of the compromise between the classical school of penal law and the sociological school. In the code, many legal structures included in the General Part were formulated in accordance with the achievements of the science of penal law in its classical form; this concerns particularly the definition or the essence of crime and the principles of liability including that of subjectivism as responsibility for a culpable act. A compromising character was given in the code to meting out punishment which was conditioned not only by the weight of the offence according to the classical principle of retribution and deterrence, but also by the offender's personality and the life he had led hitherto according to the instructions of the sociological school (Art. 54). The discussed code did not adopt from the Italian positivism the so-called ante-criminal prevention, i.e.. the application of sanctions towards an individual who has not committed any prohibited act yet. Also indeterminate sentences were not adopted in the Code in relation to penalties and not protective measures, as this would be contradictory to the principle of individualization of punishment. Under the influence of the sociological school the Code contained of a possibility of suspension of ęxceution of the penalty, and of its extraordinary rnitigation, as well as the release from prison before the expiration of term (separately regulated by the law of 1927-) and a possibility to mete out a more severe penalty in the case of recidivists. In addition to the medical security measures, which consisted in the commitment of the offender to a mental hospital and which the court could apply towards the persons guilty of acts committed in the state of mental irresponsibility or decreased responsibility, the code introduced - basing on the postulates of the sociological school-isolating security measures applied towards the offenders whose acts were connected with reluctance to work, and towards recidivists and professional as well as habitual criminals if their staying at liberty endangered the legal order. The isolating security measures were applied together with the penalty (not instead of it), the necessity of their application connected with the ‘’ state of danger", i.e. the perpetrator's probability of commission of further offences; in the criminological literature, subjective and state of objective criteria of the danger were distinguished (Strasman). According to Art. 84 of the Penal Code, offenders of this type were committed to a special institution for at least 5 years, and the court decided after the termination of each such period whether it was necessary to prolong the commitment for the next five years. In the Penal Code of 1932, also the measures applied towards juvenile delinquents were divided into educational measures on the one hand, and commitment to a corrective institution on the other hand, depending on the juvenile's age and of his possible discernment or lack there of when committing the forbiden act.