Archiwum Kryminologii (Archives of Criminology)

7-92

Authors: Jerzy Jasiński

The study described in the paper and has been conceived as a continuation and partly a repetition or studies carried out in 1961 and 1962 by A. Swięcicki and then in 1968 by J. K. Falewicz. All of these studies were carried out by the Centre for Public Opinion Survey (now: Centre for Public Opinion Survey and Program Studies) of the Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw. The instrument used in them was a questionnaire filled in by the interviewer during his interview with the respondent. The first study, conducted in February and March 1961, included a sample of a population aged 20 and over, while in the second one, which was made in October 1962, u sample aged 18 and over was included. In both studies, the assumed samples numbered 3000 respondents each, the obtained sample being 95.6 per cent and 93.6 per cent of the assumed sample respectively. The third study was carried out in March and April 1968: it included a sample of population aged 18 and over (assumed sample - 3212 respondents, obtained sample – 91.7 per cent). The present, i.e., the fourth study, was conducted in September 1980 and it included a sample of population aged 16 and over, of the assumed size of 2000 respondents; the obtained sample numbered 1972 persons, which is 98.6 per cent of the assumed one. In the case of all the four studies the deviation of the obtained sample from the assumed one was slight which permitted them to be treated as random sample of the general population. The chief aim of the 1980 study was to obtain data which would be comparable with those previously acquired and those up-to-date, concerning the distribution of consumption of alcohol among the population of Poland. The previous studies, dating back at least a dozen years, were not only old, but they were carried out in the period when general level of consumption of alcohol was approximately half of that in 1980. It seemed more difficult to answer the question to what degree the observations then made still applied to the new situation. There was a demand for some new data it last to replace the guesses made from the factual basis which, as the years went by, became more and more uncertain. In spite of the fact that the present study wbs made in the same way as the previous ones, it seems that the above aims have not been achieved. The data now obtained are not fully comparable with the previous, first of all because the 1980 survey successfully covered a considerably smaller amount of alcohol consumed in our country than those of 1961 and 1962. Undoubtedly, this was caused by various factors, the most important of which being probably the fact that the representation among the respondents of persons who drank intensively and most intensively was scantier in the present study than it had been in the studies conducted by A. Swięcicki. Consequently, the 1961-1962 and 1980 surveys concerned different categories of drinking persons, the ranges of which were not identical in both cases. As regards the scond aim of the study, which was to obtain current data on consumption of alcohol in Poland, we were unsuccessful again, as life proved to run too fast. The 1980 survey was carried out in October 1980, that is one might say at the last moment before the difficulties with alcohol supplies began, as yet unknown in our country, which resulted in regulated sale of alcoholic beverages. This caused the appearance of new phenomena as well as the aggravation of those hitherto existing, Undoubtedly, it was a new phenomenon that people started to buy alcohol not only to consume it, but also to gret rid of the rapidly devaluating money, or in order to obtain a kind of exchange value. Other new phenomena were: trade in coupons entitling one to buy alcohol, and the appearance of black-market prices of spirits produced by the State-controlled distilleries; in certain periods, these prices were twice as high as the official ones. Speaking of aggravation of the existing phenomena, we had in mind first of all the illicit distillation of liquor, the attractiveness of which increased greatly in the face of joint effect of two circumstances: the rapid increase in the price of legally distilled and imported alcohol, and the difficulties in its legal (and even illegal) purchase. It was impossible for the 1980 survey to answer the following questions: what the influence of all these phenomena on the patterns of drinking that had already been shaped before in our country was, and how these patterns were modified. It is known that people drink somewhat differently now. It may be supposed that the persons who used to consume small amounts of alcohol before and who used to drink with restraint now drink less or do not drink at all, while those who used to drink much before - even if they do drink less now, the difference is slight, the illegally distilled liquor playing a greater part in the total amount of alcohol they consume. As to this last problem, opinions are expressed according to which consumption of the illegally distilles liquor has become a much more popular experiences in the course of the ‘80s than it had been before. Finally, conjectures are made that alcohol-dependent persons, after the first period of difficulties with providing themselves with the amount of alcohol which would be adequate to their habits, in general have now found ways to satisfy their needs in this respect. It remains a guess if the above conjectures are true or not, and the same applies to suppositions concerning persistent or temporary character of the abovementioned changes in patterns of consumption of alcohol. Thus the results of the survey describe the situation as it was a few years ago as this situation undoubtedly changed later on. As the paper clearly shows, consumption of alcohol in Poland is a common phenomenon: an everyday habit for many of our fellow citizens, a regular one (though not necessarily at regular intervals)- for the majority. In a statistical-descriptive sense drinking should, therefore, be termed normal behaviour, as it appears more or less regularly in the behaviour of a majority of adult members of our society, whenever they find themselves in situations such as celebrations family, meeting friends, or official occasions. The above remarks by no means solve the question of estimation of drinking, which- in spite of its habitual character in the statistical-descriptive sense- may in some cases be recognized as most deeply pathological in the medical sense, and in the same adn frequently also in other cases- as pathological in its social expression. As regards the medical appraisal- the questionnaire did not contain a large set of questions of this kind, therefore, it was able to yield but a most scanty basis fof conjectures as to the symptoms of alcohol dependence of some of the respondents. The situation was different as regards the social appraisal of the consumption of alcohol. In order to make use of such an appraisal, an initial poblem had to be solved: what amount, frequency, and way of consuming alcohol should or should not be regarded as that included within the limits of a „social norm”. The problem is complex, for, on the one hand, the opinions as to where the limits are vary in our socjety, and, on the other hand, there are probably many such limits, depending not only on the person who is to fix them, but also on that to whom they may apply. It is generally known that in our society there are advocates of prohibition (who are of opinion that zero consumption should be the social norm), as well as propagators of „reasonable consumption” which is a term with many shades, and finally adherents of opinion that consumption of alcohol is a private matter for everyone to decide by himself (that is those who consider any kind of drinking, as well as abstinence, to come within the limits of socially approved norm). Apart from the advocates of the two extreme opinions, which provide one norm for all members of the society, others, i.e., the propagators of „reasonable” drinking tend to emploi a norm according to who the drinking person is. This finds expression in a different attitude towards drinking by men and women, tolerance towards the drinking by adults accompanied by strict disapproval in the case of the youth, different expectations as to the attitude towards alcohol drinking by members of different socio-professional groups. In this situation, with the lack of a common opinion as regards „socially normal” drinking, it seemed preferable to refrain from estimating the alcohol consumption in terms of social pathology. In a survey of alcohol consumption in which samples of population of the entire country or a smaller territory are included, it is vital how the questions about the respondents’ drinking habits are asked. In the research practice, two solutions of this problem have been provided: first, to ask about the last occasion on which the respondent drank, what he drank then, how much he drank and in what circumstances, and second, to ask about his drinking within a given, shorter or longer, period of time. It has been a tradition of Polish studies in this field to choose the first of these solutions, so this method has also been employed in the present study. The last occasion was treated as typical of the respondent’s way of drinking, and a yearly consumption was calculated for each of tchem, as well as for all persons included in the sample. As compared with the data on alcohol sale gathered in our country, it appeared that the 1980 survey covered 43 per cent of the total of consumed vodka. This percentage corresponds to that which can be found in analogous foreign studies, yeti t is considerably lower than the one obtained by A. Święcicki in his 1961 and particularly 1962 studies. The probable effect on the comparability of this studies with the present one has already been discussed above. Interest was also paid in the questionnaire to the consumption of home-made wine, which appeared to account for 39 per cent of the consumption of purchased wine covered by the study, and the consumption of „home-distilled vodka” (i.e., moonshine alcohol) which, according to the present study, accounted for 5.5 per cent of the consumption of purchased vodka. Ona may guess that the latter percentage was in reality higher, and that it has now increased even more. As is generally known, Poland is one of the countries where the general level of consumption of alcohol is medium, yet the structure of consumption is most unfavourable. Over 3/4 of the consumed alcohol is being drunk in Poland in the from of vodka and other strong drinks. A similar structure of consumption can be found in most parts of the Soviet Union, and to a smaller degree in the Scandinavian countries (except Denmark, where the dominating alcoholic beverage is beer). One of the common features of alcohol consumption is its great concentration, which means that relatively few consumers drink a share of alcohol disproportionately large to their number. As revealed by the 1980 survey, 45 per cent of the entire purchased and home-made wine covered by the study was being drunk by3.5 per cent of consumers of wine, 52 per cent of vodka was being drunk by 9 per cent of consumers of vodka, and 46 per cent of beer was being drunk by 10 per cent of consumers of beer. Taking into account that the study included a relatively small numer of persons who drink intensively and particularly those who drink most intensively, the real concentration of consumption of separate types of alcoholic beverages must be expected to be still higher in our country. The interdependence of consumption of different alcoholic beverages is closely connected with the problem of concetration of consumption. It appeared that the fact of drinking one kind of alcoholic beverage augmented the likelihood of drinking another one as well. This convergence was most marked as regards consumption of vodka and beer, as well as vodka and purchased wine (and also purchased and home-made wine); it was the least marked in the case of the consumption of home-made wine and vodka, and home-made wine and beer.Among the persons who drank at least two of the above mentioned kinds of beverages, the frequent drinking of one of them was not necessarily connected with frequent drinking of the other: on the other hand, those who drnak large amounts of one of the beverages, drank also large amounts of the other, while those who drank small amounts of one kind, drank also small amounts of the other. According to the results of our survey, teetotallers, i.e., persons who do not drink alcohol at all, constituted nearly 17 per cent of our respondents. As regards separate kinds of beverages, there were many more persons who did not drink them; yet a significant regularity appeared, which should be stressed in connection with the unfavourable structure of alcohol consumption in our country: the group of persons who never drank vodka was the least numerous, 25 per cent only, while there were 57-58 per cent of persons who never drank purchased wine and beer, and as many as 70 per cent of those who never drank home-made wine (the percentage for moonshine alcohol was 89 per cent). To repeat, not only as much as 71 per cent of alcohol was consumed in our country in the form of vodka (strong drinks) in 1980, but also it was consumed by 75 per cent of the country's population aged 16 and over. Opportunity, place, and company are the usually distinguished elements of the patterns of alcohol consumption which can be found in the society. The 1980 survey permitted to separate three such patterns (of drinking vodka or wine): family-celebration, friendly-social, drinking for purpose. According to the first one, which has been mentioned by nearly half of the respondents who drank, the opportunity for drinking was a family meeting or celebration, with many participants, the place was a private appartment, the amounts of alcohol consumed were relatively smaller, and the participants were first of all persons who drank less than the average. According to the second pattern, which was mentioned by nearly every third respondent, the opportunity was a social meeting or celebration, in which a smaller number of persons participated (as compared with the family meetings), the place was often also a private appartment, but in every fourth case a restaurant as well, more alcohol was consumed, and among the participants the persons prevailed who drank a little more than the average. According to the third pattern, drinking for purpose, mentioned by every seventh respondent, "no special occasion" was required for drinking, or drinking took place "in order to handle some business which made it necessary to drink a glass", a small group of 3-4 persons participated, the most frequently chosen place, apart from one's own apartment, was a restaurant or place of employment, a relatively largest amount of alcohol was consumed, and a majority of participants drank much more than the average. As is generally known, a particular problem in Poland is drinking at the place of employment; the Goverment has repeatedly prohibited it, only to learn that the renewal of the prohibition is apparently as timely as it is ineffective. Among the respondents employed in the State-controlled economy, two of every three persons happened to drink at work, every fourth happened to drink at least during the last month. The opportunity was usually a birthday or a name-day; yet every sixth respondent happened to drink at work last "without special reason". The information concerning the frequency of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed permits one to separate four ways of drinking: much and often, much and seldom, little and often, little and seldom. Among the consumers of different beverages the group of persons drinking little and seldom was the most numerous, particularly as regards the consumers of wine (both purchased and home-made), to a smaller degree - the consumers of vodka (and moonshine alcohol), and to the smallest degree - the consumers of beer. Also the groups of persons drinking much and seldom were relatively numerous, apart from consumers of beer, among whom the second most numerous group was that of persons drinking little and often. Every fourth or fifth consumer of beer, every seventh consumer of vodka, every fifteenth consumer of purchased wine and every twenty-seventh consumer of home-made wine drank much and often. As regards persons who, drank any two of the above mentioned beverages, a convergence of their drinking patterns could be noticed which consisted in the following regularity: if one of the beverages was consumed according to one of the patterns, the other was generally also consumed according to the same pattern. Drinking "too much", "several consecutive days", „more often than the respondent wishes”, were considered an indicators of alcohol abuse. The persons who never happened to drink like this drank, on the whole, considerably smaller amounts of vodka than the average; those who had happened to drink like this before consumed markedly more vodka than the average; while those who have happened to drink like this at the time of the study consumed over twice as much vodka than the average. As shown by the analysis of answers to a variety of questions in the questionnaire, the amount of consumed alcohol is connected with the respondent's satisfaction with his life and his relations with others. Thus persons who were of opinion that life generally brings the people more good than evil used to drink significantly less (vodka, purchased wine, as well as beer) than those who thought the opposite. Likewise, the respondents who considered themselves frequently underestimated by their closest family, drank significantly more than those who thought that they happened, though seldom, to have been underestimated. Finally, the persons who were of the opinion that their relations with their families, neighbours, workmates, and superiors went badly, used to drink significantly more than those who had no problems in this field. The drinking persons' experiences with alcohol are both good and bad, and the tendency to study first of all, if not exclusively, the latter does not seem appropriate. In the 1980 survey questions about both kinds of experience were asked, which brought in a good deal of interesting information. Thus it appeared that the drinking of a certain amount of alcohol in the company of a given person helped to solve professional prbblems for a number of persons which was two and a half times larger than the number of those whose drinking brought about serious professional trouble. In over 2/5 of the persons examined, alcohol helped to improve their relations with close friends and relatives, while it helped every third of them to settle their own subsistence problems profitably. As for the troubles resulting from drinking, it is striking that persons problems (poor health, family or financial problems) were mentioned two or three Times more often than those connected with the respondents' participation in a broader social environment (problems with neighbours, professional problems, and those with the authorities). The above seems to prove that in the customs and climate which exists in our country, the drinking persons perceive alcohol as bringing them more good than evil. As revealed by a closer analysis of the good and bad experience involved in drinking, they usually coexisted: the more good experience the respondents had, the larger was also the amount of their bad experience, and the more they drank. One could say that the persons who used to drink much and thus fell into trouble realized at the same time that drinking brought them various forms of satisfaction and profits. This undoubtedly intensified their tendency do drink, in spite of the trouble resulting from drinking. The last problem to be discussed in the paper is the respondents' victimization by aggressive behaviour of drunken persons and by their own intoxication. As regards the first problem, it should be stressed that contacts with attempted physical aggression (a drunken person trying to stop or catch the respondent) were frequent: within the year previous to the study nearly every third respondent experienced such an event. Every ninth respondent fell victim to more serious acts of aggression ("more serious" meaning at least being physically assaulted). As regards unpleasant consequences of the respondent being intoxicated, the most frequent of them were: getting involved in a quarrel (which happened to every fourth or fifth respondent within the year previous to the study), loosing money or other valuable things (which happened to every ninth respondent). It is significant that the persons who experienced unpleasant consequences of being in the state of intoxication, drank over twice as much as on the average. The results of the study the extent, structure, and some correlates of the consumption of alcohol in our country described in the paper are an attempt at filling the gap in the studies of this problem which emerged in the '70s. Such studies should be repeated at not too, long intervals, in order to prevent the occurence of such gaps in the future.

123-141

Authors: Anna Kossowska

Discussions of the relationship between biological factors and criminality have a long tradition in criminology. During the first stage of development of positivistic criminology, they constituted a predominant trend in the study of etiology of crime and delinquency. Then, with the future development of this school, they became one of its major lines, together with the study of cultural variables. The controversions between adherents of these two trends of the positivistic school resolve themselves into the essential question nature or nature. In other words, is a given human behaviour (e.g., criminal) a result of the man’s biological equipment, or was it influenced by the course of the process of upbringing in the broad sense. In different periods one or the other of these approaches predominated. Now it is generally considered that both nature and nurture regulate human behaviour in the process of constant interaction. Contemporary students of the role of biological factors in the etiology of crime abstain in general from attributing to these factors the conclusive role in the formation of criminal behaviour. Instead, they maintain that in certain circumstances a given biological factor may contribute to the appearance of behaviour which departs from the norm. In principle, biological factors may be divided into those which contribute more directly to the appearance of criminal behaviour, and those which exercise only an indirect influence - in interaction with environmental variables. The first group consists of such variables as tumours and other pathological injuries of the central nervous system, some forms of epilepsy and certain types of hormonal disorders. In a sense, all the above variables are directly connected with behaviour disorders which, in certain situations, may lead to the appearance of criminal behaviour. These regularities concern a small percent of offenders only, so general conclusions can not be drawn on this ground as regards biological conditions of delinquency. Among biological variables which influence behaviour problems (including criminal behaviour) indirectly, in interaction with environmental variables, the following are included in general: effect of prenatal and birth complications on the development of the child's central nervous system, minimal brain dysfunction and their correlates factors connected with heredity, chromosomal abnormalities (particularly XYY syndrome), and various psychophysiological variables related to the conditioning of behaviour. These variables can not be said to cause in themselves behaviour disorders favourable to crime and delinquency; it is imperative that particular environmental conditions arise for these disorders to appear. Thus in this case we deal with the effecti of different variables conditioned by class or environment, on the individual's biological formation and the role of the relationship between biological and environmental variables in shaping of man's adaptivity, including his ability to behave according to the norm. In the present article, a review of the contemporary studies of the above problem has been made. It has repeatedly been discovered that, in environment which is economically and socially unpriviledged, there are decidedly more prenatal and brith complications which are favourable to injuries of the child's central nervous system. Such injuries positively hinder social adaptation, particularly if the influence of environment in which the child is brought up is negative. The same may be said about the role of minimal brain dysfunction in the formation of the child's social attitudes. Here also, the influence of the environment may intensify the effect of the biological factor. In the studies of genetic determination of abnormal behaviour, results were obtained which indicate that in the etiology of such behaviour, hereditary factors are of some importance, while environment often „intensifies” the effect of genetic factors. The approach which is characterized by the search for the connection of both biological and environment variables with behaviour disorders (including criminal behaviour) has a strong position in Polish criminology thanks to the works of Professor Batawia and his associates. In the final of the article, the importance of disclosures as regards the role of biological factors in the etiology of delinquent behaviour in the field of crime prevention has been discussed.

167-225

Authors: Adam Strzembosz

1. The idea of family jurisdiction is not new, yet it continues to raise animated discussion and controversy. Family courts which exist in many countries have miscellaneous and frequently rather narrow competence. Elsewhere, experiments have been made with family courts for many years now, consisting in taking observations of the works of a few family courts, the traditional orgnization of jurisdiction maintained in the entire country. The family jurisdiction, enforced in Poland on January 1st, 1978, was introduced in the entire territory, the competence of family courts outlined most broadly: all cases directly connected with family relations (affiliation of a child, alimony, nullification and dissolution of a marriage, adoption, limitation, suspension and deprivation of parental authority, institution of legal protection, etc.), cases connected with penal acts committed by juveniles, cases of compulsory treatment of alcoholics in closed hospitals, and offences against family, guardianship, and the youth, fell under competence of family courts. Family courts which are departments of district courts, have assembled nearly half of the cases coming in a district court. At the same time, cases have been divided between the judges basing on the territorial principle: every judge hears all kinds of cases coming in from the territory he has been assigned. This way, all cases essentially connected with the functioning of a given family were always to be judged by the same judge. The broad competence of a family judge and the fact that he heard all cases concerning the members of a given family was to create conditions in which all problems appearing within that family would be treated on a broad basis in every case, to ensure that each particular pronouncement concerning that family be compact and complementary, to guarantee the correctness of decisions owing to the knowledge of the whole of conflicts which occur in that family, and to make preventive activities broader and deeper. The creation of family courts caused the liquidation of juvenile courts, all their cases having passed to the family courts, as well as the transference of a considerable part of cases heard before by civil courts and a small number of cases from criminal courts. Such a far-reaching reform of organization of common jurisdiction has justified the study of the effects of introduction of family courts, the more so as juvenile courts played an important part in the system of preventive measures against delinquency and other forms of social maladjustment. Therefore, it was the aim of the study to find out if family courts realize their function in practice, and what are the factors that determine difficulties or irregularities in case the courts fail totally or partially to fulfill their object. The study embraced various sources of information about the functioning of family courts, i.e., first of all, statistical data on the jurisdiction in cases which now come within the scope of family courts from two periods: before and after they had been transferred to the family courts (years 1976-1977 and 1978-1981). Another extremely important source of information about the functioning of family courts was the analysis of cases of particular kind judged by juvenile, civil, and criminal couits, and then by family courts. Among the cases which provided a particularly great amount of information as to the way in which family courts fulfilled the goal they were planned to fulfill, were divorce suits, limitation of parental authority, penal acts of juveniles, and criminal cases of offences against family, guardianship, and the youth. Such cases require well-prepared materials before they are examined, comprehensive study of particular legal problems from the point of view of the interest of the family, first of all children that are brought up in it, and finally (apart from divorce suits) active execution of the sentence, as the method of execution determines the results of the entire preceding activity of the court. A detailed study was made of a standard sample of cases now investigated by 8 family courts - small, medium, and large, each of the 4 family courts created on January 1st, 1978, matched with one of the 4 family courts which had been functioning before that day as experimental courts. In this way comparison could have been made between the functioning of new family courts and those which had been working for some years to find out if the lenght of the period of work of the family court contributed to eliminating of various mistakes and dificiencies resulting from lack of experience during the first years of work of the family court. The standard of work of the "new" family courts emerging from the analysis of cases was also compared with that of juvenile courts, civil courts, and criminal courts which had been departments of the same district courts, by way of analysis of the same kind of cases judged before the reform of jurisdiction. This comparison was to provide information about changes which took place in preliminary proceedings, setencing, and execution of sentences, after family courts had taken over the cases which had been investigated before by other departments of district courts. Another source of information was the examination on the spot of the conditions of work of the 8 family courts the files of which had been analysed, including their staff, the system of social probation officers, the number of different duties imposed, and the power to execute decicions. Finally, the opinion on family courts was asked of family judges themselves, of professional probation officers of these courts, and of solicitors, whose experience in appearing before different courts in cases of the same kind seemed particularly valuable. A questionnaire examination also included the family judges who had judged in juvenile, civil, and criminal courts before the jurisdiction reform, so as to define their attitudes and opinions as regards various problems of family life. The aim of the questionnaire was to find out any differences between the attitudes of former juvenile court judges in comparison with other judges working subsequently in family courts. 2. The analysis of statistical data concerning the 6-year period (including 4 years after family jurisdiction had been introduced) did not reveal any symptomatic difference which could be related to the creation of family courts. As regards divorce suits, for instance, neither the percentage of cases discontinued due to the reconciliation of the parties increased, not that of dismissed cases; in cases concerning parental authority, the structure of decisions did not change; in cases of penal acts committed by juveniles but a small increase of less radical sentences was noticed; finally, as regards cases of offences against family, guardianship, and the youth, the only change was a slight reduction of the number of sentences to the penalty of deprivation of liberty without conditional suspension of execution in favour of limitation of parental authority. The results obtained through a detailed analysis of court files of cases formerly heard by juvenile, civil, and criminal courts were much the same as regards the contents of issued decisions. Nevertheless, in some spheres of activity of family courts some favourable changes occurred; unfortunately they were accompanied by a considerable regress in other spheres. In particular, family courts investigated the situation of children of divorcing parents more precisely than the civil courts, but on the other hand they neglected material problems, less frequently adjudging alimony amounting to a sum higher than demanded, less frequently deciding ex officio as to the means of using a common appartment by the divorced parties and adjudging eviction from the appartment of the party who particularly grossly disturbed the family peace. In all cases where the court's decision should be properly executed by the family court machine, a considerable deterioration of the way of execution took place. This resulted both from the lack of adequate interest in this problem on the part of family judges who were engaged mostly in jurisdiction, and from remissness of professional probation officers who were also burdened with many other tasks and whose work was supervised by family judges but in a minimal degree. In spite of their contact with many kinds of cases, family judges showed little interest in prevention. It was interesting to find out that also the former juvenile judges who had been accustomed to give a lot of attention to various preventive activities, now did not differ by any means in this respect from the former civil and criminal judges. Also the functioning of the "old" family courts was by no means superior to that of the "new” ones, and it was even inferior in some spheres - therefore, the standard of work of the courts was determined by other factors and not by the lack of experience. The analysis of decisions from the point of view of complexity of their approach to the whole of the problems existing within a given family gave no evidence as to any differences between decisions in the same kinds of cases issued by family courts on the one hand, and juvenile, civil, and criminal courts on the other. Also the anticipation that decisions of family courts would be more compact and complementary to each other if several different cases of members of the same family would be heard by the same court, came true but to a minimal extent. Firstly, the percentage of families towards which at least 2 decisions had been issued by a family court during its period of existence was considerably low, amounting to 25 per cent of families ever included in any legal proceedings. Even in the case of those family courts which had been functioning for 7 years, the percentage in question was not high, amounting to 32 per cent. Secondly, in spite of the principle of territorial division of cases among the judges, only in half of cases, all suits concerning a given family were heard by the same judge. Thirdly, due to the nature of a considerable number of cases, the material gathered for them during the proceedings was of no importance as regards the way of examination and the essence of decision issued in the next case (this concerns first of all suits for alimony). Eventually, only in every seventh case both the same judge had heard the former case as well as the present one, and in the former case material had been gathered which was valuable for the better knowledge of the family and the more relevant judgement. It should also be mentioned that in the case of many of the decisions, there was considerable probability that the verdict sentences would have been similar, had they been adjudged by another judge of the same court, or of civil or criminal court. Therefore, it was impossible to ascertain that the creation of family courts had considerably contributed to a greater complexity, compactness, and complementariness of judgements. The opinions on the functioning of family courts gathered from judges, probation officers, and solicitors have confirmed a number of remarks made during the analysis of court files and the direct examination of the conditions of work of the selected family courts. In spite of the fact that the very idea of creating family courts has been estimated favourably by the majority of the examined persons (62 per cent), a considerable part of them pointed to the following defects: too wide range of tasks of family courts, the resulting overwork which hindered adequate preventive activities, the domination of jurisdiction as compared with other tasks of the family court. One third of the respondents could not see any advantage in the creation of family courts. Half of them was of opinion that the introduction of family courts failed to increase the protection of children and the youth against demoralization (this was most frequently the opinion of the family judges themselves). The second questionnaire, concerning opinions and attitudes of family judges, revealed the statements of the former juvenile judges concerning family and its problems to be more complete and definite as compared with statements of the former civil and criminal judges, and to take into consideration more frequently the psychological, pedagogical, social in its broadest sense, and even medical, aspects of these problems. One should, however, bear in mind that, as revealed by the analysis of files, no evidence was found of better work of the former juvenile judges as compared with other family judges. In the final part of the present article an attempt was made to draw conclusions from the results of the study. Having discussed different possible variants of changing the competence of family courts, a definite model of a family court was suggested, characterized by a different internal structure, narrowed competence and a better defined position in the system of prevention of social maladjustment of children and the youth.

245-267

Authors: Andrzej Mościskier

Basically, the study concers three problems. Firstly, an attempt was made to explain the mechanism which led to the results obtained by other authors. They found a supposedly most rigorous attitude of the Polish society towards law breakers, which was to become manifest in the demands for relentless and severe punishment of such persons. This highly rigorous attitude has been confirmed in the present study too, yet only in answers to questions drawn up as generally as those put by the mentioned authors. As the level of abstractness of the questions is lowered, the rigorous attitude diminishes, which finds expression, among others, in the disapproval of a number of penalties applied by regulation during the execution of imprisonment. Secondly the attitude of the local community was presented not only towards prisoners, but also towards prison einployees. As compared with many other occupations, the prestige of prison employees is rather low, yet in spite of a certain social isolation, their general opinion is not negative. It is also worthy of attention that the sense of social distance between prisoners and community was les marked than expected. Thirdly, the attitude was described towards prison as a physical object and an institution in the local community. This problem was studies by means of questions about the opinion on the very fact of existence of such an object in twon, the possible impact the prison has on economy, supplies, etc., an the citizens’ feeling of safety. In this formulation, the results fail to point to the existence of markedly negative attitudes, though some socio-demographic features of the examined persons tend to differentiate their answers. The study was realized from 1979 till 1981. In spite of the considerable interval and the differences in the country's respective social situations, the answers given by the examined persons from both groups were nearly parallel to each other. In 1979, random samples of adults were examined, inhabitants of two towns, about 25 thousand inhabitants each, in which there were prisons. In one of these towns, the prison had been established over 20 years before, while in the second one, it was only a few years old. In each town, 200 persons were examined by means of a questionnaire, which makes the total of 400 examined persons. In 1981, 462 persons were examined by means of the same questionnaire, who were selected with the use of "Quota Sampling" from the population of 10 towns of 11 to 95 thousand of inhabitants, in which there were prisons. The study was intentionally realized in towns of medium population. The aim was to examine communities large enough for the prison not to dominate them on the one hand, and on the other hand, small enough to enable an assumption that a majority of inhabitants have a certain knowledge and opinions about the prison acquired through observation and nin-institutionalized flow of information. As regards the opinion on imprisonment, it should first of all be stressed that over 50 per cent of the examined persons are of opinion that the essential aim oi this type of penalty should be the resocialization of prisoners. About 23 per cent of answers concerning this problem referred to the idea of individual prevention; 12-18 per cent of the examined persons were of opinion that imprisonment should serve to protect the society from the criminal by isolating him for a certain period of time; about 6 per cent of answers pointed to retribution as the aim of punishment, while as few as 2-3 per cent considered the aim to be general prevention. However, to find out if the attitude of the examined persons was rigorous or tolerant, answers to other questions were more significant, that is those concerning the mothods of execution of imprisonment, i.e., the penalties and rewards applied towards prisoners and the rights they enjoy. Here, a significant trend appeared to turn from rigorous to tolerant attitudes as the level of generality of questions lowered. It seems that questions about certain abstract principles, which in the mind of an average man have no connection with any actual situation or person, provoked answers which hinted at a rigorous attitude; yet whenever the same respondent had to answer a question which allowed him to realize the details of a given situation or the position of a given persons in such circumstances, the tolerant attitude prevailed. Thus, for instance, as many as over 70 per cent of the examined persons approved of the most general statement that „in prison, strict discipline should reign”. When another question was asked, this time less generally formulated, if „all amenities of life and attractive activities should be reduced to a minimum”, the numbers of approving and disapproving answers were more or less equal, which points to the lowering of the level of rigorism. The answers to further questions concerning definite cases frankly contradict those given to the former questions and point to a markedly tolerant attitude. Thus, for example, the question if „a prisoner should have free access to newspapers, radio, and TV in his leisure time”, was answered in the affirmative by over 75 per cent of the examined persons. Also the questions about definite penalties and rewards applied towards prisoners were answered in a way which seems to point to the prevalence of tolerant attitudes over rigorism. The majority of the examined persons are for abolition or limitation of penalties provided by prison regulations and for granting the prisoners with a number of rights, such as unlimited receipt of parcels, letters, and visitors from the outside (prison regulations limit the number of such prisoners' contacts with the outside world and treat any extension of these contacts as a special reward). The examined persons were also for alegal regulation of the sphere of prisoners' work, pointing to the need for making the working conditions in prison resemble those generally found in State-controlled economy. Also the rational attitude of the public opinion towards prison should be stressed. The prison is perceived as an institution which could play a greater part than before in the life of the local community, particularly through including prisoners in the borader social unit and increasing their participation in the town’s economic activity. The citizens’ expectations point in this direction, accompanied also by the favourable opinion as to the extending of the prisoners' range of personal liberty outside the prison walls. In this connection, also the attitude of fear of the prisoners was much less marked than had been expected, as well as the bias against them, both of which appear in principle only as regards a small group of dangerous criminals. The attitude of the local community towards prison employees is a completely separate problem. It is characterized by a peculiar ambivalence: on the one hand, prison employees enjoy a good reputation as persons and members of the local community, their financial status perceived as decidedly higher than that of an average citizen. On the other hand, however, the social status of a prison employee is estimated as very low, as compared with other professions, which is accompanied by a stressed disapproval revealed by the examined persons of the very fact of working in a prison. This may lead to a conclusion that in the social consciousness disfavourable opinion persists as to the human relations in prison and the nature of work of prison employees. This is an additional factor which speaks for changes in the system of execution of the penalty of deprivation of liberty which would modernize it and adjust it to the contemporary progressive trends in the world. The present study has not only confirmed the existence of social support for such changes but it has also revealed the conducive atmosphere to a far-reaching reform in this field.