Archiwum Kryminologii (Archives of Criminology)

61-77

Authors: Stanisław Mordwa

Spatial analysis of crime distribution has a long tradition. In general, studies concerning this issue usually focused on compiling thematic maps. Some more advanced researching methods and techniques were popularised only after personal computers became widespread and GIS software came into broader use. One of the research procedures now available thanks to this development was spatial autocorrelation, which is the subject of this paper. In practice, spatial autocorrelation is about the degree of correlation between an observed variable in a given location with the same variable in a different location: the method allows to illustrate concentration areas of an analysed phenomenon in space, or the lack of such areas. The article first presents the theoretical and practical basis for the notion of autocorrelation. Following other researchers, it was assumed that the fundamental reason for spatial relations to emerge, i.e. spatial autocorrelation, are the interactions taking place among neighbouring objects in a space. This warrants to conclude that the intensity of a phenomenon analysed in one spatial unit exerts some effect (stimulating or destimulating) on the intensity of the same phenomenon in neighbouring units of space. This is confirmed in Waldo Tobler's first law of geography: “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things”. By studying spatial autocorrelation, one may discover three different situations (fig. 1): a) positive autocorrelation – when units of high value neighbour units of high value of the same factor (hot spots), and low value units are found near each other at the same time (cold spots); b) negative autocorrelation – when high value units neighbour low value units of the same factor and vice versa; c) no autocorrelation – when no principle is de-tected, as a unit of high value is neighboured by units of varied level of the factor in question – both high and low. In order to study the proneness of a phenomenon to create autocorrelation, one should first establish the nature of spatial relations taking place between spatial units – meaning the closeness (intensity) of neighbourhood. The relations take the form of spatial weight matrices (fig. 2) in which queen contiguity or rook contiguity is used. The weights can also be defined based on the threshold distance or k-nearest neighbours. Due to the intensity of social-spatial contacts, it was decided that the best effects in analysing criminal activity will be obtained with the use spatial weight matrices in queen contiguity. The assumption was that the distribution of pathological behaviours within a city, it is the direct contact between people living nearby that is important; the existence of formal or informal boundaries (blocks, estates, neighbourhoods, etc.) was considered irrelevant. A formal assessment of autocorrelation can be conducted with a set of appropriate indicators analysed globally or locally.

95-135

Authors: Magdalena Grzyb, Ewa Habzda-Siwek

Gender gap in crime, that is the claim that women tend to commit less crimes than men, has been the subject of criminological research for years. The gender gap is found throughout the world, not excluding Poland. Scholars dealing with the issue mainly focus on two aspects of the problem. First, they try to find out why women commit fewer crimes than men, which means the very gender gap is their key concern. Second, they try to clarify and interpret any potential changes in this disproportion observed over time; in particular this relates to the narrowing of the gap that can be noted in the official statistics (especially in the US) over the last decades. Based on publicly available police statistics for the years 1992-2011 on persons suspected of: murder (Article 148 Penal Code), bodily injury or harm to the bodily functions or severe health disturbance (Articles 156 and 157 Penal Code), brawling or assault (Articles 158 and 159 Penal Code) and the so-called aggravated crimes (Articles 280, 281 and 282 Penal Code), the authors decided to identify the size of the gap between offending men and women involved in chosen violent crimes in Poland and to check if the difference changes over time. The main focus was devoted to finding out if the gender gap in selected types of crimes in Poland is changing (narrowing), as it is the case in the western countries. Some results of previous research, conducted mostly in the US, show that the disproportion has been shrinking over the last several decades. Two hypotheses are offered by researches to explain the trend. The first one, referred to as the Behaviour Change Hypothesis emphasises the fact that over the last few decades women have become more socially active and they are becoming more similar to men in their behaviour, which leads to increased readiness to display aggressive behaviours, and this is reflected in criminal records. The hypothesis could illustrate the actual changes in women behaviour and evolution of gender roles. According to the other hypothesis, the Policy Change Hypothesis, the observed change does not stem from the fact that male behaviour patterns are adopted by women, but can rather from the changing perception of violence and greater pressure on law enforcement bodies to prosecute every, even the most minuscule acts of violence, regardless of the age or sex of the perpetrator. The analysis of data on Poland was preceded with a short review of the contemporary criminological concepts concerning gender and offending, with the aim to investigate their potential in explaining the qualitative and quantitative differences in criminal activity of men and women. The authors devoted special attention to: the T. Hirschis control theory, J. Hagans theory of control-power, the general strain theory by R. Agnew (including the concept of L. Broidy and R. Agnew concerning women offending exclusively), theories of differentiating social roles, J.W. Messeschmidts patriarchal society theory and the gendered theory of female offending by D. Steffensmaier. Through analysing the available data, the authors came to the conclusion that in three out of four researched violent crime types, the number of women suspects was growing faster than that of men. The extent and dynamics of these changes over time depends on the type of analysed offences. As far as murder is concerned, gender structure is fairly stable, but a general downward trend was observed in the number of persons suspected of murder, and the trend seems stronger in women than men. In the bodily injury related crimes, a growing share and higher dynamics rate was recorded in women than in men. For brawling and assault, we observed an increasing share of women among the suspects, however, this is attributed to the fact that the number of male suspects is growing, too. It should be noted that the growing share of women in suspects is a phenomenon most vivid in the recent years, which may indicate that the manner of reacting (or the policy) to acts perpetrated by women has been changing. The increase may be due to the school violence awareness programmes and to emergence of minor offenders preventive groups set up by police. As to aggravated crimes, the women offending is on a dynamic rise too, with only slight cumulative increase in the number of female suspects. Over the recent years, despite the growing dynamics factor, the number of women changes only slightly, which al- lows to assume that the growing share of women is mainly due to the falling number of men being suspects in aggravated crimes. The authors believe that the changes in women and young females’ offending are due to the transforming behaviour patterns in context of cultural aspects of gender, and to the way in which breaking the law by women and female adolescents is seen and countered. On the Polish ground, the key factors that modified the manner of reaction to such type of crime are believed to be: the broadening definition of violence (legal and penal control over incidents taking place in schools or private premises, especially homes, where women would display aggressive behaviours more often, and recording more lenient forms of violence), organizational changes in police and law enforcement policies (such as employing more women personnel, which may result in more equal treatment of women by law enforcement bodies and establishment of specialised crime prevention units devoted to minors). Moreover, another structural change may prove important, i.e. the educational reform in Poland and the introduction of gimnazjum (junior secondary schools), which meant that the age at which pupils changed the peer environment became lower. Building up a social position in a new group of peers may lead to infringement of social norms and law. Social sensitization campaigns dealing with violence and institutional activities to persuade school teachers to react to any act of violence and report even negligible cases to police (school authorities were more eager to report such incidents), could also play a role in the increased number of juvenile offenders among violent crime perpetrators. To sum up, all the above factors and systemic changes could have led to a greater “visibility” of women and adolescent females in the official crime statistics, yet such increased representation of women in violent crime offenders does not necessarily mean that women presently commit more crimes than before. Undoubtedly, the analysis of the obtained data allows to conclude that, when investigating the dependency between the gender and violent crime offending, one must take into consideration an additional factor, which is the age of perpetrators. The narrowing gender gap is probably smaller in younger age groups. Further in-depth qualitative research should be done in order to establish if an actual cultural change has taken place in girls as a result of reformulated womens social role paradigms, thus resulting in their increased readiness to display aggressive behaviours.

161-191

Authors: Maryla Koss-Goryszewska

The article presents results of an analysis on Polish courts' judgements passed in criminal cases between 1997 and 2009 concerning human trafficking, i.e. former Article 253§1 and 204§4 Penal Code, conducted with an aim to investigate the image of the party injured as a result of such crime. The research included 59 court cases concerning sexual abuse of women, in which a judgement of conviction (either final and binding or not) was passed. The aim of the research was to the reconstruct the process in which a victim of women trafficking is seen by judges, to analyse the language used by judges in dealing with the victims, and to check if there is a specific model or models in the manner the victims' image is seen by judges. As part of this research, an analysis of semantic fields and qualitative analysis were conducted. The conclusions from the former show that the language used by judges when referring to the crime victims is highly diversified: ranging from formal, official registers ('the injured party', 'women', 'witness'), to vernacular and hardly formal, or even vulgar ('white slaves', 'roadside hookers'). As long as the first of the above registers does not carry any judgemental aspect in describing victims of human trafficking, the other style proves how negative the image is: one of a prostitute or a naïve, reckless girl. The semantic field analysis showed that among the expressions referring to the victims, the ones suggesting that the women got what they deserved were predominant. This language contains an element of the victim's causative involvement, suggesting that the women had some part of the blame for the circumstances, or that the circumstances were not as threatening or traumatising. It is often emphasised that the victims themselves agreed to travel, or had had prostitution experience before. Interesting conclusions can be drawn from analysis of semantic field equivalents, or in other words, the expressions used in lieu of the word 'victim'. Two groups emerge from among them: one, negative judgemental language used towards the injured party, and two, neutral. In the former group expressions such as: 'subject of trade', 'social outcast', 'property', 'human merchandise', 'merchandise subject to', 'a working girl', 'ladies of the evening', 'girls' are found. A considerable portion of these expressions indicates that the human trafficking victims are seen as de facto prostitutes ('prostitutes', 'roadside hookers', 'ladies of the evening'). Another thing that draws attention is the register of the language, with examples of colloquial or even vulgar words being used, which is certainly improper in documents of such importance. The fact that judges used inverted commas when they opting for some of these expressions in writing cannot serve as an excuse.

213-246

Authors: Konrad Buczkowski

The insurance market is the area of business where fraud is attempted most frequently. Most painful to insurers are undue claims filed for damages under insurance contracts. Insurance related crimes are socially accepted, hence not condemned within a community. Despite their considerably harmful social potential, they are not sufficiently prosecuted, which partly stems from the conduct of insurance companies, who – in consideration of their positive image – are not eager to admit that they have fallen victims to fraud. This article presents a broad analysis of statistical data on the crime under Article 298 of the Penal Code and presents results of research on pretrial proceedings and cases concluding with court verdict ruling against the perpetrator of an insurance fraud. An analysis of the statistical data showed a significant decrease (since 2007) in the number of proceedings instigated under Article 298 Penal Code. The reason behind this phe-nomenon may be that this type of acts are classified as crime under Article 286 Penal Code, i.e. 'classic' fraud. Generally speaking, proceedings instigated under Article 298 Penal Code have accounted for a very low percentage of all proceedings over the entire decade – 0.02%. The aim of the criminological research presented in the article was to show the practical side of protecting the insurance market against fraudulent conduct of insured parties; also to attempt to find out if the penal regulation is appropriate, if prosecution under Article 298 Penal Code is correct, and finally, if any changes: be them legislative, to prosecution or penal policies, are necessary to provide effective protection for the insurance industry. In the file research conducted, the key assumption was to cover a possibly largest group of events defined as insurance fraud. In stage 1 of the research, the proceedings included all those conducted between 1995 – 2003 under Article 4 of the Trade Protection Act of 12.10.1994 and under Article 298 Penal Code (the Penal Code, as of the day of its enforce-ment, i.e. 1st Sept. 1998, invalidated the relevant provision of the aforesaid Act). As stage 2, court proceedings conducted in 2008 were examined, i.e. five years after completion of the core stage of the research. The aim of stage 2 analysis was to compare and define changes in insurance fraud prosecution policies and manners in which the fraud was committed. The results show that the prospects for rendering the provisions of Article 298 Penal Code useful in providing a penal framework in the Polish law system for dealing with 'specialised' crimes, aiming at protection of the insurance industry, have proven unrealistic. The regulations concerning the offence in question did not become the main tool for countering undue claims of property insurance, including vehicle insurance.

283-303

Authors: Monika Kotowska

The key thesis in humanistic criminology is based on the premise that criminal behaviour in individuals is always an effect of their sovereign decisions, even if – as this is the case in every the type of human behaviour – it is influenced by a variety of factors. The main problem is the origin of a crime, understood as an individual process leading to a crime, or in cases where minors are involved as perpetrators – to a punishable act. The origin of crime would then be concerned with a varied and mostly complex phenomena of the human psyche. The core notion here being the volitional process, which is pivotal when deciding if law has been broken. In humanistic criminology, empirical research is not only about diagnosing objective premises leading to a crime, but also about analysing the behavioural patterns displayed by a particular individual, with such person's specificity, realm of experience, the relevant psycho-logical components and their core element, i.e. the act of will. The aim of this paper is to present a criminal biography of a person sentenced for participation in an armed organised crime group and to attempt an interpretation of the biography from the humanistic criminology perspective, as proposed by L. Tyszkiewicz. The analysis employed the biographical method and a case study concerning a concrete perpetrator. The course of life of the researched individual and his involvement in the crime group was de-scribed on the basis of an interview. The accuracy of thus obtained data was verified against the body of evidence included in the files of the inmate. The research was conducted in the penal institution where the convict serves a life sentence. The detailed results of the research are included in the article.

333-375

Authors: Piotr Stępniak

The article discusses the problems of health service in prisons in relation to health of prisoners. It refers the results of conducted empirical studies which assumed that the ailments of the imprisoned, specific to their age, actual health service needs, expectations and needs related to health service of prisoners, are indicators of their health. A conception of prisoners’ social service by penitentiary administration without pressure on corrective influence formulated by Henryk Machel was the theoretical basis of the study. The study aimed to answer what was health of the prisoners examined, defined by their general health, needs and expectations concerning health service and to what degree they are answered by the health service in prison. The study was conducted in prisons under District Inspectorate of Prison Service in Poznań, i.e. remand institution in Poznań and prison institutions in Rawicz and in Wronki. All three institutions are of a closed type. The study was conducted between January 2011 and November 2012. It included analysis and explanation of acts of law concerning health service in prisons and questionnaires and interviews with prisoners and prison staff . 279 of them were suitable for further study. Structuralized interviews included 30 doctors and 30 prison carers. The results were analysed statistically. They show opinions of the respondents on the problem of health service in prisons. Young and middle age adults were the majority of the respondents (67,03%). There was a statistically significant relation between general health declared by the respondents and their age. The younger a prisoner was, the better his own general health declared, and vice versa p> 0,001, x2 = 23,245). The data show that half of prisoners declared that imprisonment contributed to deterioration of their health. This is in contrast with a relatively low number of diseases found by doctors after imprisonment. Among various ailments declared by prisoners, psoriasis and sleep deprivation were the most frequent ones. The most detrimental factor to health was prison stress. Its role was indicated by as much as 17 doctors (62,97% of all doctors in the study). Every fourth doctor indicated bad living and sanitary conditions in prison (25,93%). The same number concerned other factor, i.e. nicotinism among prisoners. This shows that many prisoners assume detrimental health habits in prison conditions. Results of the research show that, in practice, response to the need of health protection in penal institutions was very diverse. Health protection was a secondary issue and it was a part of various modules of prisoner treatment. They were characterized by various intensity of health service. It was established that the modules were as follows: control and security (63,36% indications in general). In practice, in penal institutions included in the study, this module occurred in two forms: social and health (providing security and order, prisoners’ control under prison rules, social service and above-standard health care), social (providing security and order, prisoners’ control under prison rules, social service and standard health care), security and rehabilitation (66,67% indications, providing security and order, providing a minimum level of social service and basic health care, rehabilitation). Only the first of the above forms allows to fit the problem of health care fully into penitentiary actions. The study allows for a conclusion that, in the face of the crisis of penitentiary rehabilitation, the role of health care of prisoners will increase – as a consequence of “non-rehabilitationˮ modules of prisoner treatment being more and more frequent. Health care, along with ensuring suitable living conditions and social service, may thus become a part of good penitentiary practice. Health care, and to be exact, medical cal care and medical services for the imprisoned must fit their actual needs. In general, the research has shown that the objective health condition of the imprisoned included in the study is better than their declarations. However, their health varied from a person to another, most of all related to age. The greatest health needs were declared by seniors and their expectations concerning health care and medical assistance ensured by the prison were greatest too. A practical model of prisoners' medical treatment must take this into account. I was established that penitentiary practice employs, most often, modules with basic medical treatment. This is due to the relatively modest prison infrastructure but also to limited budget. Thus, a security - control - pro-health treatment module seems to be a good penitentiary practice. It includes ensuring security to the prison and the imprisoned, order maintenance, above standard health care and social care according to European Prison Rules. Thus, a good practice must be of an eclectic character. Health care and health protection have an important place in such practice. From this point of view, the research shows a diversified picture of penitentiary reality. On the whole, it is relatively positive.