Archiwum Kryminologii (Archives of Criminology)

55-112

Authors: Helena Kołakowska

The research conducted by the Department of criminology of the Institute of Legal sciences has covered 240 juvenile recidivists in Warsaw, and 260 juvenile recidivists in Łodź, Katowice, Cracow and Białystok. In a total of 500 juvenile recidivists there were 463 boys and 37 girls. The age of the juveniles covered by the investigation was as follows: 116 recidivists were between 7 and 12 years of age, while 384 were between 13 and 16. The research carried out in Warsaw in the years 1954 to 1955 consisted in examining judicial records, in environment interviews, interviews at school, at the place of work, as well as in psychological and medical examinations. All the cases of recidivism, whether formal or actual, which came before the juvenile court, were included in the research. Follow-up studies, carried out several times, have made it possible to establish what were the further destinies of the juvenile recidivists after the lapse of some three years from the termination of the research. The research carried out in the four provincial juvenile courts was less detailed and did not comprise psychological or medical examination. Moreover, they could not be supplemented with follow-up studies. All the cases of juvenile recidivists which came before the juvenile courts in six months of the year 1954 were included in the research. The results of the follow-up studies in Warsaw are the following: It appeared that out of the 240 juvenile recidivists examined 116 continued to commit criminal offences within the following three years, 32 of them did not, to be sure, commit offences, but they could be considered as but partly reformed considering their unsettled way of life, their unsystematic work and the whole of their social attitude, while 54 had completely mended their ways. The remaining 38 examined persons could not be included into any of the preceding groups, since part of them still remained in correctional institutions and concerning the rest of them reliable data were lacking. Thus out of 202 juvenile recidivists in Warsaw the percentage of those who continued to commit offences within a three-year period after the termination of our research amounted to 57 per cent, and, over and above that, a further 16 per cent could not be considered as truly reformed. 1. Out of the 500 juveniles recidivists examined only 49 per cent have both parents living, 30 per cent are being brought up only under the care of solitary mothers, 16 per cent have a stepfather and mother, or else a stepmother and father, 3 per cent are brought up by a solitary father, and 2 per cent are orphans who remain under the care of relations. The percentage of factory workers among the fathers amounted to 65 per cent, 13 per cent of the fathers were unskilled manual workers, 10 per cent were clerical workers, 4 per cent were handicraftsmen, and 2 per cent farmers. 32.3 per cent of the mothers did not have any trade and had never worked, 30 per cent were employed as workers, 2s per cent worked manually as cleaners, laundresses, while 9 per cent were clerical workers. In the families where both parents are alive both father and mother worked in 52 per cent of the cases, and the father only - in 48 per cent. In the families where the mother is solitary, as many as 90 per cent of the mothers work. The material situation in the families investigated was described as bad in 47 per cent of the families, middling in 36 per cent and good - in 17 per cent. Taking into consideration both the social outlook of the families and an evaluation of the total of educational factors at work in the family home, four categories of families have been singled out: Family Group A, the most negative, where we have to do, first and foremost, with a particularly intense alcoholism of the fathers, a complete neglect of the home by the parents, bad relations between the parents, a delinquency of the father, a bad attitude towards the child, a lack of care for the child and control over it, and similar factors. These are family environments of the lowest moral level, in which the habitual drunkenness of the fathers has led to a decay of family life. Of such families there were 101, i.e. 20.2 per cent. Family Group B includes the families which also deserve a negative evaluation, but the intensity of negative factors in them is less than in the Group A families. The alcoholism of the fathers is also a typical factor here, only it assumes slightly lesser proportions, while the mothers show more care for their home. A lack of protection of the child, bad educational methods, bad material conditions are present in these families too, just as they are in Group A. of such families there were 125, i.e. 25 per cent. Family Group C consists, first and foremost, of those families in which the children are usually brought up by a solitary mother (42.5 per cent of the cases), who cannot cope with all her duties, and in which the children are deprived of proper care and control. Moreover, in those families where there is a stepfather or stepmother, a very bad attitude to the child and very faulty educational methods have been found to exist. Of such families there were 162, i.e. 32.4 per cent. Family Group D is composed of the families described as ,,good home environment", in which investigators have failed to find any factors negative in the educational sense. Both the moral level of the parents, their mutual relations and the care of the child were beyond any obvious criticism. Of such families there were only 112, i.e. 22.4 per cent. It ought to be stressed, however, that on the basis of the investigation which has been carried out it was not possible to establish properly either the whole of the complicated factors which go to form the educational atmosphere of the home, or fully to elucidate the father's and mother's emotional attitude to their child. It is, therefore, probable, that a detailed analysis of such good family environments (Group D) could yet bring to light the sources of such psychical experiences and emotional conflicts with the children under investigation, as did influence them, causing character deviations. In analyzing how, apart from the delinquency factor, data concerning the degree of demoralization of the five hundred juvenile recidivists investigated looked in the several family groups, and making use of such factors only as the degree of neglecting school work, the amount of playing truant from school, the number of flights from home, strolling about the streets in the company of demoralized schoolmates, etc., on the basis of the Chi-square test a significant relationship has been stated to exist between the type of family environment and the intensity of the demoralization of the juveniles investigated. What is noteworthy, besides, is the fact that among the brothers and sisters of the investigated there were the following percentages of children above 10 years of age, showing symptoms of very serious demoralization: in Group A families - 90 per cent, in Group B families - 32 per cent, in Group C families - 30 per cent, and in Group D families - only 8 per cent. The data concerning the further destinies of 202 Warsaw juvenile recidivists after a lapse of three years also testify to the fact that there exists a significant relationship between the type of family environment and the recidivism or else improvement of the investigated in the future. Of the juveniles seriously demoralized and continuing to steal systematically only 15.2 per cent came from Group D homes, i.e. those with a good reputation, while among the juveniles who had completely mended their ways a mere 7.4 per cent came from the worst family environments (Group A). Among the investigated brought up in those worst family environments as many as 68.5 per cent continued to steal systematically after a lapse of three years, while among the investigated who belonged to Group D families only 26.6 per cent continued to show recidivism on a large scale. 2. On the basis of the results of psychological and psychiatric examination it can be stated that 42 per cent of the Warsaw juvenile recidivists exhibited various pathological traits, while among those of the investigated who later on proved unreformed the percentage of juveniles with pathological traits amounted to 53.4 per cent, among the partly reformed - to 40.6 per cent, and among the entirely reformed - to 18.5 per cent. The percentage of children with psychopahatic traits and of children with symptoms of neurosis together constituted 22 per cent of the total of those examined in Warsaw (42 cases). Of children with symptoms of a post-traumatic state there were 16, of sufferers from epilepsia - 7, with post-encephalitic disorders - 3. Mental deficiency (feeblemindedness) has been stated in g per cent of the cases. Even though the majority of the recidivists who continued to commit criminal offences in the period of the next three years exhibited pathological traits, yet 47 per cent of the recidivists, with whom no such traits were found, also committed offences. On the other hand, among the entirely reformed there were 18.5 per cent of such recidivists who also exhibited pathological traits. Although on the basis of the Chi-square test we find a significant relationship to exist between pathological traits and the lack or the presence of moral improvement, yet we ought not to forget the dependence between other factors and the lack of improvement, which has been established in the course of tests. 3. All the 500 juvenile recidivists examined committed thefts, even those few (16 per cent) who were tried for various other offences, also committed thefts. Barely 8 per cent of the boys examined committed thefts individually, while a typical phenomenon are thefts committed by them in a group of juvenile accomplices. 68 per cent of the investigated acted in gangs of three or more. 43 per cent of the juvenile recidivists (boys) began to steal between the 7th and the 10th year of their lives, and 28 per cent between the 11th and 12th. There exists a significant relationship between the early starting of delinquent activities and recidivism later on. Out of the investigated with whom the first thefts took place between the 7th and the 10th year of their lives as many as 72.5 per cent continued to steal during the period of follow-up studies, while only 11.4 per cent reformed. Similarly, those recidivists who had begun stealing at the age of from 11 to 12 continued to steal systematically in 68.4 per cent of the cases. On the other hand, such recidivists with whom the first thefts took place only at the. age of 13 or 14, or even of 15or 16, later on figured in the entirely reformed groups in 44 per cent and 52 per cent respectively. There also exists a significant association between the length of the period of committing thefts and the further destinies of the investigated. Those juvenile recidivists who had previously been stealing for from 3 to 4 years and from 5 to 9 years, later on figured in the ,,unreformed" group to the amount of 69 per cent and 63.5 per cent respectively. On the other hand, those juveniles with whom the period of committing thefts did not exceed two years formed almost equal percentages in the unreformed groups (52 per cent and 48 per cent respectively). The results of the investigation seem to speak in favor of the view that the younger the age of the juvenile delinquent, and the longer the period of his criminal activities, the bigger the probability that he will continue to commit thefts for at least several years to come. Moreover, those juvenile offenders who had started stealing at the age of from 7 to 10 years continued to steal then systematically in 85 per cent of the cases, while those juveniles who had started stealing only after completing their 13th or 14th year of age, later on stole only sporadically, at least in an overwhelming majority of the cases. Moreover, there exists a significant relationship between the systematic character of committing thefts and the lack of improvement later on. Out of the juvenile recidivists who stole ,systematically only 14 per cent were found, after the lapse of three years, in the entirely reformed group, while among those who stole only sporadically the percentage amounted to as many as 47 per cent. 4. The majority of the juvenile recidivists stole, first and foremost, money, and, apart from money, food articles and single articles of clothing. OnIy 11 per cent of the investigated went in for stealing objects of greater value, such as watches, bicycles, etc. A typical theft concerned but a small number of objects and the damage thereby caused was, as a rule, negligible. The place where thefts are most frequently perpetrated are shops and kiosks, and only after them - the family home and the school. Depending on the age of the investigated and on various lengths of the periods during which they committed offences there are, of course, differences, both as to the objects of theft and as to the places where the latter were committed. The thefts committed by the 37 recidivist girls investigated differed from the thefts committed by the boys. The girls stole almost exclusively money and articles of clothing, and it was only in exceptional cases that they committed thefts in shops. Girls began stealing a great deal later in Iife than the boys, and, as a rule, stole alone, without partners. The last chapter of the contribution discusses critically the practice of juvenile courts 'concerning the fight against the recidivism of juvenile offenders and the activities of the probation officers and correctional institutions.

165-214

Authors: Stanisław Szelhaus, Zofia Baucz-Straszewicz

Investigation has covered 100 recidivists between the ages of 18 and 21, serving their term in jail; its purpose was to bring to light the scope of social misfitting and delinquency of the individuals with whom delinquency and recidivism seem to be of recent origin. Investigation has covered the individuals domiciled in Warsaw, who have been punished for at least the second time after having reached the age when penal responsibility begins (i.e. their seventeenth year of age) and have gone to jail for at least the second time. The investigation, started at the end of 1956 and finished in the middle of 1958, was conducted in two Warsaw jails and three provincial ones. All young adult recidivists with a condemning sentence who were at that time in jail were investigated, without making any selection of the cases, apart from the criteria enumerated above. The investigation, however, has taken into consideration data from judicial records and prison records, as well as from the Convicts, Register. Talks with the mothers of the convicts have provided material concerning the family home, the diseases which the convicted person had gone through, his pre-school and school days, way of life, etc. Psychological and medical examination has also been carried out. Young adult recidivists have been examined on an average, from four to five times within a few hours. In the case of those of the investigated who have been released from prison before December 1st , 1958, follow-up studies were carried out, to comprise a period of from six months to one year. 1. In investigating 100 young adult recidivists past record it was established that as many as 79 of them had been previously tried by a juvenile court (even though the law-court which tried them after they had completed the seventeenth year of age knew about that in a mere 23 cases). Apart from that, another 12 had committed thefts during their minority without being prosecuted before the law-courts. Consequently a mere 9 of all the investigated began to commit criminal offences after they were 16. The beginnings of delinquency took place in 19 per cent of the cases before the tenth year of their rives, and in 68 per cent before the thirteenth; it is highly probable however, that in reality the beginnings of their delinquency were earlier than that. Investigation into the further destinies of 79 investigated persons who had been tried while still minors has established the fact that 85 per cent of their number found themselves in jail before the lapse of two years from the moment of being released from a house of correction, or from their last trial before a juvenile court. As far as the 43 investigated. persons are concerned who had previously been in institutions for delinquent boys (training schools), as many as 27 were arrested before the lapse of six months from their release from such an institution, 12 remained at large for periods ranging from six months to one year and only 4 from one year to two years. The total of the data concerning the number of trials before both juvenile and ordinary courts looked as follows: out of 100 recidivists 13 had been tried twice, 20 - 3 times, 29 – 4 times, 17 - 5 times, 11 - 6 times, 10 - 7 or more times. Consequently 67 per cent of the investigated had already been tried 4 or more times, and every fifth one of them - 6 or more times. As far as their first term in jail is concerned, 16 of the investigated found themselves in jail before having attained the age of criminal responsibility, as a rule owing to their having given false birthdata at the time of their arrest, 55 at the age of 17, 26 at the age of 18 and a mere 3 at 19 years of age. Nearly one half of the recidivists had spent more time in jail than at large (from the moment of having reached the age of criminal responsibility), while the longest spell at large between one arrest and the next amounted to: below six months with 49 per cent of the investigated, from six months to one year with 33 per cent, while it was more than one year with a mere 18 per cent. Taking into consideration the kind of offences committed, we may divide the material under investigation into the following groups: A. Young adult recidivists punished exclusively for offences against property (as a rule, thefts) - 39 cases. B. Young adult recidivists punished exclusively for offences against life and health (grievous injury to the body, and slight bodily harm, brawls, infringement of bodily inviolability as well as for insulting a functionary of the police). There were only 10 offenders who committed such offences out of ,,hooligan" motives only, among all those investigated. C. Young adult recidivists punished for offences against property as well as for grievous injury to the body and slight bodily harm, brawls, infringement of bodily inviolability and insult to police functionaries - 51 cases. A. As for the persons investigated who had been punished only for offences against property (nearly exclusively for theft), they began to commit offences at the age of from 9 to 12 years, i.e. earlier than the rest. The first thefts, as a rule, took place in the family home. The majority of the perpetrators had been punished several times for theft by a juvenile court; one half of these, recidivists are criminals whose principal source of income are thefts, and, all of them had spent more time in jail than at large. It should be emphasized that both recidivists belonging to this group and the remaining ones had, in an overwhelming majority of cases (91 per cent), lived in their parents', or else their mothers’, homes, and were able to have their meals at home (70 per cent). B. The beginnings of delinquency with the persons investigated who have been punished only for infringement of bodily inviolability, damage to the body, brawls and insults to police functionaries are considerably later and take place about the thirteenth to the sixteenth year of age. Similarly, the rate of penalties inflicted is smaller, and the spells of liberty much longer than with the thief group. Nearly all such acts (accosting and beating up a passer-by in the street, insult by word of mouth or beating up a policeman, etc.) were committed while under the influence of drink. Nearly All of the investigated who belong to this group systematically abuse alcohol, and their delinquency is closely connected with their drunkenness. C. The most numerous group of persons convicted, those punished both for theft and for damage to the body, brawls, infringement of bodily inviolability and insult to a policemen, may be divided into two sub-groups: Sub-Group One, 30 strong, consists of individuals who commit more thefts then other offences. They do not fundamentally differ from the individuals who belong to the thief group, either as to the objects of theft and their value, or as to the method of committing their crime. Here, too, we have to do with individuals for whom thefts constitute their principal source of income. Sub-Group Two, 27 strong, is composed of the individuals who commit more offences of injury to the body, insulting policemen and similar offences commited out of so-called hooligan motives, than thefts. This group approaches the individuals discussed in point B. It is characteristic of them that 11 (out of a total of 15 recorded in our materials) of perpetrators of robbery are to be found in this group. In the material investigated by us robbery goes hand in hand almost exclusively with offences committed from hooligan motives. When we evaluate the general degree of social misfitting of 100 of the investigated we may state that as many as 82 per cent of them belong to the category of manifold recidivists, who, as a rule, work only, if at all, by fits and starts, and are in close connection with the criminal environment. Particularly bad in this respect was the case of 35 of the investigated. 2. In so far as the family environment of young adult recidivists is concerned, we meet with a large percentage (53 per cent) of half-orphans; out of that number in 39 cases it was the mother who took care of the person investigated, in 5 cases - the father, while in the remaining 9 cases there was a stepfather or stepmother. 79 of the fathers were workers (of which 34 unskilled ones), 16 – clerical workers, 5 had their own artisan workshops. The majority of the mothers also earned their living, as a rule, as unskilled workers. The extent of alcoholism in the families under investigation is very considerable: 38 of the fathers can be considered drunkards - for many years they have been systematically drinking, they get drunk several times a week, spend their wages on drink. In the remaining families 29 fathers drink, on the average, from twice to three times a week, while 32 drink only sporadically and do not get drunk. Taking into consideration the educational atmosphere of the home, as well as the state of care and control in the environment during the period of the minority of the persons investigated, it was established that in 58 families the whole set of educationally definitely harmful factors was present. 3. The data obtained during the investigation concerning the personality of young recidivists speak in favor of the view that the latter are characterized by features which prove their low psychical maturity, and, in particular, a domination of impulsive reactions, a considerable and uncontrollable thoughtlessness, acting in the wake of motives responsible for the desire to make the most of life, in the form of continual entertainments and adventures, and a desire to impose on one’s coevals. A striking thing here is a lack of planning, absence of reflections on their future life, as well as of any more serious considerations for work, which, with them, is not identified with the idea of any definite trade; there is also a failure to appreciate critically the effects of one's own behavior. As far as the level of intelligence is concerned, only 11 of the investigated showed signs of mental deficiency. There were 18 individuals of more than average intelligence. A psychological and psychopathological analysis of the investigated shows that 39 of those recidivists are to be included in the category of persons with personality disorders, who are usually described by the name of psychopaths. Yet it does not seem possible, on the basis of the investigation, to delimit the cases which could be diagnosed as psychopathic from such in which the normal development of the personality has suffered serious disturbances, mostly as a result of serious psychical shocks and psychical conflicts during their childhood. There can be no doubt, however, that the psychical qualities of the investigated cannot be squeezed within the framework of even a broad norm adopted, that their personality has pathological traits which exert an essential influence upon their behavior. In comparison with this most numerous group of 39 of the investigated, who are usually approached from the point of view of psychopathy, other pathological cases are not numerous in the material under investigation: with 6 of the investigated we have to do with encephalopathy after skull lesions, with 4 - with psychical changes after an 3 encephalitis, while 3 of the investigated suffer from epilepsy. In analyzing the abnormal personality traits with these 39 recidivists, the following re-occurring psychical qualities and reaction attitudes (incidentally mentioned in conversation by the investigated themselves) have been met with: a great irritability, lack of self-control, a tendency to provoke conflicts owing to an impulsive pattern of behavior, considerable difficulties in trying to subordinate oneself to various kinds of discipline, frequent states of depression and bad feeling, o tension and anxiety. It ought to be emphasized that out of 39 recidivists with serious personality disorders there were as many as 30 cases of very bad family environment in childhood. Besides, in all this material in which the family home so frequently assumes a negative outlook, it is noteworthy how many of young adult recidivists showed no emotional attachment whatsoever to their parents, including a large percentage of individuals of a very aggressive attitude. Among 47 young adults of a definitely aggressive attitude there were 30 lacking any emotional ties with the family home, and among the others there were only 10 free from an aggressive attitude. It is a significant thing that it is precisely with those of the investigated, revealing clear tendencies to aggression, over-impulsive, uncontrolled, that, in comparison with the other investigated, the various emotional conflicts appear much more conspicuously conflicts going back to childhood days, caused by an atmosphere in the family home (a feeling of loneliness due to the lack of manifestations of any tenderer feeling on the part of the mother, jealousy of a brother or sister, because the father liked them better, experiences of fear evoked by the brutality of a drunken father and an ambivalent attitude towards him, etc.) 4. As far as their mode of life was, concerned, only 16 of the investigated, who worked systematically, led a life similar to that of the generality of young people of the same age and of similar social environment. With the remaining ones we find a definitely negative attitude to work, while 32 of them worked very unsystematically, and 52 did but odd jobs or did not work at all. An overwhelming majority of the investigated spent most of their time strolling about the town, sitting in restaurants or nighthouses etc. Alcoholism reached big proportions with 56 of the investigated. They drink at least four or five times per week and frequently get drunk, while the majority of this group drink, and get drunk, every day. All the sons of alcohol addicts belong to this group. 27 of the investigated drink alcohol from once to three times per week, and it is only of 17 of them that it can be said that they either do not drink at all, or else drink only on rare occasions. 5. In our investigation, problems concerning the penalty and prison have been taken into consideration, first and foremost, under two of their aspects: whether or not, and if so, to what extent, the penalty of imprisonment does act, as a deterrent upon the persons investigated, according to their own opinion, and what influence a spell in prison had previously exerted upon them. Nearly all of them (70 answers have been obtained) believe that a penalty of imprisonment can act as a deterrent only on those who have not been in prison yet. Afterwards, that deterrent action ceases, since the prisoner comes to the conclusion that ,,you can get used to anything and bear any conditions". All the investigated also think that a spell in prison, so far from favouring their reformation, derailed them even further. Questioned whether after serving their present penalty they would go on committing criminal offences, 45 of the investigated answered indecisively, while admitting the possibility of their further committing offences, 15 declared bluntly that they would go on stealing, and a more 10 asserted that they would never again appear in the dock (their previous offences had, as a rule, to do with alcoholism). After the investigation was terminated, the further destinies of the 100 young adult recidivists who had been investigated were checked and it appeared. That 42 of them still served prison sentences, 29 had been released and remained at large, while another 29 had been once more arrested after their release for the commission of a new crime. Of the latter group, 17 remained free less than six months, 9 - from six months to one year, and only 3 for more than one year. It ought to be emphasized that out of the 29 investigated persons who were not arrested again after having been released from prison, 10 had been free for only about six months at the time of the last follow-up study. The results of the investigation bear witness to the fact that 80 per cent of young adult recidivists systematically commit criminal offences and belong to the category of the socially entirely depraved. The fundamental conclusion boils down to the following questions: The prophylaxis of young adults recidivism is closely connected with the problem of the recidivism of juvenile delinquents and with the problem of the earliest possible interception of the process of the juvenile's demoralization. With regard to recidivists aged from 17 to 20 the imprisonment penalty ought to be altogether eliminated and long-term educational-cum-correctional methods applied, similar to those used with older juveniles with a high minimum term (two years). Young adult recidivists ought to be submitted to detailed psychological and psychiatrical examination in order to find and apply the appropriate, individualized methods of re-education.

241-295

Authors: Jerzy Jasiński

The Polish criminal law treats everybody who has completed his or her seventeenth year as an ,,adult" and does not provide for any separate principles of responsibility, nor for the possibility of applying any special means with regard to young adults, i.e. persons in the transition age between minority and full adult age. The Department of Criminology of the Institute of Legal sciences has, in the course of its investigation concerning the delinquency of juveniles (up to 17 years of age) and of young adults, singled out offenders between the seventeenth and the twentieth year of age, and carried out research on the problem of the forms which their delinquency assumed in the light of judicial statistics. During the period under investigation the total number of persons age 17 to 20 among the whole population of Poland amounted to an approximate figure of between 1 800 000 and 1 900 000 persons, including from 910 000 to 960 000 men and from 900 000 to 960 000 women (the total of Poland’s population aged over 17 amounted to from 16 600 000 to 19 000 000 people, of whom between 7 700 000 and 9 200 000 were men, and between 8 900 000 and 9 800 000 – women). The materials of judicial statistics on the basis of which our calculations have been compiled proceed from the summing up of the records entered on special cards made by the law-courts in the event of their having convicted an accused person, and with regard to every person convicted by the law-court in question for a felony or a misdemeanor , i.e. for acts provided for in the 1932 Criminal Code, still in force, or else in special criminal statutes, and for which the penalty is one of more than three months custody or a fine of more than 4500 zlotys. The above-mentioned cards, after the use has been made of them for statistical purposes, are preserved in the record of convicts in order to make possible the establishment of any previous delinquency of an apprehended offender. Because of the law-courts frequent failing to send such cards to the Register of Convicts, recourse has been had to another source of information concerning convictions, namely judicial reports' which have yielded data making it possible to go in for an approximate estimation of the actual number of all the persons convicted by the law-courts, and being over the age of 17. The diminution of the number of persons convicted in 1953 as compared with 1952 is a result of the carrying out of the Amnesty Act of the end of 1952, while that of 1957 as compared with 1955 seems to be connected to a considerable extent, with the very serious increase, within the year 1957, of the number of criminal cases awaiting to be tried by the courts. During the 1951 to 1957 period the rate of convictions pronounced against adults increased by 19 per cent, while the corresponding figure for young adults was 26 per cent. The delinquency coefficients quoted above show that in 1951 one out of each 64 young adult inhabitants of Poland was convicted by the law-courts, while in 1957 it was one out of every 57. If we take into consideration all the convicted persons adults and juveniles together, it will appear that in the years 1951 to 1957 persons aged under 17 years (juveniles) constituted between 9 and 16 per cent of the total of persons convicted by the courts; persons aged under 21 (juveniles and. young adults together) - from 21 to 27 per cent; persons under 25 years of age - from 34 to 40 per cent, and persons under 30 years of age - between 53 and 57 per cent. The convicted persons aged 17 to 29 formed a group comprising from 46 to 48 per cent of the total of convicted persons in every single year of the 1951 to 1957 period, so that the age of nearly one in every two convicted persons was comprised within the limits of from 17 to 29 years. The researched number of delinquency coefficients provide us with an appropriate knowledge of the rate of convictions of young adults as compared with further age groups of convicted adults, as well as of the differences in the rate of convictions of men and women. Thus the rate of convictions in the pre-war period (1937) was considerably higher than in the years 1951 to 1957. Particularly big differences, yielding coefficients nearly twice as high, can be noticed with regard to men aged 17 to 20, 21 to 24 and 25 to 29. On the other hand, the rate of convictions of women in 1937 very closely approximated the present-day rate. In the years 1951 to 1957 the amount of young adults delinquency coefficients for men towered high above the coefficients for the remaining age groups (the only exception can be recorded in 1957, with regard to the 25 to 29 years age group). It ought, however, to be emphasized that the coefficients for the 21 to 24 years age group for men are somewhat lower than they ought to be, since they have been calculated for all men within the above age limit while in a reality number of them who were then doing military service would be tried by courts-martial, the sentences of which have not been taken into consideration in the present contribution. Among women (similarly as in 1937) the highest rate of convictions was that for women aged 21 to 24, while the coefficients for young adults were lower than those for the 30 to 39 of age group. The mutual relation between the number of convicted men and women has undergone a considerable change as compared with the pre-war period; this change was most clearly marked in the initial years of the 1951 to 1957 period; it consisted in a diminution of the difference between the number of men and women convicted. In the years 1951 to 1957 the highest rate of convictions of young adult offenders (incidentally the same was true of juveniles as well) was shown by the two largest cities, Warsaw and Łódź, the voivodeships of the Western Territories and the most urbanized and industrialized area in the whole of the country - the voivodeship of Katowice. The information quoted so far was based on the estimative evaluation of the actual number of persons convicted, which we have mentioned above. Since an analogous estimation of the data concerning the kinds of offences committed by the persons convicted in the years 1951 to 1957 seemed too risky, in discussing the information concerning them we have relied directly upon the calculations furnished in the conviction cards made by the law-courts. Young adults delinquency seems to be considerably less differentiated than that of adults: first and foremost, offences property, and then against life and health, constitute those acts for which nearly three out of every four young adults punished by the courts in the years 1951 to 1957 were convicted. Apart from these two categories, it was only the offences against documents, in practice consisting mostly in remaking or forging various kinds of certificates and others documents, that young adults were more numerously represented than adults as a total. The percentage of persons convicted for offences against property among the several age groups of convicts clearly diminished as we passed from the younger to the older age groups. Among the older group of juveniles they still constituted 83 per cent, while among young adults – a mere 50.9 per cent. In the case of convictions for offences against life and health the opposite was true, while such offenders were most numerous among young adults (as much as 22.5 per cent of all the persons convicted in this group), while among the groups of adults nearest in age they were already somewhat less numerous. Speaking of the most important differences in the structure of the delinquency of young adults men and women, it may be worth while to note the fact that among women aged 17 to 20 there were relatively fewer convictions for offences against social property that among men of the same groups, and rather more convictions for offences against individual property; similarly, there were several times less convictions among women of the same age for offences against life and health, authorities and offices, as well as against morals, while women were several times more frequently convicted for offences against documents. The most important changes in the structure of young adults delinquency in the course of the 1951 to 1957 period were: a diminution of the share of those convicted for offences against property (60.4 per cent in 1951 and 58.3 per cent in 1952 – as against 52.2 per cent in 1955 and 50.9 per cent in 1957), and a very considerable increase of the percentage of young adults convicted for offences against life and health (from 11.8 per cent in 1951 and 15.1 per cent in 1952 - to 20.2 per cent in 1955 and 22.5 per cent in 1957). The latter change is attributed, first and foremost, to an increase in the activities of the police in pursuing such offences. Among the young adults convicted for offences against property (whether social or individual) the tremendous majority consisted of persons convicted for theft (92 per cent and 74 per cent respectively). In 1957 394 young adults were convicted for robbery (out of a total of 1004 persons convicted for the same offence). On the other hand, among the persons convicted for such offences as the receiving of stolen goods (a total of 5457 persons in 1957) there were relatively very few young adults (522 persons), similarly as in the case of convictions for fraud (119 young adults as against 1225 adult persons convicted in 1957). About 28 per cent of all the young adults convicted in 1957 for offences against life and health were prosecuted for infringement of bodily inviolability (1620 persons), 28 per cent for inflicting slight bodily harm (1655 persons). Nearly one out of every three young adults (31 per cent, 1857 persons) convicted for offences against life and health in 1957 was convicted for participation in a brawl (if he used a dangerous tool or else if the result was death or grievous injury to the body). Within the same year 38 young adults were convicted of murder and manslaughter, out of a total number of 263 adults, 10 young adults of infanticide, out of a total number of 31 adults, and 51 young adults of unintentionally causing death, out of a total number of 333 adults. Out of a total of 134 young adults convicted for sexual offences in 1957 there were 55 who had committed immoral acts with juveniles under 15 years of age, 64 were convicted for rape, 1 for incest, 8 for various forms of abetting to prostitution and deriving profits from it, and 6 for various other offences included in this group.