Archiwum Kryminologii (Archives of Criminology)

7-50

Authors: Krzysztof Krajewski

The origins of criminology as a separate and independent field of scientific research are usually linked to the emergence of the so called positive school of criminology in the second half of the nineteenth century and with the name of its leading representative Cesare Lombroso. Undoubtedly since that time criminological thought went through a long and substantial evolution which produced a variety of new concepts and theories. As a result of this one could assume that contemporary criminology has very little in common with the ideas of its founders. Despite this, there is growing conviction in the literature that the heritage of Lombroso and Italian positivism still influences significantly contemporary criminological theory. Of course, the essence of this influence lies not in the details of Lombroso’s anthropological ideas which were proven wrong long ago, but in certain quetions asked by him and his school and methods adopted to answer them. Those questions and methods were strictly connected with and resulted from the particular ideas about human society and social world, as well as with the ideas regarding the role, functions and methods of scientific research which prevailed in the social sciences in the second half of the previous century which are commonly referred to as positivism. It justifies the designation as positivist criminology of almost all criminological thought and research since the times of Lombroso up to the late 1950’s. Positivist criminology is ditinguished first of all by its naturalism, e.g. an assumption that all methodological principles developed in sciences apply equally to social sciences which do not possess any substantial methodical peculiarities. It means also that the main task of scientific research is to discover and formulate causal laws and the assumption of objectivity and value neutrality of science and the scientist. The basic question of such criminology based on the deterministic concept of social world and human behaviour was an etiological one: why do certain people commit crimes while others don’t? It means that the main task of positivist criminology is the search for the causes of crime. Another important feature of positivist criminology is the consensual model of the social order it usually assumes. Such a model implies that the entire social order and the very existence of human society result from the sharing of certain values and norms by the large majority of the members of such society. According to this view, also, criminal law represents an example of such consensus and its norms are subject to widespread acceptance. Criminals represent some unique category of misfits or outsiders somehow different from all other „normal” people, a category which refuses to submit to social consensus. A final result of this way of thinking leads to the conclusion that the explanation of a crime and finding its causes requires concentration on the individual who behaves criminally. Because of this, positivist criminology is a science having as its subject the criminal and his behaviour. Pure accumulation of knowledge was never the sole purpose of criminological research. Positivist criminology tried always to be also an applied science, providing scientific grounds for lawmaking and law enforcement. Results of criminological research, data about the criminal and his behaviour should help to change him: rehabilitate, resocialize, correct or heal. In other words, the main purpose of positivist criminology was to provide scientific methods of bringing known misfits and outsiders back the social consensus they left. This feature of positivist criminology is usually referred to in literature as correctionalism. The above reconstruction of the main features of positivist criminology probably corresponds better to European criminology, which was in fact for many years dominated by the ,,lombrosian myth”. One can doubt however whether American criminology may also be described in such terms. The problem is that, because of its clear sociological orientation, American criminology is regarded rather as a heritage of A. Quetelet, A. Guerry or E. Durkheim and not of Lombroso. Usually it perceived crime as a social phenomenon and not as an individual pathology. But it is equally true that such classical American theories of crime causation as the differential association theory or anomie theory focus their attention on the individual criminal as well. What distinguishes those theories from the European tradition is the conviction that the criminal and his special features are products of an environment. However, in both cases criminals are treated as somehow a different kind of people. All this has important practical implications. The individual approach to crime casuation implies that the proper aim of any correctional influences is the criminal himself. The sociological approach claims that there is also no sense in correcting or changing the criminal unless we do something about the environment which produced him. The natural consequence of such an approach is the preference for social reform and social policy over criminal law as instruments of fighting the crime problem. The former is assigned only a secondary role. This is probably one of the main reasons for a certain uneasiness and mistrust towards the sociological approach which may be observed criminologists with a legal background; it is considered too abstract and detached from the everyday problems of the criminal justice system as well as too difficult and complicated to implement. Two new criminological currents emerged during last thirty years which remain in opposition towards positivism. The first one, called antinaturalistic criminology, was born during the sixties. It rejected the positivist concept of social science, asked new and different questions and tried to answer them using different methods. The decisive role in launching this new approach was played by the labelling approach, Its main contribution constituted rejection of the old etiological question and its substitution with the „reactive” one, a question regarding origins and development of the societal reaction to criminal or dewiant behaviour. This meant also an abandonment of positivist methodology of searching for casual laws and a turn towards the methods of humanistic sociology, including understanding, empathy and other similar qualitative methods. According to this trend the main task of the criminological enterprise is to create a sociology law and other forms of social control. Antinaturalistic criminology also adopted an unequivocally pluralistic model of society. Crime and deviance ceased to be perceived as something necessarily pathological. Instead, an attempt was undertaken to treat those phenomena as the result of natural diversity of human beings. To support this stance the labelling approach provided a variety of research on deviant subcultures conducted from what may be called ,,ethnographic positions”, which also denounced the negative effects of punitive social control. The final result was growing scepticism towards the agencies of official social control and such ideas as for example radical nonintervention. The next development can be attributed to radical and critical criminology. These trends assume that social conflict is the main feature of social order and try to understand criminal law and the criminal justice system as the result and manifestation of such conflict. This means that criminalisation processes, e.g. lawmaking and law enforcement, should be explained primarily in terms of political and economic power. Certain groups, because of their access to power, are able to enforce their own values and norms against the will of other groups which may not share them. All this means an unequivocally negative evaluation of the mechanism of social control in contemporary societies which are considered oppressive and unjust. An alternative vision of the society is proposed, a society where facts of human diversity are not subject to the power to criminalize. The way such vision should be implemented are very different and may be placed on the broad continuum from the orthodox Marxism-Leninism and belief in ideal socialism to the humanistic utopias of contemporary abolitionists. Such visions are accompanied by very strong opposition to traditional, mainstream criminology which is accused of being totally and uncritically apologetic and subservient towards the state and institutions of power. According to this view, positivist criminology under the disguise of scientific neutrality and objectivity, in fact legitimizes the existing political and moral order and serves the interests of the privileged groups in society. As a result a new attitude of moral and political commitment is proposed. Science, according to these postulates should be definitely partisan. Such an attitude should break the monopoly of positivist criminology in creating social consciousness about crime and deviance and show the broad audience that alternative are possible. In sum, one can say that the main subject of interest for traditional, positivist criminology constituted always the criminal and that the main problem was to root out his criminal propensities. For antinaturalistic criminology the main problem is the system of social control which requires fundamental change. During the seventies another criminological current emerged, known as neoclassicism, which criticized traditional, positivist criminology from quite different angles. This current, which remains primarily an American phenomenon, constitutes, first of all, opposition against the traditional, in the United States, domination of the sociological approach to the crime problem. Representatives of neoclassical criminology are troubled first of all by the above mentioned unclear practical implications of these theories for the criminal justice system. They are, namely, very difficult to translate into the language of policy actions. Moreover, proposed remedies against crime usually remain beyond the reach of traditional measures which the criminal justice system has at its disposal. As a result the turn towards the tradition of the European classical school of criminal law is proposed and enriched by recent achievements of behavioristic psychology and the economic theory of bohaviour. The essence of this approach constitutes the concept of free will and the assumption that criminals are quite normal human individuals making only false decisions. The fact that human behaviour is always guided by the desire to maximize gains and minimize loses makes this behaviour susceptible to external manipulation. The easiest way to influence human decisions is to create a high enough barrier of costs which should eliminate undesired decisions. Criminal law should play a key role in creating such a barrier and preventing criminal behaviour. Moreover, the barrier of costs provided by criminal law constitutes practically the only factor easily accessible to manipulation by any democratic and liberal government. Other ways of influencing crime rates are usually too costly or too difficult to implement. The basic task of criminology is to provide the necessary empirical data on the functioning of criminal law and the criminal justice system, which should be than used to formulate the most effective policies. All three criminological currents discussed above were usually treated as mutually exclusive and competitive paradigms. Today, when the heat of the discussions of the sixties and seventies diminished, there is a good chance to have a less emotional analysis of recent developments in criminology. Probably it will be possible now to come to the conclusion that the emergence during last 150 years of the three distinct paradigms in theoretical criminology may be comprehended not only in terms of consecutive scientific revolutions. Probably it may be also interpreted as the evolutionary process of the cumulation of knowledge about crime. During this process points of view and focuses’ changed as every paradigm considered different aspects of criminal phenomena as being most important and worth of researching. But all three may be considered, at least to a certain extent, complementary ones.

103-146

Authors: Teodor Bulenda, Zbigniew Hołda, Andrzej Rzepliński

The social and political changes in Poland led to abolition of Realsozialismus which is now being replaced with a democratic country governed by Rechtostaat (Art. 1 of the Constitution) from aspirations after national freedom and respect of human rights in public life. The problem of protection of individual freedom made itself particularly felt here; it is also subject of the present paper which discusses the protection of individual subjectivity in the light or the institutions of arrest and detention awaiting trial. Until quite recently, Poland was one of the many Communist countries where human rights were violated much too often, also on the occasion of arrest and detention awaiting trial. Many factors were conductive to this situation, such as faulty legislation; inadequate socjal consciousness; depreciation of the authorities, law and other norms; prevalence of repressiveness in dealing with social pathologies; and absence of social control of the activity of law enforcement agencies, the police and prison staff in particular. But the weakness of legal protection of individual resulted also from a strong relation of the activities of practically all governemental and social bodies those dealing with prosecution and investigation as well as administration of justice included, to politics. This political nature of functioning of those agencies, resulting monopolistic power of the Communist party, led to a limitation of the independance of the judiciary. The adoption of new political principles of Polish State and election of the new Parliament (on June 4, 1989), together with formaion of the non-Communist Cabinet, created the conditions for a new criminal policy based step by step on European standards. The institutions of arrest and detention awaiting trial well illustrate the pathology of functioning of the agencies of legal order and the direction of changes taking place in criminal policy. They also demonstrate a specific paradox; the Polish people’s great devotion to freedom and the simultaneous unfeeling tramling of that freedom. The two institutions have been discussed from the viewpoint of protection of human rights on both the normative plane and in the practice of the years 1980–1990. Arrest is one of the forms of coercion which consists in a short-term deprivation of liberty. The Polish legal system provides for procedural, preventive and administrative arrest. Each of these types has a separate legal regulation (procedural arrest, the Act of 19 April 1969 – Code of criminal procedure; preventive arrest, the Act of 6 June 1990 on the police and another Act bearing that same date on State Protection Office, together with their executory acts; and administrative arrest, the Act of 28 October 1982 on education to sobriety and control of alcoholism). Moreover, each type of arrest is to serve different aims (procedural arrest, protection of propriety of criminal proceedings; preventive arrest, protectton of order and public safety, human life and health, and property; and administrative arrest, control of alcoholism). Also different are the conditions of arrest, the agencies authorized to apply it, and the period for which a person can be detained. The present authors focus mainly on preventive arrest related to the administrative function of the police as guardian of order. That form was particularly abused and human rights were often violated in the course of its execution. Preventive arrest has recently undergone significant changes both in the normative sphere and in practice. As compared to the former one, its present regulation: 1. defines its legal grounds with greater accuracy; 2. broadens the detainee’s rights; and 3. introduced judicial review. This has contributed to the curbing of arbitrary police activities in this sphere. Duration of arrest is specified in the Constitution (Art. 87) and in the provision of Art. 207 of the code of criminal procedure. It cannot be londer than 48 hours from the moment of detention, and 24 hours in the case of administrative arrest (Art. 40 of the act on education to sobriety and control of alcoholism). Violations of these provisions have so far been frequent. In the case of procedural and preventive arrest, the rights of the detainee are the same. According to the valid provisions, the detainee has the following rights among others: the right to be informed in writing as to the time and reasons of arrest; the right to be advised as to the possibility of complaining to the court against the application of that measure, and to the public prosecutor against the way of its execution: the right to health care. The catalogue of the detainee’s rights is insufficient: e.g. it does not contain the right, to legal assistance (conseul). What particularly impairs the protection of the detainee’s personal interests is the absence of by-laws concerning the execution of arrest in the police house of detention, as the duplicated set of provisions called ,,By-laws for Detainees”, introduced by an order of the Chief of Civic Militia in 1959, hardly comes up to the standards. The provisions now in force have broadened the range of legal means of vindication of his rights that are at the detainee’s disposal. Particularly notable here is the reintroduction of the institution of habeas corpus. Namely, the detainee has been granted the right to complain to the court against arrest (Art. 207 point ”a,, of the Code of criminal procedure) and to the public prosecutor against the way of execution of arrest (Art. 15.7 of the Act on the police). If the arrest has been obviously unjustified, the detainee is due indemnity from the Treasury and monetary compensation of moral injury (Art. 487 of the Code of criminal procedure); the same concerns the situation where he has suffered damage or injury as a result of an improper execution of arest (Art.Art. 417-419 of the Civil code). Besides, the detainee may approach the court with a claim in virtue of protection of his personal interests (Art.Art. 23 and 24 of the civil code). In the latter half of 1990, arrest was executed in 798 police houses of detention all over the country, that is fewer by a whole 71,7 per cent as compared to 1989. The recent changes have made it possible to abolish the division of houses of detention into categories (of which there used to be three according to the duration of detention). The number of arrests amounted to over 500,000 a year at times (with the peak of 572,220 in 1982 – see Table 1). Starting from 1988, it gradually went down to nearly one-third of its original value which reflects above all the general liberalization of the police approach towards crime and other deviations. In the period under analysis, the living conditions in the police jails were – and still are primitive and many a time offensive to human dignity. This has been confirmed by the present author’s own study and two surveys of those jails carried out by the National Ombudsperson. An acute problem is the right to apply constraint during and upon detention. It is regulated by provisions of the police Act and an Ordinance of the Council of Ministere of 17 September 1990 which specifies the situations, conditions and ways in which direct coercion can be used by the police. Without questioning the grounds for such coercion, not only the legal conditions of its application but also the faults or even abuses in this sphere have been pointed out. What the authors find the most severe violation of human dignity are neither humiliating conditions of isolation nor illicit prolongation of detention but first and foremost beating of a person after he has surrendered to the power of enforcement officers. Cases of beating have again started growing in number this year (as has been found by the Helsinki Committee in PoIand and the National Ombudsperson). The activities of the public prosecutor’s office in this sphere have been criticised in the article. The paper also discusses the consequences of the introduction of Art. 209 of the Code of criminal procedure which made it possible to commit to the police jails persons detained awaiting trial (for up to ten days or three months), and even those sentenced to a prison term (of up to six months). This provision has recently been quashed, but the police press for its reintroduction. Until quite recently, the police jails were submitted to no supervision whatever. The public prosecutor’s. office remained passive and carried out but most perfunctory supervision, if any. This situation hardly served the protection of detainees’ rights. It was only improved in 1988 when the police jails were submitted to supervision by the Ombudsperson and later also by Commissions: of Administration and Internal Affairs of the Diet and of the Rule of Law and Human Rigths of the Senate, and by other agencies and institutions. Also pre-trial detention is a serious interference with human rights. It is one of the preventive measures provided for by the Code of criminal procedure, and at the stage of execution – by the Code of execution of penalties and the Ordinance of Minister of Justice of 2 May 1989 – by-laws of execution of detention awaiting trial. The discussed measure can be applied by the court, and before the indictment also by the public prosecutor. The present authors find the latter’s right to apply pre-trial detention contradictory to provisions of international law, the covenants ratified by Poland included (see Art. 9,3 of the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights). The legal provisions fail to specify the upper limit of duration of pre-trial detention. The amendement of the Code of criminal procedure and the changed policy of application of dotention resulted in a fall in the number of those detained awaiting trial. There were 9,722 such detainees on July 31, 1989 (see Tables 4–5). There was also a radical drop in the number of persons detained for over 12 months: in 1990, as few as 0,03 per cent of those kept at the public prosecutor’s disposal had been detained for at least 12 months. However, an alarming upward tendency in the number of persons detained awaiting trial can be noted lately. Discussing the conditions for optional or obligatory pre-trial detention, the authors criticize some of them as estimative in nature, and thus involving the danger of arbitrary use of this measure. The reasoning has been based on decisions of the Supreme Court which is of particular importance for the effective protection of the detainee’s rights. There have been a lot of faults in the practice of application and execution of pre-trial detention which was frequently used as a means of pressure aimed at forcing a person to plead guilty or to denounce an accomplice. In Poland, the application of pre-trail detention is the domain of the public prosecutor’s office. In the years 1975–1989, prosecutors applied this measure in nine out of every ten cases. The population of houses of detention and other penitentiary institutions shaped differently starting from 1945. A comparison of changes in the numer in the number of convicted persons with those of persons detained awaiting trial shows that the latter population was more stable starting from the 1960’s and never changed as radically in number as that of prisoners. That was the case despite the increased frequency of application of detention in the 1970’s. What contributed to this situation above all was the shortening of preparatory proceedings. In the period under analysis, the total number of persons detained awaiting trial in a given year largely approximated that of prisoners in that same year, and showed the same fluctuations resulting from the aggravated or relaxed criminal policy in the country. The trends here have nothing in common with the actual dynamics of crime as such. The authors assume that the number of persons detained awaiting trial reflects decisions in the sphere of criminal policy rather than the actual changes in crime, the economic situation, or even severe political tensions. What is also characteristic of the practice in this respect is the fact of a faulty application of the discussed measure. In the years 1975–1989, at least every 111th and at most every 71st person previously detained awaiting trial was subsequently found not guilty by the court. In some years, there were over 500 such persons. The authors discuss preventive barriers defined by the Supreme Court which are to ban clearly unjustified detention. As follows from analysis of the practical application of conditions for pre-trial detention, the one most frequently quoted was the alleged considerable social danger of the crime. Repressive conditions prevailed over the purely procedural ones. ln order to find out about the actual dimensions of the problem of pre-trial detention, the authors consulted the data concerning the use of preventive measure not involving isolation in criminal proceedings (such measures being financial and non-financial pledge, police supervision, and safe-conduct; see Table 6). It turned out that in the years 1978-1990, preventive measures other than detention awaiting trial never amounted to more than 43,5 and to less than 18 per cent of all preventive measures applied. After the above-mentioned Art. 209 of the code of execution of penalties has been quashed, detention awaiting trial can only be executed in the houses of detention created and run by the Ministry of Justice (Art.Art. 4 and 83 of the code of execution of ponalties). On December 31, 1990, there were 65 such institutions in Poland. Twenty-seven of them had additional wards for convicted persons, while 48 prisons had special wards for those detained awaiting trial. Thus pre-trial detention could be executed in the total of 114 of the 151 institutions of the Prison Department. The houses of detention had the total capacity of 18,263 beds, while the number of detainees was 16,200; the discussed institutions were therefore populated in 88,7 per cent. The rights of the discussed category of detainees are specified in the Code of execution of penalties and by-laws of execution of pre-trial deteotion awaiting trial. What is particularly worthy of attention is the provision which states that the detainee enjoys rights that should at least equal those of a convicted person, and that the only limitations allowed in this sphere are those indispensable for securing the proper course of criminal proceedings, maintaining order and safety in the institution, and preventing mutual demoralization of detainees (Art. 86 para 1 of the Code of execution of penalties). A person detained awaiting trial has many legal measures at his disposal to protect his own rights in relation to the application and execution of detention. Thus the detainee can lodge a complaint with a supreme agency of the penitentiary administration (Art. 48 para 4 of the Code of execution of penalties); with the public prosecutor and penitentiary judge (Art.Art. 27–33 and 48 point 5); to the supreme State agencies, the National Ombudsperson included (Art. 48 point 5); he may apeal against a decision of the administration of the house of detention concerning the actual execution of that measure to the penitentiary court (Art. I4,l of the Code of execution of penaltes); he may also sue the Treasury for damage suffered during detention by guilt of functionaries of the penitentiary administration (Art.Art. 417–l9 of the Civil code); he may claim indemnity for obviously unjustified detention (Art.Art. 487–49l of the Code of criminal procedure); and he may bring legal action by virtue of infringement of his personal interests (Art.Art. 23–24 of the Civil code). As shown by experience, the persons detained awaiting trial either never resort to some of these means or do that ineffectively. The living conditions of the discussed category of detainees are specified mainly in the by-laws of pre-trial detention. Many faults and shortcomings have been found here in practice. Some of such faults were so drastic as to make it necessary to close several houses of detention in 1990 to mention just one example (the institutions were either liquidated or designed for repairs). The authors also assume an attitude towards the treatment of some categories of offenders (women, particularly dangerous detainees, persons with mental disorders, HIV carriers), and discuss the treatment of juvenile detainees. Ending the paper, the authors stress the gradual improvement in the treatment of detainees since 1989. It results both from the legislative changes and from a relatively liberal criminal policy. The legal and to some extent also the organizational conditions have been created for implementation of the rule of law. Further changes are necessary, though, including in particular the passing of a new Constitution and penal codes. The drafts of the latter suggest, many new solutions in the sphere of arrest and detention awaiting trial which would make those institutions meet the European standards. What can considered valuable are the trends towards limiting the application of the two measures, specifying the conditions of their application, importantly, extending the guaranties of detainees’ rights.

169-182

Authors: Zdzisław Lorek

Religious services were introduced to reformatories and hostels for detained juveniles by force of an ordinance of Minister of Justice of September 10, 1981 on religious practices and services in reformatories and hostels for detained juveniles (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Justice No 5, item 24). ln 1990, a study of 200 wards of 6 reformatories was carried out which concerned their attitude towards religion. A specially constructed questionnaire was used; besides, the study involved observation and interviews with the wards and staff. The findings show first of all the attitudes towards religion as declared by the respondents. The largest group in the sample of 200 juveniles were those aged 15–19 (86% of the sample). Those going to elementary school constituted 61,5%. Nearly a half of respondents had been confined to a variety of readjustment centers for at least two years. The families of most boys (85%) belonged to working classes. Every second respondent followed the norms of delinquent and prison subculture (i.e. was member of a group called git-ludzie). The questionnaire survey made it possible to divide the sample into three subgroups: those who declared themselves practising believers (43%); those who stated they were Catholics but not church-goers (42%); and the wards who said they were irreligious (15%). Of the 170 believing wards, 166 (97,6%) were Roman Catholics. Most wards attended the Mass at the reformatory (18% did that regularly, and 62% – occasionally). Yet as few as 15% attended religion classes regularly, and 22,55% occasionally. As for saying prayers, 25,5% did that regularly, and 41,5% – from time to time. Nearly a half of respondents owned religious objects, mainly pictures, the Bible, crosses, prayer books, holy medals, rosaries. The wards reformatories usually consider their friends to be mostly believers but not church-goers. For most respondents (72,5%) the problems of religion do not influence their choice of friends. What is astonishing, though, is the slight proportion of those among the respondents who would like a non-believer for a friend (2,5 %). Over a half of the sample (64%) think that religion can change a person for the better. At the same time, next to none (2) consider its influence to be negative. Choosing a wife in the future, 5l% of the iuvenile intend to take the question of religion into consideration. The rest of the sample consider their future wife’s religion unimportant. As regards the upbringing of children, as many as 72,5 respondents declare for the Catholic faith. In the sphere of the perception of the others in the categories of religion vs. irreligion, significant differences were found between practising believers and non-believers. Some social conditions of the declared religious attitudes were investigated. The wards who described themsleves as practising believers were found to come mainly from the families where also both parents (guardians) as well as siblings were believers. The practising believers used to have mainly believing friends in the past as well. The question whether the respondents’ parents (guardians) had induced them to perform religious duties was most frequintly answered in the affirmative by the practicising believers. Following placement in the reformatory, the number of practising believers among the juveniles dropped on the whole, and that of believers who do not go to church and of unbelievers went up. The hypothesis that religious wards of reformatories are better-behaved while in those institutions than their irreligious friends could not be confirmed. According to the established practice and internal regulations, leaves are granted to the well-behaved wards. It was found, though, that most leaves had been granted to believers but not church-goers, while prictising believers had won that award the least often. It turned out also, against expectations, that the greatest proportion of members of the delinquent subculture could be found among the practising believers, and the smallest one – the group of unbelievers. According to most respondents (83,5%), the wards of Polish reformatories enjoy a full freedom of religious practices. Yet as many as 44% rcspondents would like to be placed in an institution run by the clergy, and 69% – to go out of the reformatory to hear the Mass. The latter, however, were mainly believers but not church-goers. It seems, therefore, that the wish to hear masses said outside the institution not always follows from religious reasons. The controversial question whether the staff should induce the wards to practice religion was asked in the negative by 79% of the sample. The findings of the questionnaire survey show that, in principle, the juvenile wards of reformatories, have religious attitudes similar to those of the whole of young persons in the same age brackets. No relationship was found between the juveniles’ religious attitudes and their behavior in the institution. The respondents stated that the religious services offered by the reformatory generally satisfied the needs in that sphere.

213-228

Authors: Jerzy Jasiński

The Problem Statement The main goals of the alcohol consumption surveys, repeatedly carried out Poland, are to describe the changes in the drinking subcultures of different segments of the population, to monitor the emergence of new drinking practices and the discontinuance of old ones, and to record the evolution of attitudes toward alcohol. In order to facilitate the analysis of these and related phenomena, similar instruments were used and applied in a consistent manner in several of the consecutive surveys. Any substantial change in the formulation of the questions asked or in the manner they are presented to the respondents (e.g. a mailed questionnaire versus a personal interview), raises a number of problems regarding the interpretation of the results obtained. Should the changes observed be treated as reflecting the transformations of the processes studied, or should they be attributed to alterations in the way the respondents were approached? On the other hand, repeated use of the same questionnaire applied in exactly the same manner does not seem to be an attractive proposition, since new problems and interests emerge and new survey research methods are being developed. In the Polish alcohol consumption surveys an attempt has been made to find a balance between securing continuity and introducing change. However, sometimes changes have to be made irrespectively of the researcher’s wishes. They may stem from resources constraints forcing the researcher to adopt a cheaper or less time consuming method of conducting a survey, or from some other reasons. In the case of the Polish alcohol consumption surveys such an external change occurred recently in relation to the sample design. Nine surveys have been conducted in Poland since 1961. Five of these surveys have utilized quota samples, while in four, random samples were employed. However, the studies based on random samples, for the most part, are not representative of the majority of Polish research on drinking practices. Instead, three of the four surveys based on random samples are unique in that they were devoted to an examination of the following issues: meaning attached by the general public to the notion of abstinence; estimation of the content and influence exercised by the antialcohol propaganda; and the effectiveness of the appeals by the Roman Catholic church to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages during the month of August in the last 3 years. The studies based on quota samples are much more representative of Polish surveys on drinking practices. In these studies, the primary focus has been on the description and nature of drinking occasions. For example, this was the focus in the pioneering surveys by A. Swiecicki carried out in 1961 and 1962, in J. K. Falewicz’s survey of 1968, and in the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys of 1980 and 1985. In all of these surveys the same way of measuring alcohol consumption was adopted and their results were analyzed according to the same methodology. The data collection was done by the Center for Public Opinion Survey and Program Studies of the State Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw for all the surveys. However, in recent years, this Center has been increasingly using random samples of the population in its research, first restricting and more recently abandoning completely the use of quota samples. From now on, the new Polish alcohol consumption surveys will be conducted on random samples only. While the shift to the use of random samples of the population represents a methodological step forward, it raises some important questions. Perhaps most important is whether results from these new surveys will be comparable with results from former surveys? The study reported in this paper is aimed at providing an answer to this question. In the case of a random sample, at least initially, every object in the population has to have an equal probability of being drawn, and at least the first step in the sampling procedure has to be taken randomly. In a quota sample, on the other hand, the usual procedure is that the interviewer has to interview a specified number of subjects with predetermined characteristics (e.g. men; 20‒29 years old; having primary educaiion only; etc.) How the interviewer finds these persons is left to his ingenuity, and even if he does not select them by applying any krown criteria, he is not drawing his part of the sample randomly. If all the interviewers follow exactly the instructions in selecting interviewees, the distribution of the characteristics of the quota sample should be the same as in the general population. It is hoped, but only hoped, that it will secure the representativeness of the sample. To what extent is this hope fulfilled cannot be determined. The Sample In September 1985 the data for the second Polish Alcohol Consumption Survey were collected on a quota sample (QS). Four weeks later, in October 1985, some items from the questionnaire used in that survey were added to a routinely conducted public opinion poll carried out on a random sample (RS). The sizes of the samples were 1808 and 882, respectively. In both cases the field work was done by the Center for Public Opinion Survey. The samples were comparable to one another in terms of the respondents’ occupation, sex, level of education, and proportion of people living in urban and rural areas. However, both samples differed from the general population with respect to age. In the QS, persons aged 60 and older were underrepresented (by about 12%), while those aged 40‒59 were overrepresented (again by about 12%). Within the RS, those aged l6‒19 were underrepresented (by about 6%). The former discrepancy must have originated from the interviewers’ not foliowing closely enough the instructions given to them as to the age of persons they had to interview. The latter discrepancy stemmed from the sampling procedure; the RS was derived from the 1984 election lists, which covered the population of 18 years old and over. One year later, in 1985, these lists included only persons aged 19 and older. The differences in the age structure in the QS, RS, and in the general population are of some significance for estimations of tne coverage rate and for comparability of the samples, and thus will be further discussed later on in the paper. Frequenct and Quantity In the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys, as in previous Polish research, the level of consumption has been estimated by means of the last occasion approach. In order to make such estimates a number of assumptions have to be accepted. They are related to the typicality of the occasion described by the respondent in terms of kind of occasion, amount of alcohol consumed, etc. Additionally, some assumptions regarding the frequency of drinking also have to be accepted. These requirements may seem unrealistically far going. However, two points have to be considered. Firstly, the more typical an occasion of drinking is ‒ the more likely, it is to be reported to the interviewer. Secondly, in epidemiological research the interest is on categories or types of respondents and not on a single individual; in groups of respondents, unconventional occasions tend, at least in part, to annul their impact on the means and other measures describing the drinking modalities. The variables used in the Polish Alcohol Consumption Surveys to establish the drinking patterns were: kind of beverage, quantity consumed, and frequency of drinking. There were no differences between the QS and the RS in respect to the frequency of drinking wine purchased in stores as well as home made fruit wine. However, there were some differences in the case of spirit and beer. In the RS, two categories of spirit drinkers could be recognized more distinctly than in the QS; infrequent (i.e. drinking spirits less often than once a month), and very frequent (i.e. several times a week). The former category consisted of 45,5 per cent (QS) and 48,1 per cent (RS), respectively, and the latter of 21,3 per cent (QS) and 30,0 per cent (RS). In the case of beer consumers, there were significantly more infrequent drinkers in the RS than in the QS (48,6 and 34,9 per cent, respectively), and fewer very frequent drinkers (38,5 and 32,5 per cent, respictively). Significantly higher quantities consumed on one occasion were reported in the QS than in the RS, irrespectively of beverage. This would suggest that the interviewers collecting data for the QS tended, possibly without even realizing it, to select prospective respondents from among persons consuming more alcohol than average. The Beverages One of the consequences of the above differences in regard to the frequency of drinking and quantities of alcohol consumed is the overestimation of the concentration of consumption in research based on QSs. The concentration of consumption is traditionally used to refer to the size of proportion of consumers who drink about half of all alcohol consumed. According to an estimate derived from the RS in 1985 in Poland, half of spirits were consumed by about 10 per cent of drinkers (rather than by 7 per cent as indicated by the QS), and of wine purchased ‒ by 8 per cent of drinkers (rather than by 7 per cent); in the case of drinkers of home made wine (5 per cent), and of beer (10 per cent) the estimates of concentration of consumption proved to be the same in the QS and in the RS. The shrinking of the coverage rate was another consequence of the overestimation of the quantities of alcohol consumed of the frequency of drinking of some alcoholic beverages. The comparison of the amount of alcoholic beverages sold during 1985 in the country with the amount accounted for by the surveys, reveals the following picture: QS RS spirits 50,6 per cent 47,8 per cent wine purchased 49,3 per cent 25,8 per cent beer 81,5 per cent 45,2 per cent Total 55,9 per cent 48,1 per cent The substantial differences in the coverage rate are noticed only in relations to wine and beer, e.g. to the beverages of lesser importance considering the Polish drinking patterns. The absence of substantial differences between the RS and the QS in relation to spirits stemmed from the fact that the overestimation of the amount drunk on one occasion was partly compensated for by the underestimation of the size of the category of the very frequent drinkers. As far as the better and wine drinkers were concerned no such compensation was present. The data on the sale of alcoholic beverages indicate that in that in 1985 about 68 per cent of all alcohol purchased in Poland was spirits. Of the total amount of alcohol consumed, the QS indicated that spirits accounted for 62 per cent, while the RS indicated that spirits accounted for 74 per cent. The first estimate was too low, the other too high, each by 6 per cent. As could be expected from the low coverage rate of wine, in the research based on the RS, the place of wine in the structure of beverages consumed was underestimated (9 per cent instead of 15 per cent of all alcohol consumed). The place occupied by beer was estimated correctly by the RS (18 per cent). The modest contribution of beer and wine to the total amount of alcohol consumed should be attributed mainly to the drinking habits prevailing in Poland, but also partly to the unmet demand for beer and for wine, in particular for imported grape wine. The analysis of the data from the QS showed that drinking one kind of alcoholic beverage raised the likelihood of drinking another kind of alcoholic beverage. This was true with regard to every beverage type and all these relationships were statistically significant. The data from the RS corroborated fully the above results. In the case of persons who consumed two kinds of alcoholic beverages, a further question could be asked, viz. do persons who drink greater quantity of one beverage also tend to drink more of the other one. This was the case in respect to all of beverages both in the QS in the RS. Consumption Level In order to estimate the respondents’ level of alcohol consumption all beverages consumed had to be recounted according to their content of alcohol, and added up. The distribution of the respondents according to the level of their consumption revealed some important differences between the estimates derived from the QS and RS. First of all, according to the RS, there were significantly more teetolers in the general population (23 per cent) than according to the QS (16, 1 per cent). This is partly due to the underrepresentation persons aged 60 and older in the QS. Relatively more persons in this age group are non-drinkers than in the lower age brackets. The other reason for this discrepancy in the estimate of the size of the fraction of non-drinkers is the already mentioned tendency of the interviewers to select as prospective respondents drinkers rather than abstainers while collecting data for the QS. The other difference between the RS and QS relates to the proportion of persons drinking substantial amounts of alcohol. On the whole, the RS indicates that it is smaller than the QS does. The extrapolation of the results obtained in the RS on the adult population in the country leads to the following conclusion. In 1985 there were about 2,1 million persons who annually consumed more than 16 liters of pure alcohol in Poland. They were consuming at least one half a litter bottle of vodka in every ten days. Among them nearly 1,5 million consumed at least 24 liters of pure alcohol annually, i.e. at least one bottle of vodka per six days. This group of drinkers represented only 5 per cent of the adult population, but consumed nearly 40 per cent of all alcohol in the country. It was stated before that only about half of the total amount of alcohol consumed was accounted for by the survey based on the RS. The most important reason for the underreporting seems to be, apart from forgetting and concealing, the underrepresentation of heavy drinkers in the sample. Because of this, it is likely that the group of drinkers who consume at least 24 liters of pure alcohol annually is considerably more numerous, and that they probably drink even a greater proportion of all alcohol consumed in the country. Drinkers, Abstainers, Teetolaters Who is a teetotaler seems self-evident and not requiring special consideration only as long, however, as the responds from the general population are not asked what their understanding of the term is. In one of the recent Polish general pop lation surveys this question was addressed and some surprising results were obtained. Although 69 per cent of the respondents considered a teetotaler somebody who has not been drinking any beverages containing alcohol, there were also persons having other opinions in this matter. As many as l5 per cent described a teetotaler as a person who drinks small quantities of alcohol, infrequently, a few times a year only, and further 2 per cent described a teetotaler as a person who does not drink vodka. In order to avoid this issue, in the questionnaire applied both the QS and to the RS, a question was asked whether the respondent had been drinking any alcoholic beverages during the last 12 months preceding the interview. Those who responded in the negative are considered to be teetotalers. Those who have not been drinking a particular beverage are called abstainers, i.e. abstaining refers only to not drinking a particular beverage. This means, that according to this definition abstainers include persons who drink as well as those who do not. Consequently, all teetotalers are abstainers, but among the latter there also drinkers (of some beverages). According to the terminology adopted here only drinkers who consume all kinds of alcoholic beverages listed in the questionnaire can not be called abstainers. The beverage consumed by most Poles is vodka. According to the RS only 28 per cent of the respondents abstained from drinking vodka (12 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women). In this respect the differences between the QS and the RS were not significant. In the case of all other beverages the RS produced significantly higher estimates of the fraction of abstainers than the QS. According to the RS, 65 per cent of respondents do not drink beer (46 per cent of men and 82 per cent of women), 68 per cent do not drink wine purchased (46 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women), and 78 per cent do not drink home made wine (75 per cent of men and 81 per cent of women). The QS and the RS are in concordance on a number of points. Firstly, on the degree of popularity of the various alcoholic beverages. Judging from the size of the fraction of abstainers, spirits is the most widely consumed beverage, followed by beer, wine purchased, and home made wine. Secondly, there are consistently more drinkers among men than among women; only in the case of home made wine is the difference in the size of the fraction of drinkers among men and women not significant. Thirdly, more than half of women drink spirits, i. e. many more than any other alcoholic beverage. It contradicts the belief, widely held in Poland, that vodka is a man’s and wine a woman’s beverage. Fourthly, abstaining from any beverage is equally spread in rural as in urban areas. It illustrates the process of unification of behaviour patterns in Poland, or as it is sometimes formulated – of the urbanization of rural culture, and ruralization of the urban life styles. The size of the fraction of abstainers is, irrespective of the beverage, closely related to the age of the respondents. The older the respondent – starting from the 20–29 age group – the larger the fraction of abstainers. Drinking is also related to the level of education attained. In the case of spirits, wine purchased, and home made wine, the higher the respondents educational attainment the greater the fraction of drinkers. It corresponds to the observation made in a number of countries, according to which the higher the social status – the smaller the fraction of abstainers, the grater the frequency of drinking, and the smaller the amount consumed on one occasion. The above relationship do not apply to beer, which in Poland seems to be a beverage consumed primarily by blue–collar workers. The QS and the RS show the same pattern of results between drinking and living in rural versus urban communities as found for age and level of education of the respondent. Finally, the teetotalers differ markedly from the drinkers. Here again the results of the QS and RS are in harmony. There are significantly more teetotalers among women than among men, and in the age group 40 years old and over (in particular – among those 60 years old and over). There are also more teetotalers among less educated than more educated, and among unqualified blue–collar workers and peasants than among qualified blue–collar workers and white–collar employees. Concluding Remarks There has been a prospective change in the sampling method used in Polish alcohol consumption surveys. This called into question the feasibility of long term trend analysis of the drinking habits prevailing in Poland. In order to dispel the arising doubts, the present inquiry has been carried out comparing the results of the new sampling method (primarily relying on the use of random samples) with the prior method which utilized quota samples. In this project, the same questions relating to drinking practices were put to two groups of respondents. One consisted of a quota sample (QS; n =1808), and the other of a random sample (RS; n = 882) of the adult population. The comparison of results from the two samples leads to the following two observations. Firstly, the numerical values of various parameters characterizing drinking practices, such as the overall consumption level and that of particular beverages, or that of quantities imbibed on one occasion, etc., differ in the QS and the RS. In a number of instances these differences are statistically significant. The results based on the RS suggest a somewhat lower level of alcohol consumption than the ones based on the QS, and shift the coverage rate slightly below 50 per cent. Secondly, the QS and the RS generated very similar pictures of drinking patterns prevailing in Poland, in terms of the kinds of beverages consumed, interrelationship between the various beverages consumed, concentration of consumption, and social traits of people drinking more and drinking less alcohol. The general conclusion emerging from the research project described here can be formulated as follows. The QS provided a fairly true picture of the drinking practices in Poland, however, in order to establish the long term trends in these practices, it is necessary to take into account the corrections stemming from the estimates derived from the RS.