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Un regard sur la criminalité dans les états ex-communistes européens

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Jasiński J.

Contemporary Central and East European Law

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1999

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nr 121-124

115-134

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Barbara Kowalska-Ehrlich, Młodzież nieprzystosowana społecznie a prawo (The Socially Maladjusted Youth and Law), Warsaw 1988, Wydawnictwo Prawnicze, pp. 240

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Jasiński J.

Contemporary Central and East European Law

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1988

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nr 3-4(79-80)

85-88

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Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w 1985 r. Część I: Wzory zachowań

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Jasiński J.

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nr XVI

7-100

EN

THE SURVEYS Two consecutive alcohol consumption surveys were carried out in Poland in 1980 and 1985. In both of them quota samples of population 16 years of age and over were used, and the sizes of the samples were 1972 and 1808 respectively. The surveys were sponsored by the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology which is responsible for funding research on a broad range of topics related to alcohol, its effects, use and misuse. The fieldwork was carried our by specially trained interviewers of the Centre for Public Opinion Survey and Programme studies of the state Committee for Radio and TV in Warsaw, a well established public opinion poll institute working already for more than 30 years. The majority of items included in the questionnaires used in each survey were identical, only some were altered, dropped entirely, or substituted for by other formulations. The preliminary part of both questionnaires concerned the relations of the respondents with other people. This was followed by a group of several questions related to the last drinking occasion: place and company of drinking, kind and amount of alcohol consumed, and the reason for drinking. In the 1985 survey more detailed information on the last occasion of drinking was collected, viz. separate questions were asked in relation to the last occasion of consumption of spirits and that of the consumption of wine, as well as on the duration of these occasions. The persons who had not consumed alcohol during the twelve months preceding the interview were asked whether they had ever drunk before, and what the reasons were for their being teetotallers. All the respondents were requested to tell about their pleasant and unpleasant experiences with alcohol, and whether alcohol helped them or caused trouble in some situations listed in the questionnaire, and pertaining to their social and professional life. Apart from that, the respondents were asked to express their approval or disapproval of several statements concerning good and bad consequences of drinking. In this part of the questionnaire, in the 1985 survey several alterations were introduced in comparison with the former survey. What remained unchanged in the questions were those on being victimized during the last twelve months while drunk, or by a drunk person. The questions on drinking in excess or more often than desired, or binge drinking-asked in the 1980 survey - were replaced in the 1985 survey by questions forming the CAGE questionnaire. Other questions asked in both surveys concerned the consumption of moonshine alcohol and drinking at work. The concluding part of the questionnaires was designed to obtain information on the respondents age, sex, education, place of residence, kind of work, etc. In the above surveys, the-last-occasion approach was applied in order to estimate the size and the pattern of alcohol intake by the respondents. This approach is adopted in the majority of Polish alcohol consumption surveys, following the example of a Finnish researcher P. Kuusi. Both surveys were carried out in mid-September, i.e. after-summer holidays, during a normal working month, without any important religious or national festivities, which would have changed to some extent the ordinary drinking practices. THE BEVERAGES During the years 1980-1985, the size of the apparent consumption of alcoholic beverages changed considerably. According to the official data derived from the statistics on sales of commodities, in 1980 the per capita consumption amounted to 8.4 litres of pure alcohol, of which 71 per cent was drunk in spirits,15 per cent- in wine, and 14 per cent -in beer. The 1985 figures were: 6,8 litres, 67, 15 and 18 per cent respectively. It looks as if the total consumption decreased substantially (by 19 per cent), but the structure of beverages consumed remained fairly stable. However , according to the opinion shared by the majority of specialists on the subject, the drop in the officially recorded consumption was associated with a marked increase in moonshine alcohol, which resulted in raising the total consumption to at least the 1980 level. The results of the survey seem to support this assertion. The per capita self-reported consumption of alt alcoholic beverages amounted to 5.6 and 5,9 litres of pure alcohol in 1980, and 1985 respectively. Thus, instead of the 1985 drop, a slight increase occurred (by 5 per cent). Moreover, while. the self-reported consumption of the majority of the beverages remained stable a large increase was noted in the home-made beverages: the illegally distilled moonshine alcohol (spirits) and the legally made fruit wine. The consumption of moonshine spirits was in 1985 higher than that in 1980 by 130 per cent and the consumption of fruit wine was higher by 60 per cent. In1985,one-scventh of all alcoholic beverages consumed were home-made, while in 1980 - only one-thirteenth. As a result, the share of spirits in the total amount of alcohol consumed – whether legally or illegally distilled in 1985 exceeded the 71 per cent level of 1980. Between the years 1980 and 1985 the proportion of consumers of fruit wine and spirits within the population remained stable, and that of other beverages increased. In particular, the number of those who drank moonshine spirits doubled. With the exception of fruit wine drunk in 1985 by nearly one-third of men as well as women 16 years of age and over, other beverages were consumed by far more men than women. This was particularly the case as regards beer which was drunk by 70 per cent of men and only 20 per cent of women, and moonshine spirits which were drunk by 30 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women. Spirits, which in Poland means mostly vodka, were consumed by 85 per cent of men and 62 per cent of women, and wine by 46 and 39 per cent respectively. FREQUENCY AND AMOUNT The-last-occasion approach adopted in the surveys consists not only in asking the respondents of how much and of how long ago they had drunk for the last time each of, the alcoholic beverages enumerated in the questionnaire, but also in assuming that the occasions reported were typical for the ways the respondents drank. Frequency of drinking depends heavily, among other things, on the kind of' beverage. In the Polish culture, wine is the less frequently drunk alcoholic beverage. Two-thirds of its consumers drink it at most once a month, and half of all its consumers - at most once every three months. Home-made fruit wine is being drunk even less often. Only one in five or six wine consumers drink it once a week or more often. The consumers of spirits seem to be divided into two distinct groups, one formed by occasional drinkers (at most once a month) and the other by frequent drinkers (several times a month or even several times a week). The first group consists of one-third, and the other one of more than half of all spirits drinkers. One in five of them drinks spirits several times a week. Most evenly distrributed on the frequency scale of drinking were the consumers of beer. Nearly as many drank it every day, every week, every month or every three months. Similar picture emerges in respect of the amount drunk on one occasion. Regardless of the beverage, most consumers drink small quantities only. But there are also heavy drinkers who consume on one occasion at least a quarter of a litre of spirits, one litre of wine or more than one litre of beer. Those drinkers constituted one in five of spirits' consumers, even one in two of moonshine spirits consumers, and one in five of wine or beer consumers, less heavy drinkers are only among home-made fruit wine drinkers (one in ten). The information concerning the frequency of drinking and the amount of alcohol consumed makes it possible to separate four patterns of drinking: heavy and frequent, heavy and infrequent, moderate and frequent, moderate and infrequent. Among consumers of different beverages, the group of persons drinking moderately and infrequently was the most numerous particularly as regards the consumers of wine, and smaller degree the consumers of spirits and moonshine spirits, and to the smallest degree-the consumers of beer. Also the group of persons drinking heavily and infrequently were relatively numerous, apart from consumers of beer, among whom the second most numerous group was that of persons drinking moderately and frequently. Every fourth or fifth consumer of beer, every seventh consumer of home-made frit wine drank much and frequently. As regards persons, who drank any two of the above-mentioned beverages, a convergence of their drinking parents could be noticed which consisted in the following regularity: if one of the beverages was consumed according to one of the patterns, the other beverage was generally also consumed according to the same pattern. The above results were very similar in both surveys. However, in the 1985survey, a slight shift towards greater concentration of consumption could be noticed. One of the effects of drinking alcohol, and for some consumers probably also one of the aims of drinking, is to get drunk. Using the information from the 1985 survey on such factors as the kind and amount of beverages consumed, the duration of the drinking occasion, and the sex and weight of the respondent, the blood alcohol concentration was estimated for every drinking occasion reported. In about one quarter of drinking occasion this estimate could not be done due to the lack of some of the necessary data, most often that of the weight of the respondents. Only one in every five events of drinking spirits and one in three events of drinking wine have not caused a rise in blood alcohol concentration above the physiological level of 0,2 per mille. Getting drunk, i. e. overstepping the blood alcohol concentration of 1.5 per mille, occurred in 13 per cent of incidents of drinking spirits, 7 per cent of drinking wine, and 5 per cent of drinking home-made fruit wine. If related to the total number of drinking occasion of the above beverages this means that in Poland every day about 600 thousand persons would get drunk. Persons getting drunk were significantly more numerous among men than women, and as far as men are concerned among young (up to 40 years of age), less educated, blue-collar workers describing themselves as non-believers or non-worshiping believers. Among women only those who felt to be better off than average would drink significantly more often than others. DRINKING OCCASION One of the characteristic features of drinking alcohol in Poland is using the existing occasions or inventing them. Alcohol happens to be drunk in order to celebrate such events as family festivities (like name-days or birthdays), religious ceremonies (like baptism, confirmation or - in particular - wedding), national holidays, government ceremonies (like opening a factory, a museum'' new railway station or a bridge), other happy events (tike winning a match by a favourite soccer team, passing important examinati.ons by the son or daughter, their entrance to the high school or the university). Drinking occasion may be called for while looking for some comfort caused by losing a march by a favourite soccer team a set-back at work, or misfortune in personal matters. Alcohol is served and drunk in order to show hospitality, to emphasize the importance of a guest or an unusual, lofty, or particular character of the meeting, etc. This list could be easily extended, but it does not seen necessary as its aim is only to show that drinking alcoholic beverages - probably with the exception of beer only – is perceived as an event calling for special justification. This justification should not be equated with causes of drinking, deeply rooted and often not understood and realized clearly by the person in question. Therefore, the justification for drinking provides an insight not so much into the reasons of drinking as into its cultural context. Using the information on the kind and amount of alcohol drunk, on the place of drinking, character of the occasion, and, in the 1985 survey, also on the duration of the drinking incidence, three main types of spirits and wine consumption occasions were distinguished: a family celebration, a friendly social meeting, and a drinking-for-purpose event. The family celebration comprised nearly half of all drinking occasions described in the replies of the respondents. These occasions lasted longer than others, namely about 4 to 5 hours, with many persons taking part, the amount of alcohol drunk was smaller by half than the average amount and in more than 90 per cent of cases they took place in private quarters. The friends-meeting social type of drinking occasions were less numerous, they comprised about one-third of the total number of the last occasions reported. Half of them occurred in friends appartments, one-fourth on the respondents flats, and one in seven in a bar or restaurant. The meeting lasted about 2-3 hours, and the amount of spirits or wine drunk was somewhat larger than the average. Most often 4 to 5 persons took part in these encounters. One in five of the last occasions described by the respondents was of the drinking-for-purpose type. The most often stated justification for such a drinking occasion was that ,,it just happened this way" or ,,without any special reason, and the second in the row was that the drinking tock place in order to handle some business which made it necessary to have a drink’’. These occasions lasted usually l-2 hours and the company consisted of about 3-4 persons. Most often the meeting took place in a bar or a restaurant at work; relatively rarely in private appartments, and occasionally in a park or another commonly frequented place. Persons drinking on these type of occasions consumed twice as much alcohol as the average. The types and characteristics of drinking occasions did not change between 1980 and 1985; only few exceptions were noted, such as those with more alcohol drunk in private apartments and less in bars and restaurants. The same types of drinking occasions were fund in respect of consumption of spirits and wine, only home-made fruit wine did not seem to be drunk ,,for purpose’’ DRINKING AT WORK One of the special features of drinking practices in Poland is the consumption of alcohol at work. It takes place against the provisions of the labour law and in some circumstances also against criminal law. Every few years the authorities launch a campaign against drinking at work only to learn that it brings about temporary results. In order to understand the reasons for limited effects of such endeavours a closer look at a socialist enterprise is necessary' fn a state-controlled economy, a socialist enterprise is not. only a place where employees provide work in order to produce some commodities or services. One of the Polish leading sociologists described such an enterprise as a combination of an industrial plant, an office, and charity. Its peculiar social life stems from all the above factors, and it is only against this background that an appraisal of the data on drinking at work can be made. The 1980 survey revealed that two of every three respondents employed in the state-owned enterprises and offices had in the course of the last year prior to the interview drunk alcohol while at work. The results of the 1985 survey were markedly different since the affirmative answers to the question of drinking at work was given by one in every two such respondents. On the assumption of the last occasion approach an attempt was made at amount of drinking events at work. The numbers of such events in1980 and 1985 were 14.6 and 7.3 per one employee respectively. It seems to be a marked decrease, but is has to be seen whether it will be a lasting one. Drinking at work seems to be very common also in another respect. When looping at the characteristics of the consumer of alcohol at work they correspond closely to the characteristics of all drinking persons. The justification for drinking at work is very similar to that described above, only the family celebration and friends-meeting social types seen to merge into one. In 1980 nearly half, and in 1985 one-third the persons who drank at work did it while celebrating name-days or birthdays. One in five of those who drank at work did it ,,with no special reason" or because alcohol was offered by somebody, which corresponds to the drinking-for-purpose type. ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE Alcohol dependence is a very complex concept and it is debatable whether tackling it in a survey research can produce conclusive results. In the 1985 survey it was approached by means of one of the questionnaires used by medical practitioners. After reviewing several of such questionnaires, like MAST, SMAST, CAGE, MALT, Reich, the CAGE questionnaire was selected as the most suitable, among other things, because of its brevity. A common feature of all the above instruments is that they are in fact screening tests, and their aim is to spot out in a pool of patients those who might have an alcohol problem. These patients are referred afterwards to a qualified specialist for a proper examination and diagnosis. The use of such a questionnaire in a survey conducted in a general population is an extention of its application far beyond the limits of its original design, because in such a situation it is expected to provide a final ,,diagnosis" instead of pointing to persons suspected of being addicted to alcohol. In the circumstances both the sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire become of utmost importance. The low specificity of the CAGE questionnaire makes it impossible to estimate- within the known limits of errors - the size of the group of alcohol dependent persons in the general population because a number of persons likely to be classified on its basis as being alcohol dependent in fact are not dependent. The size of the latter (i. e. those incorrectly classified as alcohol dependent) is partly a function of the size of the group of the alcohol dependent in the general population. The percentage of respondents who in the 1985 survey said ,,yes" to al1 the four questions of the CAGE questionnaire was 4.4, to three questions - 11.8, to two questions - I2.1, and to one question - 15.1. The results of the previous applications of the CAGE test show that four ,,yes" answers to the questionnaire questions were given only by alcohol dependent persons, and no such answers were given by persons not dependent. Hence it can be assumed that in the cases of all four ,,yes" answers one deals with alcohol dependent persons, without fear of making a serious error. As to the persons who gave three ,,yes" answers) one can assume among them a higher cumulation of alcohol dependent persons, and as regards those who said ,ryes" to two questions it can be hypothesised that there are few such persons among them. On the basis of the results obtained, the probable number of persons in 1985 in Poland in the age group of 16 years and over, who were alcohol dependent, has been estimated as somewhat higher than number of persons who said ,,yes’’ to all the four questions in the CAGE questionnaire, i. e. approximately 1,500 000, the error limits of this estimate, unfortunately, cannot be specified. The persons who gave a higher number of ,,yes’’ answers to the test questions drank largel quantities of alcohol. More answers of this kond were given by men, middle-aged persons and elderly (but not old), living in villages, not well-off, non-worshipping believers and non-believers. THE ABSTAINERS AND TEETOTALLERS Abstainers are referred to here as those who do not drink a particular alcoholic beverage, and teetotalers as those who according to themselves do not drink alcohol at all (1980 survey) or who did not consume alcohol during the last twelve months prior to the interview. Only 25 per cent of the respondents abstained from drinking spirits, about 25 per cent-from wine, 58 per cent (in 1980)and 50 per cent (in 1985)-from beer, 70 per cent (in 1980) and 64 per cent (in1985)-from home-made fruit wine, and 89 per cent (in 1980) and 79 per cent (in 1985)-from moonshine spirits. The were 14.8 per cent teetotalers in 1980 and 16.1 per cent in 1985, however, the difference in those percentages is statistically insignificant. In general population the fraction of teetotalers is probably a few points higher because in both the 1980 and 1985 samples the persons aged 16-19 and 60 and more, namely those among whom the non-drinkers are most numerous, were underrepresented. Less than half of the teetotalers never drank alcohol and the share of those who stopped drinking increased between the years 1980 and 1985. This result would have looked promising were it not for the reasons for not drinking given by the respondents. Most often old age, poor health, lack of money, and similar justification were offered, and only one in seven non-drinking alcohol respondent mentioned that drinking alcohol would interfere with his studies or work, or against his beliefs or cherished values. Also the social characteristics of teetotalers give reason for worry: among these overrepresented are very young and elderly, women, poorly educated, blue-collar workers, poor-in general those who belong to the lower social strata of the population. To be a teetotaler in Poland is unenviable.

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Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w 1980 r.

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Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

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1984

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nr XI

7-92

EN

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

PL

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.

5

Rozmiary i dystrybucja spożycia alkoholu w Polsce. Oceny oparte na badaniu na próbie udziałowej i losowej

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1992

|

nr XVIII

213-228

EN

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.

6

Spożycie napojów alkoholowych w Polsce w 1985 r.

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1991

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nr XVII

199-285

EN

The Surveys Since 1961, nine alcohol consumption surveys were carried out on the national level in Poland. The interests of their authors, the contents of questionnaires, and the ways of conducting the surveys varied, but most of them exhibited some common features. First of all, the respondents were met personally by the interviewers who filled up the questionnaires during the interview. Most of the surveys were based on quota samples of adult population, but in some also youngsters aged over 15 or 16 were included into the sample. The last occasion approach prevailed in the surveys; in one of them only, the respondents were asked to describe their last three drinking occasions. In some surveys, the respondents were also requested to estimate the frequency of their drinking of spirits during the last three months. In the present paper, some findings of the fifth and seventh surveys are analysed. The two surveys were carried out in 1980 and 1985, respectively. The estimate of frequency of drinking spirits derived from answers to the questions related to drinking during the last three months and to those about the last drinking occasion proved to differ markedly in exceptional cases only. However, as expected, the last occasion approach produced somewhat higher estimates of consumption level than that based on the respondent’s appraisal of the frequency of his or her own drinking during the last three months. The coverage rate was similar in both surveys: 47 per cent in 1980 and 56 per cent in 1985, and its level is in accordance with the findings obtained in surveys carried out in other countries. The Questions The questionnaires of both surveys included several questions related to positive and negative experiences the respondents had had as a result of their drinking. The proper part of the questionnaire used in the 1980 survey was of an experimental character. Its main aim was to collect data on the issue neglected in the Polish literature, i.e. on rewards resulting from drinking alcohol. In the literature in question, much attention had been paid to the detrimental consequences of drinking as if they were the only ones. The assumption that drinking has also some positive value for alcohol consumers seemed plausible: why would they otherwise drink at all? The questions asked were not intended to reveal what really happened to the persons who consume alcohol, but rather to get some insight in to the way they perceived occurrences which they rightly or mistakenly attribute to their drinking of alcohol. What seemed interesting were also the spheres of life in which alcohol played a positive as opposed to a negative role. As that part of the questionnaire was of an exploratory nature only, the respondents were asked about events in which alcohol helped them somehow or caused them getting into trouble, whenever that occurred. In the questionnaire of the 1985 survey, more attention was paid to the wording of those questions. Firstly, the respondents were asked about occurrences which had happened during the last twelve months preceding the interview. That was the time limit introduced in order to separate drinkers from non-drinkers, and in that case also to distinguish the “current” from the past events. Secondly, in the case of a good as well as bad experience, the types of occurrences in question were both of a trivial character and of such a nature that they could be related to a single drinking occasion. Thirdly, in reration to some spheres of life questions, about both positive and negative consequences were asked. Some of the questions included in the 1980 and 1985 questionnaires were formulated the way adopted in the Scandinavian Drinking Survey of 1979 which was carried out in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Similar questions were also asked in Finnish surveys conducted in 1968, 1976, and 1984. The Polish, the Scandinavian, and the Finnish surveys, were carried out at different times, in different manners, and on differently drawn sampres. Therefore, it would be impossible to compare, their findings directly. However, it seems interesting to point to some most striking discrepancies between them as a point of departure for theorizing on possible differences in the role played by alcohol in social life in Poland and in the Scandinavian countries. The Findings The main findings of the inquiry qan be summarized as follows: As could be expected, asking about events which might have occurred at any time in the respondents’ life has led to a higher proportion of positive answers as compared to asking about events that occurred during the last twelve months. In the Polish surveys, this could be noticed in the case of sorting out probrems related to people close to the respondent (49.7 and 21.7 per cent, respectivery), of taking a more, optimistic view of life (40.8 and 18.7 per cent, respectively) and in several other questions, while in the case of the Finnish surveys, in relation to being picked up by the police for being drunk (8.5–10.9 and 3.5 per cent, respectively). This observation is fairly obvious and has been mentioned here only to support confidence in the findings obtained. The questions included in the questionnaire of the 1980 Polish survey were formulated in a manner that was not too well suited for comparisons between the positive and negative experiences stemming from drinking. However, they provided some clues for supposing that good experiences occur more often than bad ones. The evidence provided by the answers in the l985 survey clearly supports this assumption. First of all, the prevalence of an experience is related to its type. The most common ones were: being more resolute in company, and spending more money than one otherwise would (it happened to 36.2 and 34.9 per cent of drinkers, respectively, during the last twelve months). It shows that positive as well as negative experiences related to drinking may be quite common. Most revealing are the answers to questions that pertain to similar types of events. There were four times more drinkers who felt that because of alcohol they were more resolute in company than those who acted as spoil-sports in company because of their drinking (36.2 as opposed to 8.3 per cent, respectively); three times more respondents who sorter out problems connected with their job with the help of alcohol than those who had some trouble at work because of their drinking (23.8 as opposed to 6.7 per cent, respectively); distinctly more sorted out problems related to people close to them than spoiled their relations with such persons (21.7 as opposed to 14.8 per cent, respectively); and finally, many more respondents took an optimistic rather than a pessimistic view of life because of drinking (18.7 as opposed to 10.4 per cent, respectively), It shows definitely that positive consequences of their own drinking are noticed by far more persons than the negative ones. The above findings concern the distribution of answers obtained from all drinkers in the sample. However, they do not preclude the contents of individual respondents’ answers. Are there two separate groups of drinkers: one consisting of those who have positive experiences with drinking, and another one, distinctly smaller, made up of those who have negative experiences related to the use of alcohol? Or is there one group only: the same people have good and bad experiences with drinking, the good ones prevailing in most cases? None of these alternatives appeared to be fully substantiated by the findings of the 1985 survey. First of all, more than two in five of the drinkers reported none of the good experiences listed, and more than one in two – none of the bad experiences. Thus there is a third (or a second) group of respondents drinking alcohol, viz. those who have neither positive nor negative experiences with it. Hence the possible concurrence of good and bad experiences related to drinking may be found in about a half of the drinkers only. All types of good and bad experiences were positively correlated with all types of bad experience listed in the questionnaire (X2 = from 87.8 to 274.3; df = 4; p < T = from 0.17 to 0.32). This points clearly to the second of the above alternatives, viz. to the view that those were predominantly the same persons who admitted having had both good and bad experiences related to drinking. Formulating this observation differently, one might say that having some good experience with drinking enhances the likelihood of having also bad experience with alcohol, and vice versa. In order to proceed further in this analysis, two indices were calculated. Both of them are related to variety and not quantity of experiences, as the questionnaire of the 1985 survey did not contain questions about how often the separate types of experiences listed had occurred. To form the index of good experiences, the number of “yes” answers was calculated, and accordingly the respondents received scores from 0 (no “yes” answers) to 7 (“yes” answers to all types of experiences quoted). The index of bad experiences was formed similarly. The mean score was 1.65 for positive experiences and 1.12 for the negative ones which shows once more that the incidence of the first kind of experiences prevailed over the other one. As it has already been mentioned, quite a number of respondents gave no “yes” answers at all. On the other end of the scale, there were relatively few persons who gave five or more “yes” answers; in the case of good experiences, there were 11 per cent of such persons, and in the case of bad ones – 5 per cent only. The close relationship between having good as well as bad exaperiences is demonstrated by the mean scores of index of good experiences related to drinking calculated for every level of the index of bad experiences, and vice versa. The picture shown by those scores is quite clear: the higher the number of positive types of experiences related to the use of alcohol, the higher also the number of negative experiences stemming from drinking. The same is also true for negative experiences: the greater their number, the more numerous also positive experiences. In conclusion it can simply be said that the drinkers who believe that alcohol drinking is rewarding are generally also aware of some unpleasant consequences which follow its use, and vice versa. A closer look at the scores of both indices revealed that on every level of the index of positive experiences, the number of those experiences exceeded markedly that of the negative ones (the only exception found is in the case of no positive experience). A partly similar picture emerges while looking at the consecutive levels of negative experiences: in the lower part of the scale, mean numbers of positive experiences surpass those of negative ones; only in the case of those respendents who reported four or more types of negative experiences, the numbers of positive experiences were smaller. Finally, the question arises how could this concurrence of good and bad experiences be explained. Or, to take a different approach, what, if anything, distinguishes the respondents who admit having many types of positive and negative experiences from those who do not happen to have them at all or who have a few only. The answer is again surprisingly simple. What seems to determine the number of experiences related to drinking is the level of alcohol consumption. In the case of the Polish drinking habits, this means practically the level of consumption of spirits. The greater the number of types of negative or positive experiences, the higher the consumption level of alcohol (spirits). In persons who reported no good or bad experiences related to drinking, mean alcohol consumption was less than a half of the average. With a rise in the number of types of positive and negative experiences stemming from drinking, the amount of alcohol consumed is also rising steeply to a level more than twice as high as the average for all drinkers. It has also to be stressed that the conusumption level associated with the same number of types of negative experiences related to drinking is higher than in the case of positive ones. Looking at this relationship at the background of the level of consumption, it can be stated that e.g. those who drunk ten to eleven litres of spirits yearly have had one type of bad and two types of good experiences related to the use of alcohol; those who drunk seventeen to twenty litres had two to three types of bad and three–four types of good experiences; and those who drunk about twenty-five litres of spirits yearly had four types of bad and five types of good experiences stemming from alcohol. The predominance of positive experiences is present all the time; however, it tends to get smaller with the increase in consumption level. The description of respondents who tended to have more good and bad experiences related to drinking corresponds strictly to that of those who are drinking more than others. Over-represented are among them: men, middle-aged, having primary education only or unfinnished secondary school, having, blue-collar jobs, describing themselves as nonbelievers or non-practising believers, having disputes and arguments with their families, with neighbours, friends, colleagues and superiors at work, having often the feeling of not enjoying the esteem they deserve. Conclusions For most Poles who drink alcohol, drinking does not seem to be associated with any particular experiences of a positive or negative value. They do not drink much, do it occasionally, probably mostly for social reasons. For those who drink more than the average and, in particular, for those who drink heavily, alcohol consumption tends to be associated with some good or bad experiences which they relate to their use of alcohol. The more they drink, the more experiences of both kinds they have. However, experiences of a rewarding nature prevail over consequences that are annoying or unpleasant. While looking at similar Scandinavian surveys, some striking differences in the incidence of types of occurrences related to drinking can be noticed. In Poland, alcohol seems to serve much more often than in the Scandinavian countries as a means of sorting out problems the drinking person has with people close to him, and in particular, in sorting out his or her problems at work. On the other hand, as far as the use of alcohol for acquiring some psychological effects is concerned (such as improving the mood, better expressing one’s feelings, or saying something one regrets afterwards), the Poles do not seem to differ much from the Scandinavians, particularly from those who are ress successful in this sphere. The Poles seem to have also more health problems related to drinking, even in comparison to those Scandinavians who drink mostly spirits, like the Icelanders.

7

Obraz polityki karnej lat osiemdziesiątych i początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych (1980‒1991)

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1993

|

nr XIX

27-105

EN

The paper is a continuation of the previous analyses of penal policy pursued by Polish courts. The directions and shape of penal policy are the resultant of many different elements. Analysed in the present paper is the impact on that policy of changes in: penal law; detected crime; and some characteristics of the population of convicted persons. The 1980s abounded in far-reaching changes of penal legislation. In the years 1980-1981, the tremendous “Solidarity” movement failed to bring about a penal law reform despite the fact that its representatives started intensive work toward that aim, preparing and stimulating others to prepare drafts of such reform. The imposition of martial law secured continued power to the communists; its social costs, however, were extremely high. An item on the bill society were forced to pay was the inclusion into penal law of many elements typical of the law of war which aggravated criminal responsibility. Thus (1) the competence of military courts was extended to various categories of civilians; (2) the application of special modes of procedure was introduced or extended, including the single-instance summary proceedings; (3) many statutory penalties were aggravated; (4) many different categories of acts were penalized which had not been punishable before, including in particular pursuit of trade union activities and organization of strikes and protests; (5) internment was introduced as an administrative form of preventive deprivation of liberty. The abrogation of martial law resulted in removal of most but not all of the above aggravations. A new tide of severe provisions came with the acts of May 1985 which in fact created a new “martial law” in penal law. It consisted in: (1) extension of applicability of the existing and introduction of new “simplified” modes of procedure which involved limitation of the defendant’s right to defence; (2) aggravation of the statutory penalties for many acts; (3) vast extension of the application of additional penalties; (4) limitation of the applicability of suspended sentences; (5) exclusion of conditional release of multiple recidivists; (6) extension of the conditions of withdrawal of parole. Therefore, penal policy was shifted twice towards aggravation in the 1980s, the first such shift was made in 1982 and continued with reduced force throughout 1983, and the second one taking place in the years 1985‒1988. Departure from the over-punitive penal law of People’s Republic of Poland started in 1989 with the emergence of the new political order which created the initial conditions for the building of the Third Republic. In 1989, just the first steps were made, followed by few farther in the years 1990‒1991, towards changing the contens of penal law and reforming the most glaring effects of its abuse. Such steps met with immense difficulties. The attachment to former penal law proved strong: to penal law with indefinite statutory features of situences, with severe penalties which could be accumulated and imposed in the conditions of far-reaching limitation of the right to defence or even by default. According to an opinion often expressed in official statements, penal policy was to be determined first and foremost by the state of crime. The extent and trends of crime in general and of the separate offences were to “force” the authorities accordingly to shape penal policy. The incessantly growing threat to public order and citizens’ safety, and to social property in particular, was to justify the need for aggravated and accumulated penalties. Also penal lawyers who noticed the direct relationship between crime and punishment tended ‒ and still tend today for that matter ‒ to suppose that an identical relationship can be found between crime as a mass phenomenon and punishment as a proces of distribution of condemnations through the imposition of penalties by courts. Yet whatever the relations between punishment ‒ its severity in particular ‒ and crime, they are in fact very weak indeed. This is shown by facts: crime comparable as to extent and gravity meets with most different punishment in different countries. A growth in crime sometimes leaves penal policy unchanged, and at other times results in its aggravation or mitigation; similar are the effects of a decrease in crime. Poland is a good example here: in the 1970s, detected crime was on the decrease but penal policy gained in strictness; in the 1980s, crime went up and the aggravation of penal policy continued. In the first of those decades, the decrease in crime was said to have resulted from the particular shape of penal policy pursued then; in the next one, the need forstrict penal policy was argued to follow from the growth in crime. Never mentioned, instead, was a trend of crime which would actually justify a mitigation of penal policy. As we know, the extent and also largely the structure of detected crime, that is of crime recorded by the police, is the resultant of many different organizational, legal, and often also political factors. The real extent and structure of crime can hardly be seen through that screen, and its picture is often distorted. In the former “socialist” states, the extent of crime was a political issue: generally speaking, it shaped the way the authorities expected it to shape. During the 1970s and even in 1980, the number of detected offences ‒ those confirmed in preparatory proceedings ‒ was 320‒350 thousand a year. Starting from 1981, it went up rapidly to 540 thousand in 1984. For the next few years, it was falsely kept at a similar or even somewhat lower level which was to manifest the effectiveness of the drastic statutes of May 1985. Early in the 1990s, the situation was changed radically: the extent of detected crime was no longer perceived as a political issue regulated as the authorities requested. In the years 1990‒1992, the number of detected offences became stabilized at 860‒880 thousand a year. It is believed to have actually gone up, and it no doubt did go up in the economy-related spheres: the real number of offences against foreign currency and customs regulations, tax offences, frauds, embezzlements etc. was indeed greater. III. The above-mentioned growth in the number of detected offences was hardly reflected in the numer of persons found guilty in criminal proceedings. There were about 200 thousand such persons a year, and the numer only went down in years when amnesty laws were passed. Penal legislation provides for different penalties for the separate offences. Therefore, in order to appraise the enhanced or reduced severity of penal policy, it is important to investigate any possible changes in the proportions of those offences throughout the 1980s. In the years 1980‒1991, convictions for crimes (where the statutory penalty is deprivation of liberty for at least 3 years) regularly amounted to 3‒4%, and those for the more serious offences (statutory pelalty of at least 1 or 2 years imprisonment) – to 19‒31%. In the early half of the 1980s, there was a shift towalds a greater proportion of convictions for the less serious offences. The opposite trend could be noticed in the latter half of the decade. Generally speaking, the bulk of convicted persons were guilty of less and less serious offences during the discussed decade, the proportion of convictions for serious crimes remaining rather stable in that period. This trend could be noticed under the statutes of May 1985 which shows how unrelated they were to the real situation in the sphere of crime, and how much they depended on other factors such as e.g. the ruling elites’ desire to have their revenge on society for the events of 1980-1981. The situation changed in the years 1989‒1991 when the proportion of persons convicted for the more serious offences started to go up rapidly. This sole element considered – that is, the structure of crime – were penal policy stable throughout the years l980‒1988, there should have been more and more sentences to penalties not involving deprivation of liberty, and the length of inprisonment should have been reduced. In the years 1989‒1991, instead, a greater number of longer immediate prison sentences could be expected. The most severe, of all penalties provided for by Polish law is capitol puishment. In the years 1981‒1982, there were 3‒4 valid sentences to that pe- nalty a year, the number going up to a dozen or so in the years 1984‒1986. The common courts imposed death penalty for homicide only. Since 1988, not a single valid sentence to death has been imposed by those courts (though it was imposed by invalid sentences in isolated cases). This de facts abolition can be hoped to persist, especially as the new draft penal code does not provide for capital punishment. The death penalty has first of all a symbolic sense; it is difficult to say why the authorities insisted on rejecting all the postulates for its abolition. Instead, the basic instrument that determines the punitiveness of the Polish penal system is unconditional deprivation of liberty. Penal policy of the 1970s had few good points; one of them was a limitation of the use of that penalty, noticeable at the end of the decade. This trend was further intensified in 1981 when 19% of those found guilty were sentenced to immediate imprisonment. Under martial law and in the period of its suspension, there was a slight shift away from that policy (2l‒22%). It was finally abandoned in the years 1984‒1986: in 1986, 30% of those found guilty were sentenced to immediate inprisonment. In 1988, the policy-makers came back to their senses, and re-orientation of penal policy was started: sentenced to immediate imprisonment were 21% of those found guilty. This proportion went further down to 18% in 1989, but then proceeded to rise again in the years 1990‒1991 (19‒20%). The above-mentioned change in the structure of crime in those years considered, this fact cannot possibly be seen as evidencing the aggravation of penal policy. The imposition of unconditional deprivation of liberty evolved in a way that is worth mentioning here. In the latter half of the 1970s, the number of sentences to that penalty became stabilized at 190-200 per 100 thousand of adults, a great improvement compared to the early half of that decade (228‒273 per 100 thousand of adults). In the 1980s, the number of unconditional prison sentences went further down to about 150 per 100 thousand of adults, barring the period of validity of the acts of May 1985 when it again exceeded 200. Thus on the whole, the range of imposition of immediate impressonment was further reduced – a most satisfactory development. As regards the length of that penalty, that is the term to be spent in prison, there has been little improvement. Prison terms of under 1 year, considered short in Poland, still constitute a mere 8‒13% of all sentences to unconditional deprivation of liberty. Thus nearly 180 persons per 100 thousand of adults in the years of validity of the statuts of May 1985, and about 130-140 in the other years were sentenced to prison terms of at least one year, the number only going down to somewhat less than 100 in the years when amnesty laws were passed. Instead, the incidence of sentences to long prison terms of at least 3 years remained relatively stable: sentenced to that penalty were 30‒40 persons per 100 thousand of adults. The length of sentences can also be considered from a different angle, i.e. that of the average length of the discussed penalty. In the years 1980‒1991 the average length of unconditional prison term was practically unchanged and amounted to 24‒25 months (barring the year 1985 when it nearly reached 27 months). Therefore, the following trend emerped: the imposition of immediate imprisonment is gradually limited but its average length remains at a practically unchanged level. It is an extremely high level at that, the fact considered that the bulk of offences for which the Polish offenders were convicted involved the lower statutory penalty of 6 months deprivation of liberty at most. Of the greatest importance among the reactions to an offence which do not involve deprivation of liberty in Poland is the penalty of conditional deprivation of liberty. Its incidence went up rapidly under martial law (from 29% in 1980 to 37% in 1982) and remained at a high level for the next few years. It is only recently that the proportion of such sentences has been reduced to its original level. There is a great variety of shapes this particular penalty can assume: it can be combined with fine, supervision, and various duties imposed on the person sentenced to that penalty, and also with additional penalties and payment to the injured person or for a public purpose. In the years 1980‒1984, it was very often combined with fine (7l‒78% of cases). This proportion went down in the next years (to 55‒60%) which was however accompanied by an unusual growth in the imposition of additional penalties, such as in particular confiscation of property and forfeiture of things, and also of payment to the injured personor for a public purpose. In the years 1989‒1991, that is after abrogation of the states of May 1985, the proportion of cases where fine was imposed together with conditional deprivation of liberty again went up to two thirds of all cases of imposition of that penalty. (The amount of fines will be discussed further on). The penalty of limitation of liberty, introduced by tle 1969 penal code, had some problems fighting its way into the practice of criminal justice. In the latter half of the 1970s, though, its proportion among the bulk of penal measures became stabilized at 12‒14%. The same trend could be noticed in the years 1980‒1981. The aggravation of criminal responsibility under martial law resulted in reduction of sentences to that penalty (to as low a level as 7% in 1984). Instead, the next aggravation introduced by the statutes of May 1985 led to a growth in both the number and proportion of sentences to limitation of liberty. Surprising as it may seem at first sight this development can be explained by the fact that by force of the provisions adopted in 1985, that penalty could be imposed in proceedings by penal order, i.e. in the absence of the defendant. His objection to the decision admittedly rendered the order invalid, but he was not protected by the ban on reformatio in peius. In the years 1989–1991 the proportion of limitation of liberty in the bulk of penal measures imposed went down to the extent of rendering that penalty unimportant. In 1989, it was imposed on 7.4% of those found guilty; in 1990 – on 3.5%; and in l991 – on a mere 2.7%. In the 1990s, the relative incidence of imposition of the separate forms of that penalty started to change rapidly. Deduction from the remmeration for work was imposed on 53% of persons sentenced to limitation of liberty in 1989, on 38% in 1990, and on 21% in 1991. Unpaid supervised work came to the foreground (34, 56, and 78% respectively) while referral of the convicted person to work practically disappeared (l3, 6 and, 1% respectively). Fine as a self-standing penalty has never been extensively imposed in Poland as opposed to the situation in many other penal systems, the West European ones in particular. Late in ten 1970s, the proportion of fines became stabilized at 11–13% and remained unchanged throughout the early half of the 1980s. It then proceeded to go up a little in the years 1986–1988 (15–16%), and stopped at 13–15% in the years 1989–1991. The proportion of fines can be expected to grow in the future, mainly at the sacrifice of conditional deprivation of liberty combined with fine. As important as the length of a prison term is the amount of a fine imposed. The repressiveness of fines can be appraised through reference to the average monthly wages in socialized economy. Compared to them, the average fines under the 1969 code evolved significantly. The use of fines was intensified in two parallel ways. First, their imposition together with deprivation of liberty grew more and more frequent (up to 69% of all persons sentenced to a prison term in 1980). Second, the amount of fine was raised (to 2.5 times the monthly wages in 1980). Important changes in this respect took place in the 1980s. In the early half of the decade, the accumulation of fines with deprivation of liberty was further extended (to 75% of prison terms in 1984). On the other hand, the relative amount of fines went down (to about 1,5 times the monthly wages in socialized economy). This situation changed radically with the introduction of the statues of May 1985 which involved a drastic raise in the amount of fines (in the years 1986–1987, to about 4 times the average monthly wages in the case of fines as additional penalties combined with deprivation of liberty, and to 2.5 times – in the case of self-standing fines). A next far-reaching change took place in the years 1989–1991. The relative amount of fine went down to about 0.5 time the monthly wages – a considerable reduction of repressiveness, even the general impoverishment of society considered. One of the penal measures introduced by the 1969 penal code is conditional discontinuance of criminal proceedings. It can be applied to first offenders guilty of the less serious acts whose guilt is self-evident. The measure was appllied by the public prosecutor in nearly 90% of cases, and by the court in about l0% of cases only. Like unconditional deprivation of liberty, conditional discontinuance of proceedings can be seen as a specific gauge of aggravation or mitigation of penal policy. With growing severity of that policy, the proportion of persons sentenced to unconditional prison terms goes up, and that of conditionally discontinued proceedings goes down. Is penal policy mitigated, the above proportions are reversed. In the years 1981, 1988, and 1989–1991, proceedings were conditionally discontinued in 24–30% of cases where the suspect was found guilty. Under the special martial law legislation, the proportion was 19–20%, and under the acts of May 1985 – 16–19%. The remaining penal measures, that is additional penalty imposed as the main one, application of educational or corrective measures to persons aged 17 and guilty of misdemeanours, and renouncement of carrying out of the sentence, were used extremely seldom in spite of the considerable possibility of their application (the first two in particular). In the days when those in charge of criminal justice aimed at aggravation of responsibility, there was little room for its mitigation with the use of such measures. The years l980–1988 were characterized first and foremost by a tendency to aggravate penalties. After a short break in 1981, that tendency continued until 1989 when the first changes coul be noticed. In both cases, the period of reorientation of penal policy was too short to yield any farther-reaching changes. In the structure of penal measures, the aggravation of responsibility was expressed mainly in the growing proportion of sentendes to immediate imprisonment and the limited use of conditional discontinuance of proceedings and limitation of liberty when no special procedural provisions incited the use of those measures. The penal policy pursued in the years 1989-1991 was deeply rooted in the practices of people’s Republic of Poland; to be more exact, the trends of that period still today if in a mitigated form. The 1989–1991 mitigation took place on different planes: the legal one, through removal of the specially punitive and glaringly unjust provisions, on the plane of application of law through many small mitigations of penalties which add to a significant whole, and also through a radical reform of prison policy. But the actual mitigation does not go beyond the achievements of “Solidarity” of 1981. As a result, too many and too long sentences of immediate imprisonment are still imposed, and penal measures (imprisonment and fine in particular) are too often accumulated. Briefly speaking, Poland still has the style of punishming shaped after the penal code in force and its interpretation made in the 1970s. A radical abolition of this style and mitigatin of penalties still remains to be done, although the first steps have already been made by now (the virtual abolition of the death penalty and reduction of the amount of fines).

8

Przemiany polityki karnej sądów powszechnych rozwijanej na tle przepisów nowej kodyfikacji karnej (1970-1980)

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1982

|

nr VIII-IX

25-150

EN

We are now entering in Poland into the second decade of the new penal system in force. The period of time which has elapsed: since the introduction of this system is long enough to enable us to take a close look at the new legal institutions envisaged in the system, at the practical value of these institutions and trends observed in their application. This paper is devoted to the above considerations, or to be more exact, to the part played by the application of penal measures. In order to characterize roughly the guidelines underlying the above penal codifications it should first be stated that what the legislators had in mind was a need to treat serious and petty offences in a different way. Those who were guilty of serious crimes were to suffer from penalties of immediate deprivation of liberty, and, exceptionally, that of capital punishment. Some categories of offenders regarded as dangerous, repulsive or persistent were to meet augmented penal repressions. Among these were perpetrators of hooligan, type offences, and recidivists some of whom, after completing their sentences, were to be treated with special penal measures, such as protective supervision and/or placing in a social readaptation centre. At the same time various lenient penal measures were to be imposed against perpetrators of petty offences. Sometimes proceedings against such persons were to be discontinued. Besides, some petty offences became depenalized (for the first time in 1967 and then on a larger scale in 1971) by considering them to be transgressions and getting them transfered from the courts to the Penal Administrative Commissions. The Penal Code, the Penal Executive Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure have been in force since 1st January, 1970. However, it should be borne in mind that penal legislation is not confined to the above mentioned codes. It also embraces some statutes with two very important ones issued in the early seventies: the Code of Transgressions included in the set of acts of 20th May 1971 (Dz.U. no. 12, para 114- 118) making up a codified system of transgressions law and the Financial Penal Code of 26th Oct. 1971 (Dz.U. no. 28, para 260). It is only after the above acts had been passed the process of codification of the Polish penal legislation was completed. If one takes into consideration the need to have a minimum period of time necessary for learning how to make use of new regulations and the date when the previously mentioned acts came into force, as compared with the 1969 codes, one should take the year 1972 as a starting point for the analysis of the penal policy as determined by the new penal codification in the full form. The problems of the applications of penalties by courts arising from the 1969 penal code regulations are among the most complex ones and bear evidence of the fact that at this particular issue, the regulations of the present code are not exceptionally successful. For the purposes of our discussion we should try to introduce some order into this complex subject. Therefore, we shall distinguish three groups among the regulations of the imposition of the penalty by the courts. The first group will include the regulations from the special part of the penal code (and other penal acts), which describe the kind and limits of penal sanctions provided for the perpetrators of crimes envisaged in the regulations. The second group shall include the regulations from the general part of the Penal Code (or statutes with general part, such as the financial Penal Code or Chapter 37 of the military part of the Penal Code) which modify the norms found in the regulations belonging to the above first group. The above modifications concern the changes in the limits of sanctions, rules of the order of choice: among the alternative sanctions, or possibilities of application of penal measures which are not provided for a particular offence. The third group will encompass the regulations specifying the principles to be used by courts in choosing the kind and extent of penal measures against offenders. The essential feature of the above legal system is that it lacks rules which would provide one strictly defined penalty for an offender of a given offence. The court is always faced with the necessity of making a choice of a penalty: first of all, whether to apply any punishment at all, or to confine oneself to a conditional discontinuance of the proceedings (arid sometimes, if the statute makes it possible, to renounce the execution of the penalty). If a sentence is passed, what kind of penalty is to be imposed, whether it should be combined with another basic penalty, or additional penalties, punitive financial award or preventive means should be made use of. What then should be the directives for the court in making the choice? The answer to this question is provided by the Penal Code, above all in Art. 50. In this article three different directives are included for the court in imposing a penalty at its discretion: (1) the degree of social danger of the offence, (2) regard for the social effectiveness of the penalty, and (3) the preventive and educational effect on the person convicted. These directives, dressed as they are in a new wording, correspond, as it were, to the classical purposes of punishment. The first of these is to give justice, i.e. to mete out retribution for the "evil" done by the offender in the form of suffering proportional to this "evil". The second purpose is general prevention, i.e. a tendency to punish the offender in order to prevent others from committing offences. The third purpose of punishment is special prevention, i.e. the effect on the offenders themselves in order to prevent them from committing further criminal acts. The difficulties involved in the implementation of the principle of justice once it ceases to be understood literally as that of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth”, are well known and need not be mentioned here. One ought, however, to point out that there is no "objective" or "invariable" scale of translating the degree of "evil" committed by the offender into the suffering caused to him, This scale is arbitrary and variable. Its variability can be seen both when the degrees of penalties imposed for the same offences at various times are compared, and, what is even more significant, when the comparison is made of penalties for the offences against various values protected by the law. It is thus clear that various penal policies can be pursued based on the principle of just retribution within the framework of the same legal system. The fact that § 1, Art. 50 of the Penal Code makes a mention of the social effect of a penalty rather than of general prevention was not accidental. However, from the argumentation included in the Introduction to the draft of the Penal Code it can easily be seen that what the authors of the draft really had in mind was that social effect meant instilling fear for the punishment in the prospective offenders. In the statements concerning special prevention only two forms of such effect on the convicted persons were distinguished, i.e. prevention and education. The first term refers, as may be judged from the argumentation in the Introduction to the draft of the Penal Code, to making it impossible for the convicted person to pursue crime by physically isolating him from the society in a penal institution or to ultimate exclusion from the society by the application of capital punishment. The second term is self-explanatory: education means that the attitudes and motivation of a convicted person are to be transformed in such a way that he will comply with the requirements of the law in the future. An essential draw back in Art. 50 of the Penal Code is that it includes three separate recommendations as to the court’s decisions on the way of dealing with the offender on the assumption that each of these recommendations would lead to the same result without any collisions between them. Had such a possibility come to the notice of the legislator at the proper time, the above directives would have been classified according to some order of importance or a regulation would have been introduced to solve any collision between them. As the main interest in this work is centered on the penal policy of the courts, of particular importance are the statements made by the Supreme Court concerning the content and interpretation of § 1 Art. 50 of the Penal Code rather than the opinions formulated in the doctrine of the law. Initially, the Supreme Court’s position was that the directives of § 1 Art. 50 of the Penal Code were all equal. But in 1975 for offenders convicted for the misappropriation of social property of high value the Supreme Court recommended the use of the directive of retaliation and general deterrence without mentioning the special prevention directive, thus making some distinction between them. Finally, in 1977 it became clear that the Supreme Court had accepted "just retaliation" as a priority directive in imposing penalties. Within the directive of "just retaliation" (social danger of the act) some shift in the emphasis can be noticed. At first the social danger of the act was regarded to be a synthesis of objective and subjective elements, and finally, the main importance was stressed of one of the objective elements, i.e. the extent of the damage caused or the benefit gained by the perpetrator. Thus a problem arises what value should be attached to these modifications in the positions taken by the Supreme Court. In anticipating further conclusions one is tempted to say now that these modifications were associated by significant augmentation of the penalties imposed by the courts. At least two explanations may be offered here. One is that the reason for the stiffening of the penal policy can be traced to the courts' making a greater use of the "retaliation" directive in the imposition of penalties. This may have an additional support in the fact that the penalties became more severe at the very time when the shift occurred in the emphasis from recommending the taking into consideration of all the three directives of Art. 50 of the Penal Code to "retaliation". Simultaneously special stress was to be put on making the responsibility more objective in the form of close relationship between the fine and the extent of the damage caused. In the second explanation both the above mentioned reasons, i.e. emphasis on retaliation and stiffening of penalties, would be regarded as caused by a third party. They can arbitrarily be called a process of making the legal values more rigid in the circles providing directives for the criminal justice system apparatus. The rigidity would manifest itself either in regarding the offences committed in this country to become more socially dangerous or the offenders to deserve a more severe treatment. It should, therefore, be noted that none of the directives mentioned in the Art. 50 of the Penal Code is unequivocally leading to a lenient or to a stiff criminal policy. Uniter the banners of either of the directives some offenders, some offences, may be considered as calling for lenient penal measures, whereas other offenders, other offences - may be thought of as deserving severe penalties. Thus, the final shape of the penal policy depends on how the line is drawn between those "calling for" lenient treatment and those "deserving" punitive reaction. Taking all the above into consideration the present author thinks of the second explanation as more probable than the first. It should be noted that only the penal measures imposed for offences dealt with by public prosecutor are analysed. Thus the analysis will not include a decreasingly small number of convictions for offences prosecuted by the complainant himself (about 8 thousand in 1972 and 3 thousand in 1980). Although the capital punishment, as seen from Table 1, is imposed in a few cases only, its very existence in the Polish criminal law is strongly criticized by some lawyers and criminologists. Among penal measures used by common courts the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty takes the second place after the capital punishment on the scale of severity. It is imposed in months and years (Art. 32 §2) and may range from 3 months to 15 years (art. 32 §1) and 25 years. If one analyses information on the duration of the above penalties, four characteristic elements have to be noted: (1) In 1980 for only one in 11 persons the immediate deprivation of liberty was shorter than one year (in 1975 - one in nine and one in four or five in 1972); (2) the immediate deprivation of liberty was most often imposed for the period between one and two years: over 40 per cent and in some years nearly 50 per cent of all persons had such a penalty imposed on them; (3) a long-term penalty (i.e. 3 years and more) was imposed on one person in five over the period 1975- 80 (in 1972 it was one in seven); (4) the absolute number of most severe sentences (over 10 to 15 and 25 years) was on the increase systematically till 1976. It should be particularly emphasized as from 1975 a decrease has been observed in the total number of imposing the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty. The most commonly used penal measure was deprivation of liberty with conditional suspension of the execution (Art. 73 of the Penal Code). According to Art. 75 of the Penal Code the court when suspending the execution of the penalty of deprivation of liberty can, among other things, impose one or more obligations provided for in the above article. These obligations were imposed on the persons sentenced to the penalty of deprivation of liberty more and more frequently. The courts most often obliged the sentenced persons "to refrain from abusing alcohol", "to perform specified works or render specified contributions for social purposes" and "to perform remunerated work, to pursue education or prepare himself for an occupation". What is also interesting is that the courts have ordered more and more obligations, or to put it differently, they have less and less often confined themselves to ordering one obligation only. Thus the court’s action in this respect has been intensified. Irrespective of ordering the above obligations the court suspending the execution of penalty of deprivation of liberty may, for the test period, "place the sentenced person under the supervision of a designated person, institution or social organization" (Art. 76 § 2). The fraction of those placed under supervision in the totals of liberty was stable in the early seventies (30- 31 per cent), it began to rise in 1974 and reached nearly 40 per cent in 1980. The court may conditionally suspend the execution of a penalty of deprivation of liberty of up to 2 years when sentencing for an intentional offence and of up to 3 years when sentencing for an unintentional offence. (Art. 73 §1). Over the period 1972-80 certain changes were also observed in the extent of these penalties. They were similar to those of the extent in the penalties of immediate deprivation of liberty. They can be summarized as follows: (1) a very significant fall occurred in the fraction of penalties below 1 year (from 45.7 to 12.3 per cent); (2) the most often suspended penalty of deprivation of liberty was that of 1 year (36.6 to 44 per cent); (3) the percentage of suspended penalties over 1 year and up to 2 years increased markedly (from 17.7 to 44.1 per cent). The imposition of a penalty of deprivation of liberty, both immediate and conditionally suspended, is associated with the possibility (and in some cases - an obligation) of imposing a fine in an amount from 500 to 1 000 000 zlotys (Art. 36 §2 - 4. Unfortunately, the judicial statistics do not distinguish (except for some offences) whether the fine is imposed together with immediate or suspended sentence of deprivation of liberty. It turns out that the persons sentenced for the above penalties suffered from a fine quite often and this additional burden became more and more frequent: in 1972 the percentage of penalties of unconditional or suspended deprivation of liberty was 61.1, and in 1980 - 68.1. In the period of only 8 years 1972 - 80 almost no fines were imposed up to 1 000 zlotys, their number having decreased from 13.6 thousand to 82 and the respective contributions from 15.0 to 0.1 per cent. The penalty of limitation of liberty is among the new penal measures which after some hesitation have become accepted in practice. In the period under discussion the contribution made by sentences of this penalty increased threefold: in 1980 they amounted to 18.0 per cent of all sentences. In other words, one in six persons sentenced in cases initiated by public prosecutor is punished by limitation of liberty. This penalty imposes some limitations on a person sentenced, e.g. he may not change his place of abode (Art. 33 §1), and can take three forms. One of them is an obligation of "performing unremunerated supervised work for public purposes from 20 do 50 hours per month" (Art. 34 §1). The penalty of limitation of liberty in this form was applied to 41.4 per cent of sentenced persons in 1980 as compared with 38.1 per cent in 1972. The second form is applicable only to persons employed in a socialized work establishment and consists in deducing 10 to 25 per cent of the remuneration for work for the benefit of the State Treasury (Art. 34 §2). It was applied to 46,4 per cent of sentenced persons in 1980 as compared with 58.8 per cent in 1972. The third form - most seldom applied - is used when the court directs a person not being in an employment relation to an appropriate socialized work establishment for the purpose of performing work there and deduces from 10 do 25 per cent of the remuneration for work (Art. 34 §3). It was, however, applied in 12.2 per cent of cases in 1980 as compared with 3.1 per cent in 1972. Although the penalty of limitation of liberty may be not less than 3 months and not more than 2 years (Art. 33 §1), its minimum duration of 3 months has lately been imposed in 1.1- 1.3 per cent of sentenced persons as compared with 5.2 per cent in 1972. The most commonly imposed duration was over 6 month to 1 year. In 1980 nearly one person sentenced in 3 had it imposed on for a period from 1 to 2 years while in 1972 this happened to one person in 25. Again, like the penalty of unconditional deprivation of liberty, deprivation of liberty with suspension, fine imposed together with deprivation of liberty, the penalty of limitation of liberty shows an ever marked tendency to be imposed most infrequently in its lower extent and most often in its high and highest extent. The same applies to the fine (Art. 36 §1). It can be adjudged in an amount from 500 to 25 000 zlotys, i.e. within much narrower limits than that imposed together with a penalty of deprivation of liberty. The changes which took place in the years 1972- 80 as regards the extent of the fine, resemble those which occurred in the case of a fine adjudged together with deprivation of liberty (Table 1). We shall finish our discussion of basic penalties with two pieces pf information. The imposition of the supplementary penalty only (Art. 55) was confiscation of property in 90 per cent of cases, and prohibition of operating motor driven vehicles in the remaining 10 percent. Educational and corrective measures applied (Art. 9 §3) consisted in placing in a borstal in some dozen percent of cases, which is a kind of deprivation of liberty. The largest group, about half of all on whom these measures were imposed, was placed under the supervision of a probation officer. We shall now try to formulate some general conclusions drawn from the date on the structure an extent of penal measures. We shall use four groups of indexes to present the conclusions in most concise form (Table 2). These indexes will describe the most important statistically determined aspects of Poland's penal system. The first group of indexes refers to the extent of crime known to the police. Traditionally the penal measures applied are thought of as a response to this crime. Therefore, if one wants to understand their evolution one has to look into the nature of the evolution of crime. The determination of the extent of crimes known to the police can be carried out in several ways. It can be based on the data on the offences (taken from the police and public prosecutor’s statistics) or on the data on the offenders supplied as a rule by the judicial, statistics. The data on the serious offences known to the police encompass acts chosen in an arbitrary way limited by the extent of those published in the Statistical Year Books for the years 1971- 80. The number of sentences can be determined more simply from the number of sentences for acts regarded as the most serious ones by the legislator (Art. 5 of the Penal Code). All this information is presented in the form of rates per 100 000 total population (data on the offences known to the police) or per 100 000 adult population (data on sentences). By comparing the changes in these rates two conclusions can be drawn. First, the number of serious crimes known to the police as well as that of the crime perpetrators brought to trial during the seventies was at a similar level although it showed some variations. The general rate of offences known to the police was measured in three different ways, namely the rate of crimes known to the police, the persons found guilty and the sentenced ones. It proves the relevance of two well known observations: the first one is that when the criminal case passes along the subsequent links in the chain of the justice system (police, public prosecutor’s office, court) the size of the crime known to the police becomes smaller. The second observation is that serious crimes are less susceptible to such fluctuations. The second conclusion drawn from the comparison of crime rates introduced above is that it he statement about the stable extent of crime first of all, that of most serious crime, is of greatest importance for further discussion. This statement warrants the opinion that the observed changes in the structure and intensity of penal measures cannot be accounted for by the corresponding changes in the extent and character of the crime known to the police. The reasons of these changes should be traced to changes in legal values, i.e. in the evolution of the opinions as to what kind of penal reactions form the "proper" response to definite offences against the law, what penalty is "adequate" to the amount of social danger involved in the offence and, the belief in the general deterrent effect of severe penalties. The data on the application of preliminary detention show that about one in four persons at the time of being convicted had experienced deprivation of liberty. As expected, this experience was specially common among the persons on which the court had subsequently imposed the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty. The data collected in the third part of Table 2 on the structure of the penal measures imposed provide a remainder of the changes in these measures. Among them one can observe a certain limitation of sentencing to immediate deprivation of liberty, and a much more marked decrease in the number of sentences to a suspended deprivation of liberty. The former change may be regarded as a symptom of what is so much needed in the Polish criminal justice system, i.e. of eliminating penalties associated with deprivation of liberty and the ever increasing application of penalties without deprivation of liberty in the sentencing practice, not only in verbal statements. As for the latter change it is difficult to take an unequivocal attitude. It is because one should remember that period 1972 - 80 was not only characterized by a fall in the per cent contribution of sentences of suspended deprivation of liberty but also by a rise in the per cent contribution of placing under supervision, ordering obligations, increasing the number of such obligations, imposing fines together with deprivation of liberty, the extent of which is also increasing. We shall now consider the indexes to determine the rate of the application of penal measures. Table 2 shows two such groups chosen out of a variety of others. One group is made up of the numbers of persons sentenced to deprivation of liberty per 100 thousand adult population. The second group constitutes the mean values of various penalties. The above indexes help us to focus our attention on two contradictory, in the author’s opinion, trends. One trend, to limit the imposition of the penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty, is best seen in the fall in the number of sentences to this penalty (per 100 000 adult population) from 272,7 in 1972 to 172,1 in 1980, i.e. by 37 per cent. The other trend, in the opposite direction, is seen in the ’"rates" of sentences to long penalties of deprivation of liberty, i.e. 3 and over years, and particularly, 5 and over years. During only 4 years the mean penalty of immediate deprivation of liberty became longer by nearly 6 months from 19 months in 1972 to over 25 month in 1976. The tendency to augment the penalties has also manifested itself in the rise by as much as 25 per cent of the mean penalty of suspended deprivation of liberty: from about 12 months ip 1972 to about 15 months in 1980. This augmentation seems quite Irrational as it is a well-known fact that for a large majority of such penalties there is no need to have them executed. At the same time there is no evidence that the penalties imposed in the previous extent were ineffective or their lengthening had led to higher effectiveness. The next pair of mean values given in Table 2 provide information about the extent of both kinds of fine. These values must be analysed in close relation with significant devaluation of money in Poland in the seventies. Therefore, the table contains information about the mean monthly salary in the socialized economy in this country (the last line). During the period 1972- 80 the salaries increased more than twofold, but the fines increased fivefold. As early as in 1972 the mean value of either of the above fines was equal to a little over one month salary, in 1980 the fine was equal to more than a two-month salary, and the other fine amounted almost to a three-month salary; the repressiveness of the above penal measures increased markedly. We shall complete our discussion of Table 2 with one general remark. When observing the evolution of penal policy in Poland in the span of the last 25 years, two features may be distinguished. One constant tendency, though not without some hesitations and obstructions, to augment the impact of individual penal measures based almost exclusively on imposing one type of punishment. The second feature is a tendency to combine these effects by simultaneously using various kinds of punishment imposed on a sentenced person. This tendency was noticeable in the sixties, but it became more marked in the light of the present-day regulations which have opened up new and greater possibilities in this respect. The tendencies like the above in the penal policy raise some doubts as to their effectiveness and moral validity. They seem to convey impression that the penal measures in Poland have been undergoing a process of accelerated devaluation. It looks as if in order to attain the same aims of penal policy simultaneous application of the ever increasing measures in ever increasing doses should be resorted to. It is most doubtful whether such a devaluation really takes place as similar results were obtained earlier by means of less severe penal measures. One cannot escape the impression that the present penal policy in Poland is characterised by a certain extravagancy manifesting itself in the above accumulation of various forms of repressiveness instead of making an attempt to use them in an alternative way. The future development of Polish penal policy calls for a fundamental analysis and gradual reorientation.

9

Przestępczość młodocianych w latach 1951-1957 na podstawie statystyki sądowej

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1960

|

nr I

241-295

EN

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.

10

Kształtowanie się przestępczości nieletnich w Polsce w latach 1951-1960 w świetle statystyki sądowej

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1964

|

nr II

9-144

EN

In accordance with the criminal legislation in force in Poland, the term of juvenile delinquents comprises those persons who have committed a criminal offence before completing their seventeenth year of age. Such juveniles are prosecuted, as a rule, before special juvenile courts; they may be sentenced only to the application of various kinds of educational means, or be placed in a correctional institution. The subject of the present contribution is an analysis of the statistical materials connected with the juvenile persons found guilty within the ten years 1951- 1960. Such materials, making up the judicial statistics of juvenile delinquency, are formed by adding up the records from record cards filled by the law-courts - in every single case where educational and correctional means have been decreed with regard to a juvenile person. Consequently, the above statistics are in Poland, as, incidentally, in a great many other countries, those of findings of guilt, and not of the persons found guilty; every juvenile person is counted there as many times as the application of such means was decreed with regard to him. The data contained in such and similar statistics are known not to provide information about the actual dimensions of juvenile delinquency. A sporadic perpetration of certain minor offences, particularly theft, is extremely widespread among the totality of children and young people, and the perpetrators of such offences brought to light and prosecuted before the law-courts constitute but an insignificant percentage of the total number of juveniles who have committed this or that offence. Independently of the above-mentioned record cards, which furnish us with a great many data concerning the juveniles found guilty, there exist other sources of information concerning a certain even wider category of juveniles, namely those, against whom there was a suspicion, at some stage or other of the prosecution, that they were the perpetrators of offences: special court reports and police statistics. The data taken from judicial reports inform us that the juvenile courts dealt, in the years 1951 to 1960, with 25,000 to 38,000 cases of juvenile delinquents every year. Approximately 56 to 61 per cent, of those juveniles with regard to whom the application of educational and delinquents every year. consisted of persons correctional means was decreed (i. e. the juveniles found guilty), from 20 to discontinued in the 31 per cent. - juveniles, prosecution against whom was of preparatory proceedings, 6 to 11 per cent. - the juveniles acquitted, - those, whose cases were dealt with in some other ordinary law-court, course and 7 to 12 per cent. –(most frequently by making the case over to an because of the suspect person having completed 17 years of age). quite exceptionally appealed against by the Public Prosecutor, and very rarely by the accused themselves (in a mere cent, of the cases). In at least one-half of the total number of cases maintained in force by the courts way The decrees of juvenile courts are 3 to 5 per of appeal the decrees appealed against are of appeal. It was only in very few cases that the alteration of the decrees appealed against found their expression in the finding guilty of a juvenile acquitted, or else in acquitting one found guilty; mostly they consist in changing the educational means of the making accused over to a correctional institution. Between the number of juveniles, whose cases are annually dealt with by juvenile courts, and the number of juveniles suspected by the police of the perpetration of offences there were, particularly in the years 1951 - 1954, considerable differences, which showed that a large number of juveniles with whom the juvenile courts had to deal, were directed there not by the police. ? Within recent years such differences have become much smaller, so that at considered that the large majority of cases dealt with by the juvenile courts find their way there through the intermediary of the police Year Rate Index number of juveniles found guilty 1951 15641 4.5 100.0 1952 18022 5.3 117.8 1953 21444 6.5 144,4 1954 18495 6.0 133,3 1955 16307 5.5 122,2 1956 13474 4.6 102,2 1957 15019 4.9 108,9 1958 16821 5.1 113,3 1959 19730 5.6 124,4 1960 20520 5.4 120,0 In spite of the appearance, within the ten-year period in question, of certain variations in the frequency of juveniles being found guilty, a detailed analysis of the data provided by both judicial and police statistics has demonstrated that there were no foundations for an assumption that such variations were connected with any actual increase or decrease in juvenile delinquency. The yearly frequency of juveniles being found guilty (i. e. of persons between the ages of ten and sixteen) was expressed, throughout the 1951 - 1960 period, by an average rate equal to 5.3. In accordance with the latest data available to us from the pre-war period, namely from 1937, the number of juveniles found guilty that year amounted to 29384, while the frequency of their findings of guilt was only slightly higher than the average rate for the years 1951 - 1960; the corresponding rate amounted to 5.5. If the frequency of juveniles being found guilty were to remain, within the nearest future, on the same level as in the years 1959 - 1960 (when the rate amounted to about 5.5), then - in connection with the ever more numerous age-groups, composed of children born after the war, and now reaching the “ juvenile” age groups - the probable number of juveniles found guilty would amount to about 26320 in 1965, consequently by some 28 per cent, more than in 1960. In order to evaluate properly the amount of the findings of guilt of larger groups of juveniles over longer periods of time, the rates which inform us about the above frequency within one year only, are of no use. Therefore in order to achieve this aim we must look for other measurements of the frequency of findings of guilt. It appears particularly tempting to take for such a measurement the percentage of persons who had been found guilty of offences committed while they were still juveniles, as compared with the total number of those born within the year in question. If the above percentage be calculated with regard to the number of persons born within one calendar year at the moment when they completed seventeen years of age, that measurement will inform us, what part of the group of persons who have just become adults consists of those who had been found guilty as juvenile delinquents. The appropriate calculations have been made for persons born in the years 1941 to 1944, i. e. for persons who are from nineteen to twenty-two years old in 1963. At the moment when they were just seventeen, from 3.5 to 3.8 per cent, of their number consisted of persons found guilty for offences committed while they were juveniles. As for boys alone, the above-mentioned percentages were of the size of from 6.3 to 6.8 per cent., which means that, approximately, every fifteenth young man born in the years 1941 to 1944 was previously found guilty of offences committed during the period when he was still a juvenile. One of the problems which a considerable deal of attention has been devoted to in the present contribution are the local differences between the degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty. Two aspects of the problem were disscussed: that of the differences in the size of the rates calculated for the several voyevodships, and for town and country respectively. Even though Poland is divided into twenty-two large administrative units, called voyevodships, yet in the present contribution their number was assumed to be only seventeen; this was done by joining the five largest cities, having the status of a separate voyevodship, with the surrounding voyevodships (thus e. g. Warsaw and the voyevodship of Warsaw, Poznan and the voyevodship of Poznań, etc., have been treated as one single voyevodship). In the size of the rates, therefore, calculated on the basis of the number of the juveniles found guilty in the several voyevodships, there appeared considerable differences, which, however, proved to be smaller towards the end of the ten-year period under investigation, than they had been at its beginning. When, within each year, the voyevodships were placed in a sequence corresponding to that of the size of the coefficient of juvenile delinquency, it appeared that a relatively higher degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty were always characteristic of some voyevodships, while others showed a relatively lower degree of frequency (W = 0.87)[1]. It also appeared that there existed a correlation between the degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty in various voyevodships and the degree of frequency of the convictions of young persons between the ages of seventeen and twenty (in 1955: % = 0.53; in 1957: t = 0.51)[2]; on the other hand, correlation with the intensity of adult convictions looked rather doubtful. Generally speaking, a relatively higher degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty was characteristic of the western and north-western voyevodships, while in the remaining areas of the country it was distinctly lower. Of course, the question arises of how to explain the above differences in the size of the rates. An attempt was made to provide an answer, by establishing whether the voyevodships with a high degree of frequency of findings of guilt were also those where such phenomena, thought to affect the increase or decrease of juvenile delinquency, appeared. For this purpose a number of demographic data of various kinds have been made use of, viz. those showing the characteristic features of , above all the dimensions and intensity of population migrations, the process of urbanization and industrialization. The following results have been obtained.[3] The voyevodships which were characterized by the highest degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty were, as a rule, the very same voyevodships, in which the population migrations caused by the Second World War and by its consequences have attained the most considerable dimensions, as well as those, in which in the years 1952 to 1957 there was recorded the largest population increase and its smallest decrease connected with the voyevodship- to - voyevodship migrations. These were, moreover, the following voyevodships: those where a considerable part of the population drew their principal livelihood from sources other than agriculture; those where the bulk of the population consisted of town->dwellers, and finally those, where the urbanization process during the years 1950 to 1960, was most rapid as compared with the 1950 level. Marked differences have been observed in the frequency of juveniles being found guilty as between town and country. In the towns it was approximately three times higher than in the country (the corresponding rates, in 1960, amounted to 8.4 and 3.0, respectively). Consequently, one in every one hundred and nineteen juveniles was found guilty in towns, as compared with one in every three hundred and thirty three in the country. The lack of appropriately detailed demographic data has made impossible a more precise analysis of the frequency of juveniles being found guilty as between towns of various sizes. All we know is that, in 1960, the rate equal to 9.7 for the five largest cities, each of which has over 400,000 inhabitants, was higher than that in the -remaining towns (8.1). Judging from the 1960 data, in the voyevodships where the intensity of juvenile convictions was relatively high in the towns, it also proved to be relatively high in the country (T = 0.56). The dimensions of the intensity of juvenile convictions in the country seem to be somewhat connected with the degree of “ urbanization” of the countryside: viz. in those voyevodships, in which the frequency of findings of guilt in the country was higher than that in others, the percentage of persons, among the rural population, who drew their livelihood from trades other than agriculture being also higher (T = 0,29). Among the total number of juveniles found guilty, the enormous majority (approximately 90 per cent.) consisted of boys, whereas their percentage increased, from 89 per cent, in 1951 to 93 per cent, in 1960. Similarly, among the young people and young adults between seventeen and twenty years of age, the share of men increased within the same period. As a result of this, while in 1951 the rate for boys (7.8) was seven times higher than that for girls (1.1), by 1960 it was already as much as twelve times higher (the corresponding rates then amounted to 9.9 and 0.8 respectively). The frequency of boys being found guilty was expressed by a mean rate amounting to 9.7, while that for girls was 1.0; in the period under investigation, therefore on an average one boy in one hundred and Tyree was found guilty, and one girl in a thousand, both of them within the age groups of from ten to sixteen years of age. Relative differences in the frequency of juveniles being found guilty which appeared as between the several voyevodships exhibited marked features of constancy, for boys (W = 0.85), as well as for girls (W = 0.82). It has also turned out that for both boys and girls, there existed a correlationbetween the frequency of their being found guilty in the several voyevodships, and the degree of frequency, in the voyevodships in question, of the above social phenomena which strongly affect juvenile delinquency. In the years 1959 and 1960 the frequency of boys being found guilty was more than ten times higher than that of girls, bath for town-dwellers and for village-dwellers. The number of juveniles found guilty gradually increases as we pass from the junior to the senior age groups. Among the total number of juveniles found guilty there were three to four times less ten-year-olds than there were fourteen-, fifteen-, or sixteen-year-olds. The average degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty within the several age groups was as follows within the period under investigation (in rates per 1000 persons in the corresponding age groups): 10-year-olds 2.4 11-year-olds 3.5 12-year-olds 4.8 13-year-olds 6.3 14-year-olds 7.1 15-year-olds 7.7 16-year-olds 6.6 The fact that the rate obtained for 16-year-olds is lower than that for 15-year-olds results from the author’s inability (because of the lack of the appropriate data) to take into consideration to a sufficient extent approximately twenty to thirty per cent, of the 16-year-olds, namely those who were convicted by ordinary law-courts after having completed their seventeenth year of age, and consequently when they were already adults. Within the 1951 through 1960 period the average age of the juveniles found guilty in the successive years underwent changes connected, to some extent at least, with the total number of juveniles in the several year-groups. While in 1951 the average age of the juveniles found guilty was 14.0 years, by 1955- 1957 it had reached 14,2 years and subsequently it gradually dropped to 13.8 years in 1960. The above observation has proved to be very important: for, indeed, it was the changes in the juveniles’ age that made it possible for us to explain a number of discrepancies found to occur in the information concerning the juveniles found guilty in various years of the period under investigation. The average concentration of conviction rates for boys and girls, as well as the quotient of their respective numbers are as follows in the period under investigation for the several age-groups within a year: Boys Girls for 100 boys found guilty there were girls found guilty 10-year-old 4.3 0.3 6,8 11-year-old 6. 5 0.4 6.6 12-year-old 8.9 0.6. 7.0 13-year-old 11.6 0.9 7.2 14-year-old 12. 9. 1.2 9.4 15-year-old 13.5 1.9 13.9 16-year-old. 11.2 2.0 17.2 The above remarks concerning the value of the rates for 16-year-olds, as well as the changes in the average ages of those found guilty, naturally also apply both to boys and to girls. In every year of the 1951 to 1960 period the girls found guilty were, on average, older than the boys found guilty; the differences between their average ages have proved to be statistically significant[4]. The girls found guilty within the 1959 to 1960 period were also significantly older while than the boys found guilty in the same years, only for town-dwellers, the difference was not significant for village-dwellers. It has also been established that the boys found guilty within the same years and living in towns were significantly younger than those living in the country, while no such differences have been found to occur in the case of girls. The frequency of findings of guilt of the oldest age-groups of juvenile boys from the towns has assumed serious proportions:, in 1959 and 1960 from 2.0 per cent, to 2.7 per cent, of the total number of town-dwelling 14 to 16-year-old boys were annually found guilty. Among the 20,520 juveniies found guilty in 1960 - 15,927 (77.6 per cent.) had both parents living, 3,650 (17.8 per cent.) had only a mother, 720 (3.5 per cent.) had only a father, while a mere 223 (1.1 per cent.) were orphans. In the years 1953 to 1956 the family situation of the juveniles found guilty assumed even less favourable proportions: a bare two-thirds of their number had both parents living, half-orphans constituted about thirty per cent., while complete orphans from 3 to 4 per cent. The percentage of juveniles who were actually under the guardianship of both parents was, in every single year, lower by several per cent, than the percentage of those who had both parents alive. Approximately one in every four or five juveniles found guilty was under the guardianship of a solitary mother (either widowed or else deserted by her husband). On the basis of judicial statistics alone it is impossible to form a proper opinion of what social strata the juveniles found guilty were recruited from. Only indirect and but vaguely approximate information concerning that may be found in the data on the kind of occupation of the parents or guardians of the juvenile in question; for the years 1953 to 1960 they presented the following picture: juveniles whose parents (guardians) were manual workers amounted to from 60 to 62 per cent., the children of white-collar workers - from 9 to 10 per cent., farmers (the enormous majority of them had farms of their own) - from 19 to 22 per cent., artisans working in their own workshops or small traders - from 1 to 2 per cent.; the remaining few per cent, of juveniles consisted of those, whose parents or guardians remained without any permanent occupation, or of juveniles who had neither parents nor guardians. Among the juveniles found guilty every year from 81 to 88 per cent, committed offences against property (as a rule, of theft); most them had committed crimes against the property of private citizens, while the remaining ones - against social property. Juveniles prosecuted for crimes against life and health accounted for from 3 to 6 per cent.., for sexual offences - for from 0.7 to 1.4 per cent., for forgery of documents - for from 0.5 to 2.1 per cent., while a few per cent, were found guilty every year of various other kinds of criminal offences. The perpetrators of serious crimes (such as homicide, manslaughter, serious bodily damage, robbery, rape, intimacy with minors below fifteen years of age) accounted for a mere few per cent, of the total number of the juveniles found guilty. Between the structure of the delinquency of the town-dwelling and that of the village-dwelling juveniles, as well as between that of boys and girls, certain minor differences were recorded, which – as proved by test x2 - were statistically significant. Age proved to be a factor which seriously influenced the structure of juvenile delinquency, as we move from the younger to the older age-groups, their criminality becoming more and more differentiated. Thus, e.g. in 1960 those prosecuted for the perpetration of offences against property accounted for 92 per cent, of the 10-year-olds found guilty, while only for 76 per cent, of the 16-year-olds; in the case of those prosecuted for offences against life and health the appropriate figures were 3 per cent, and 11 per cent, respectively, in sexual offences: 0.2 in document forgery: 0.1 per cent, and 1.4 per cent. Similarly the kinds of theft, the offence most frequently committed by juveniles, assumed various aspects, in accordance with their perpetrators. It appeared that certain changes in the structure of juvenile delinquency, which came to light in the course of the 1955 to 1960 period, were almost exclusively connected with the decrease in the average age of the juveniles found guilty during those years. One of the age pieces of information concerning the offence for which a juvenile was prosecuted before the courts, consists of the data recorded on the registration card, whether he or she has committed his or her offence individually or else in co-operation with other persons. Even though the entries on the registration card do not contain any information as to the character of the bond which united the juvenile to the persons who have perpetrated offences together with him, yet it could be assumed - on the basis of the results of special research on that problem - that, in every single case those found guilty of offences committed together with at least two fellow-perpetrators, were members of gangs of juvenile delinquents. The juveniles prosecuted for offences committed in a group (i.e. along with two or more fellow-perpetrators) constituted a considerable percentage of those annually found guilty (from 34 to 39 per cent.), a percentage only slightly lower than that of juveniles prosecuted for offences individually (from 38 to 43 per cent.). As could be surmised, the percentage of juveniles who committed offences on committed ones group was actually even higher in proportion to the total number of juveniles found guilty; for, indeed as a many of such juveniles were recorded in judicial statistics among the accused found guilty of the commission of offences perpetrated together with one fellow-perpetrator. The percentage of juveniles who co-operated with adults (who were, as young adults, between seventeen and twenty years of age) in no single year of the period under investigation exceeded 9 per cent, of the total number of juveniles found guilty of committing offences together with other persons. The considerable importance which is ascribed, in the etiology of juvenile delinquency, to groups, has encouraged the author to check the question of whether, in the voyevodships with a relatively high frequency of juveniles being found guilty, those found guilty of the commitment of crimes perpetrated in a group were also relatively more numerous. That assumption was proved to be well-founded: for the data from the successive years of the 1957 to 1960 period the values of t obtained remained within years the range of from 0.50 to 0.60. High percentages of juveniles found guilty of offences committed in a group (from 45 to 55 per cent.) among the total number of juveniles found guilty in the voyevodship in question, as well as low percentages (from 25 to 30 per cent.) were recorded in approximately the same voyevodships, in the 1957 to 1960 (W = 0.74). Both the above observations also apply to boys, while in the case of girls, we lack foundations for considering that the territorial distribution of the girls who had committed offences in a group was connected with the degree of frequency of their being found guilty. Neither has the assumption found its confirmation that there could exist a connection between the degree of frequency of juveniles being found guilty and the frequency of adult persons appearing in groups of juveniles. Cases of committing offences in a group were considerably more frequent for boys (from 36 to 41 per cent.) than girls (from 9 to 12 per cent.); approximately three-fourths of the girls found guilty were prosecuted for offences committed individually, while for boys the corresponding figure was only slightly above one-third. A marked dependence has been found to exist between the sex of a juvenile and the fact of his or her committing offences individually or else in groups. The juveniles who committed offences in groups have proved to be than those who committed them individually; this significantly younger observation holds for both boys and girls. Significant differences have been found to exist between the structure of the delinquency of the juveniles who acted as a group, and those who committed offences individually; these found their expression, foremost, in the juveniles who belonged to gangs of juvenile offenders frequently committing offences against property. On the basis of the materials contained in the judicial statistics only formal recidivism could be stated to exist, consequently it was possible to find out how many (and what kind of) juveniles found guilty e.g. within any given calendar year had already been found guilty before. Even such data, however, are far from complete; this is connected, in particular, with certain peculiarities of Polish criminal procedure, as of the recording of the findings of guilt of juveniles in judicial statis- first and more well as with the scope tics. Some of the more important among the data mentioned above are as follows: The percentages of recidivists among the juveniles found guilty within every single year of the 1953 to 1960 period were found within the range of from 12 per cent, to 18 per cent. About four-fifths of the recidivists consisted of juveniles who had only 1 In 1956 the compulsory school attendance (comprising seven classes of the elementary school) was extended to sixteen years of age, and in 1961 even to one appearance in court in the past; there were less than one hundred juveniles yearly who had previously been found guilty three times, and merely from fifteen to thirty who had been found guilty four or more times. An analysis of the local differences between the percentages of recidivists among the total number of juveniles in the several voyevodships has led to the conclusion that there did not exist any correlation between the degree of frequency of findings of guilt and the formal recidivism of juveniles. Juvenile recidivists were considerably more numerous among those found guilty who lived in cities and towns (from 14 per cent, to 23 per cent.) than among those who lived in the country (from 6 per cent, to 10 per cent.), considerably more numerous among boys (from 12 per cent, to 19 per cent.) than among girls (from 5 per cent, to 10 per cent.), among older offenders than among younger ones, among orphans and half-orphans than among those juveniles who were under the guardianship of both parents. The structure of the delinquency of juvenile recidivists differed signifi- cantly from the structure of the delinquency of those juveniles who were prosecuted for the first time; in particular, juvenile recidivists were more frequently prosecuted for offences against property than were non-recidivists. Among those data of the judicial statistics of juvenile delinquency which have not been discussed in the present contribution, particularly noteworthy is the information concerning the amount of school education received by the juveniles found guilty. Even though, in the course of the period under investigation, the situation in so far as their training was concerned underwent a considerable improvement, it is still most unfavourable in various respects. In the years 1954 to 1958 barely from 61 to 65 per cent, of the total number of juveniles found guilty attended school (by 1960 the percentage had increased to 81); in the same years from 20 to 25 per cent, of the total number of juveniles found guilty neither attended school nor worked (in 1960 - 13 per cent.). The percentage of those not attending school at an age of below 14 years (i.e. those still within the school-attending age) 1[5] was by several per cent, higher among the juveniles found guilty in all age groups than it was among all the children in Poland (in whose case it did not exceed 1 or 2 per cent.). The belatedness in school curriculum of the juveniles found guilty was enormous and considerably exceeded the belatedness to be met with among the total number of school children in Poland. Among the latter there were - depending on the class attended - from two-thirds to nine-tenths of the total number of pupils who had the age proper for the class in question, while among the juveniles found guilty who attended school there were (in the majority of the classes attended) considerably below one-half such pupils. The percentages of juveniles belated by three or more years in their school curriculum were many times higher among the juveniles found guilty than they were among the total number of school children. The education level of those juveniles who had abandoned learning and were found guilty in the 1954 through 1960 demonstrated that barely from 36 per cent, to 46 per cent, of them finished the seven-class obligatory elementary education. 21. The materials contained in judicial statistics also make possible an analysis of the law-courts’ policy in the field of decreeing educational and correctional means, as well as providing some information on the application of the means mentioned above. The presentation of the results of such an analysis, however, would require a separate publication. [1] This dependence was fixed by making use of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance W. (Cf. M. C. Kendall: Rank Correlation Methods, London 1955). In this case, as well as in all the others, the values of statistical tests have been provided, when the hypothesis of the independence of the variables investigated could be rejected at least at a level of significance of 0.05. [2] For the purpose of establishing the relation between the two rankings use was made of Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient %. (Cf: M.G. Kendall: Rank Correlation Methods, London 1955). [3] As a measurement of the correlation between the frequency of juveniles being found guilty and the several demographic variables investigated the rank correlation coefficient, was accepted. [4] Cf. H. Cramer: Mathematical Methods of Statistics (Polish translation, Warszawa 1958). [5] In 1956 the compulsory school attendance (comprising seven classes of the elementary school) was extended to sixteen years of age, and in 1961 even to 18 years, comprising eight classes of the elementary school.

11

Nasilenie przestępczości młodocianych i dorosłych w latach 1958-1962 na podstawie statystyki sądowej

100%

Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1965

|

nr III

283-365

EN

In the years 1958-1962 a certain slight increase of adult delinquency (until 1960) and later its slight decline has become apparent. This is affirmed by police statistics (relating to the number of crimes registered and revealed by the police), by the data of the Public Prosecutor's Office (containing information on reported crimes) and by the data of Law Courts (containing the number of convictions). In the years 1958-1962 the yearly number of convictions amounted to about 300 thous. This constitutes an increase of about 70 per cent as compared with the level of 1951 which however was due partly to an enlargement of the competence of Iaw courts. The frequency of convictions of adults measured by the delinquency coefficient (calculated per thousand of criminally liable persons i.e. persons over 17 years of age) amounted to a level of 17,2 in 1960 i.e. 62 per cent higher than in 1951. In 1962 that frequency was expressed by the coefficient 15.5 which indicated an average of 1 conviction on 65 criminally liable persons. Among the total of persons convicted by the Courts of Law juveniles under 17 years of age formed only a very small group (5-9 per cent), nevertheless, together with the young adults (17-20 years of age) they already constituted about 20 per cent of all the convicted. Persons under 30 (practicalły those aged 10-29) constituted half of the total of juveniles found guilty and convicted adults. Poland, together with Yugoslavia and Hungary, seems to belong to that group of countries where against the background of adult delinquency the juvenile and young adult delinquency does not, according to statistics relating to convictions, present a particularly serious problem. In a series of countries, persons under 20-21 years of age constituted more than a half of revealed offenders (e.g. England and Wales, Canada) and in some of them even two thirds of the total (Ireland, Norway, Sweden). Delinquency coefficients denoting frequency of convictions indicate that its degree was highest among the young adults (i.e. those aged 17-20) and adults aged 21-24 and 25-29. In 1962 approximately every 41 person in each of these age groups was convicted. A small increase of the frequency of convictions which occurred in 1958-1960 was most strongly reflected by the convicted of precisely those age groups. Its subsequent decline was there the least noticeable. Out of the total of 300 thous. persons convicted in 1962 about 245 thous. were men and about 55 thous. women. The number of convicted women in relation to 100 convicted men was continually diminishing (though not without certain oscillattions): it was 35 in 1951 and only 22 in 1962. Poland together with Yugoslavia and Hungary, also with Belgium, belongs to the countries with a high percentage of women among the convicted adults (about 20 per cent of the total). In most countries it is much lower and does not even reach 10 per cent (e.g. Norway, Finland, Sweden, Canada, France). The frequency of convictions of men was expressed by the coefficient 29.2 in 1960, which indicates a 70 per cent increase as compared with 1951. It was merely 9 per cent lower than in 1937 (the coefficient was then 31.5). In 1962 the delinquency coefficient for men amounted to 27.0. In that year there was on the average one conviction on 36 criminally liable men. The frequency of convictions of women was expressed by the coefficient 5.3 in 1962 which indicates a mere 2 per cent increase as compared with 1951. In the years 1958-1959 that degree of frequency was however much higher. The coefficient has then reached the level of 6.9 and was even higher than in 1937 when it amounted to 6.6. Among the total of men convicted by the law courts the juveniles constituted 6-10 per cent and together with young adults 20-22 per cent in the years 1958-1962. The percentage of women among the convicted bareIy amounted to 2-4 per cent and 12-13 per cent. Half of the convicted men was somewhat under thirty and half of the women under thirty five years of age. Among the convicted men hardly every tenth man was fifty years old or over. Among the convicted women every sixth one was of that age. The relation between the number of convicted men and women differed in particular age groups: in 1962 there were 15 women to 100 convicted men aged 17-20, 17 to 100 aged 25-29 years, 27 to 100 aged 35-39, 32 to 100 aged 45--49 and 48 to 100 aged 60 and over. Frequency of convictions of juveniles and young men reached a very high level in the course of the period under investigation. In the years 1960-1962 one out of every 23 men aged 17-29 was convicted. Delinquency coefficients for men in older age groups (over 30 years of age) were rapidly diminishing; the value of the coefficients for men aged 35-39 equalled two thirds of the value of the coefficienits for the 17-20 age group, about a half for the 45-49, about one third for the 50-59 and about one eighth for the age group of sixty and over. The highest frequency of convictions of women occurred among those aged 21-24. It was higher among women of 40 or even 45 than among those aged 17-20. The decline in the frequency of convictions of women over 50 was relatively twice lower than that of men. In a series of European countries various groups of juvenile and not adult offenders have the highest delinquency coefficient, as for example in England and Wales, Norway and Sweden. In other countries, among which beside Poland and Hungary also German Federal Republic and Switzerland should be counted, the maximum degree of frequency of convictions concerns various age groups of adults in the young groups of age. Analysing frequency of convictions occurring in various areas of the country one can theoretically use two kinds of coefficients: calculated according to the place of crime perpetrated by the convicted person, and according to the place of residenoe of the convicted person. Differences, existing between estimates of frequency of delinquency based on these coefficients present themselves as follows: they are of no particular importance when all-country data are examined, they are of some slight importance in case of particular voivodships, of greater importance when frequency of convictions in town and oountry is being defined and of prirnary importance at estimating that frequency of convictions in town and country in particular voivodships and in most of the 22 largest towns in Poland. Coefficients, based on the data relating to the place of crime, indicated in many voivodships larger differences in the degree of frequency of convictions in town and country than the coefficients based on the data relating to the domicile of the convicted persons. Although the town becomes the place of crime much more often than the countryside, the difference between the "criminality" of the town and village dwellers is rather small. The extent of differences between estimates of frequency of convictions in town and country in particular voivodships based on both those coefficients proved to be correlated with the extent of daily travels to and from work in these voivodships. Also analogous differences between estimates of frequency of convictions in the 22 largest towns in Poland were connected with extent of daily travels to work. In 1951 the delinquency coefficient for adults in the town (14.7) was 86 per cent higher than in the countryside (8.0). In 1962 the coefficient in the town (18.1) was already only 41 per cent higher than in the countryside (12.8). The general increase of the frequency of convictions which occurred in the last twelve years period was more influenced by its changes in the coutryside than in the town. In the years 1959-1962 one out of 30-32 men and one out of 115-149 women was convicted in town, while one out of 39-44 men and one out of 189-256 women was convicted in the country. In 1960 every twentieth man at the age of 17-20 was convicted in town. The frequency of convictions of 17-20 year olds definiteiy dominated over the frequency of convictions of other groups of adults only in the case of men in towns; as regards men in the countryside that preponderance was slight. In towns the frequency of convictions of women aged 17-20 was somewhat lower than of those aged 21-24 and in the country definitely lower than the frequency of convictions of all older women (even 45-49 years old). In 1960 the delinquency coefficient for men (29.2) was 4.4 times higher than the delinquency coefficient for women (6.6) and the differences in frequency of convicted men and women were smaller in town than in the country. Largest diffenences in the frequency of convictions of men and women were noted among those aged 17-20, convicted for offences committed in the country, and the smallest occurred among the oldest convicted who committed offences on the town. Differences in the frequency of convictions between town and country as well as between men and women, were smaller in western and northern territories than in the remaining areas of the country. Also the delinquency coefficients were higher in western and northern territories than in other areas. A proper analysis of factors determining differences in the frequency of convictions of adults in different areas is particularly complicated. It seems that putting forward and verifying the hypotheses which explain the constantly occurring differences in coefficients calculated for particular voivodships, ought to take place not in connection with an analysis of data relating to all convicted adults jointly but separately for those convicted for certain categories or groups of offences, separately for men and women and separately for different age groups. A relationship has been ascertained in the regional distribution of men and women delinquency, and that in all age groups; it was very strong regarding the relatively younger convicted (viz. higher, medium and lower degree of the frequency of convictions regarding both men and women appeared as a rule in the same voivodships). That relationship was weaker in the older groups. An analysis of the regional repartition of the frequency of convictions of men convicted in different age groups has shown that this repartition was most similar in case of persons belonging to the neighbouring age groups and diminished in those farther apart. As regards persons aged 60 and over this repartition somewhat differed from that encountered in other age groups. The same correlations even more strongly marked, applied also to women. Taking into consideration coefficients for the total of adults, it has been stated that in the years 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1960 a relatively higher degree of frequency of convictions continually appeared in western territories and in the Katowice voivodship (moreover, in Warsaw and Łódź). Also relationships between the regional differentiation of frequency of convictions and migration of the population have been established, their appearance being due both to the last war and its consequences as well as to the industrialization and urbanization of the country. The distribution of frequency of convictions (in particular voivodships) contains statistical tables concerning, among others, the structure of dela statistically significant similarity. Numerous statistical tables concerning questions briefly outlined in the sumrnary are included in the text of the author's work. The annex contains statistical tables concerning among others, the structure of deliquency and recidivism.

12

Karanie za odmienność (postępowanie policji z cyganami)

63%

Grönfors M. , Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1985

|

nr XII

119-128

13

Granice penalizacji

63%

Jepsen J. , Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1985

|

nr XII

17-36

14

Sytuacja młodzieży w społeczeństwach postindustrialnych

63%

Takala H. , Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1985

|

nr XII

59-68

15

Przestępczość w Polsce w latach 1954-1958 w świetle statystyki milicyjnej

63%

Jasiński J. , Syzduł E.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1960

|

nr I

7-53

EN

From the years 1945-1946 down to the present moment Polish police statistics have undergone a number of transformations and improvements concerning the collection of data, their elaboration, as well as the scope of the information collected. Judging on the basis of data coming from the years 1956-1957, about 90 per cent of the criminal cases made over to the law-courts with an indictment went through the hands of the police. The majority of the remaining 10 per cent of cases were dealt with direct by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (cases for a great variety of serious offences) or else by certain administrative organs (cases of minor forest thefts, tax offences, minor frauds in commerce, and a few others). In this way, police statistics may be considered as a source which makes it possible to form a relatively full picture of the offences brought to light in Poland. Certain transformations have also been undergone by the problem of the statistical unit accepted by police statistics. While previously (down to 1956-1957) such a unit was a criminal case (which might comprise a larger number of them), at present such a unit, in principle, consist of one offence. By offences, in police statistics, are understood felonies or misdemeanors, i.e. acts dealt with by the 1932 Criminal Code, still in force, or by special penal statutes, and for which the penalty is over three months custody or a fine of over 4500 zlotys. The statistical material contained in the present contribution has not been published so far, apart from the basic information provided by the Statistical Year-Books for the years 1956, 1957, and 1958. The number of the population of Poland increased from about 27 000 000 to 29 000 000 during the 1954 to 1958 period, while the number of city and town dwellers increased from about 11 300 000 to 13 500 000, and that of village dwellers decreased from 15 700 000 to 15 500 000 in the same period. In the course of the above-mentioned period, therefore, the number of offences known to the police increased by 35 per cent, but the rate of delinquency, in connection with a certain increase in the total number of the population, increased only by 27 per cent. In the period preceding the Second World War, in the years 1927 to 1937, the number of offences brought to light every year was considerably larger (in 1934 as many as 658 thousand were registered, and in the years 1935 to 1937 nearly 600 thousand per annum); the rate of delinquency was expressed by the following coefficients: in 1934 - 2000, in 1935 - 1770, in 1936 - 1760, and in 1937 - 1710. The magnitude of delinquency in the years 1954 to 1958 differed considerably as between the territories of the several voivodeships. The highest rate of delinquency could be observed in the voivodeships of the Western Territories, with the exception of the voivodeship of Opole (in the several years of the period under investigation coefficients oscillated between 1450 and 2130), in the two largest cities: Warsaw (2470 b 2760) and Łódź (1590 to 1970), as well as in the most highly industrialized and urbanized region of the country' formed by the voivodeship of Katowice (1400 to 1680). Nearly one-third of all the offences known to the police were committed on the territory of a mere three voivodeships (those of Katowice, Wrocław, and the City of Warsaw), which contain rather over one-fifth of the country's population. The offences brought to tight by the police have been divided into four groups according to their kind: group I consists of offences against property, group II - of economic offences, group III – of offences against life and health, and group IV – of all the other offences. Offences against property, which comprise the accaparation of social property, thefts of individual property, robberies, frauds, forgeries, and damage to property, in 1954 and 1955 constituted about 70 per cent of all the offences brought to light (the number of such offences known to the police in these years was 214 470 and 238 911 respectively), in 1956 and 1957 about 65 per cent (241 543 and 261 621 offences respectively), and in 1958 about 60 per cent (251 788 offences). Their rate, in the years 1954 to 1958, was expressed by the figure of from 780 to 920 offences per 100 000 of the population. In the 1954 to 1958 period, approximately 91 000 to 124 000 offences of accaparating social property were brought to light annually, while their number kept continually increasing down to 1957; in 1958 about 117 000 of them were made known to the police. It is a generally known and emphasized fact that the size of the obscure figure is particularly big with offences against property. It is to be presumed that this obscure figure is most conspicuous in the case of offences against social property. Among the offences against social property between 11 000 and 15 000 were burglaries. Out of a total of 11 989 of such offenses brought to light in 1958, 24 per cent were committed in the country (so that there were 188 of them for each 100 000 village dwellers), and 76 per cent - in the cities and towns (there were 679 of them per 100 000 of the population). According to the size of the cities and towns, the coefficients which depict the number of burglaries per 100 000 of the population assumed the following proportions: towns of up to 50 thousand inhabitants - 622, from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants - 651, 100 to 200 thousand inhabitants - 676, and over 200 thousand inhabitants - 810. During the 1954 to 1958 period an approximate annual figure of from 111 000 to 131 000 thefts of individual property was known to the police, but as from 1955 their number diminished from year to year reaching the figure of 112 883 in 1958. Of the latter offences, 31 per cent were committed in the country (coefficient: 230), and 69 per cent in the cities and towns (coefficient:580). In the case of theft of individual property there was also a dependence between the size of the towns and the rate of such offences: in towns with a population below 50 thousand it was expressed by a coefficient of 470, in towns of between 50 and 100 thousand inhabitants - 720, from 100 to 200 thousand inhabitants - 620, over 200 thousand inhabitants - 750. Thefts of individual property with burglary amounted to 11 577 in 1958 (and their number has kept decreasing from year to year, starting from 1955, when 18 455 of them were known to the police. 13 per cent of them have been committed in the country (coefficient 154), and 87 per cent in the cities and towns (coefficient 689). According to the size of the towns, going from the smallest to the largest, the coefficients showing the rate of such offences were expressed in the following figures in 1958: 397, 918, 929 and 1067. If we count together the accaparation of social property and thefts of individual property and treat them jointly as thefts, it would appear that in the years 1954 to 1958 from 200 000 to 245 000 such offences were made known to the police every year; their rate was expressed by the figure of from 750 to 860 per 100 000 of the population. In the years 1954 to 1957 from 3000 to 4000 forgeries were known to the police every year; their number has tremendously increased in 1958, reaching the very figure of 6300 (i.e. 217 per 100 000 of the population). The number of robberies brought to light by the police amounted to 2066 in 1954 (coefficient:76), 2503 in 1955 (coefficient: 91), 2905 in 1956 (coefficient: 103), 3185 in 1957 (coefficient: 112), and 2503 in 1958 (coefficient: 89). The decrease in the number of such offences recorded in 1958 is estimated as connected with a real decrease in their number. Of the total of robberies known to the police in 1958, 35 per cent were committed in the country (thus there were 46 of them per 100 000 of the population), and 65 in the cities and towns (138 per 100 000 of the urban population). According to the size of the towns (from the smallest to the largest) the coefficients depicting the rate of robberies committed there looked as follows: 85, 141, 194, 213. The number of cases of receiving stolen goods has considerably increased within the 1954 to 1958 period, from 816 in 1954 (coefficient: 32), to 1880 in 1958 (coefficient: 65). Group Two of offences, described by the name of economic offences, has been made to include cases of speculation, corruption and neglect of duty by civil servants resulting in damage to the State economy, further, Treasury offences, and currency offences. In the years 1954 to 1957 from 36 000 to 40 000 such offences were known to the police every year; in 1958 their number has considerably increased, probably in connection with a greater diligence in prosecuting them, and amounted to as many as 53 579 (coefficient: 190). Group Three - that of offences against life and health - comprises: murder and manslaughter, infanticides, inflicting grievous injury to the body, and brawls. The total number of such offences has very considerably increased in the years 1954 to 1958, namely from 18 583 in 1954 (coefficient: 70) to 28 910 in 1958 (coefficient: 100), i.e. by about 60 per cent. Their share among all the offences recorded by the police has increased from 13 per cent in 1954 to 21 per cent in 1958. In the years 1954 to 1958 from 700 to 900 murders and manslaughters were recorded annually; in 1958 803 of them were known to the police, of which 620 were carried out and 183 attempted. Consequently there were 28 such offences per 100 000 of the population that year. In 1937 3 314 murders and manslaughters were recorded, i.e. 96 per 100 000 of the population. The number of infanticides recorded by the police did not go beyond the figure of 90 per year (in 1958 there were 75 such cases). In 1937 802 infanticides were brought to light. The number of recorded cases of inflicting grievous injury to the body and of participation in a brawl (with using a dangerous tool or else if death or grievous injury to the body were the result) has very considerably increased in the years 1954 to 1958 from 5 508 in 1954 (coefficient: 204) to 10 005 in 1958 (coefficient: 346). In 1954 6146 cases of inflicting serious or very serious injury to the body were known to the police (coefficient: 227), in 1958 – 8 350 (coefficient: 289). In 1954 6123 cases of inflicting slight bodily harm were record ed (coefficient: 227), and in 1958 _ 9677 (coefficient: 335). Of the offences included in Group Four particularly noteworthy are the offences against morality. In 1958 969 cases of rape were recorded; 901 cases of immoral acts with juveniles under 15 years of age, and 290 cases of abetting to prostitution and deriving profits therefrom. In the Polish text, the present contribution is supplemented with an annex which provides the more important items of the information collected by the police concerning road accidents, suicides, and prostitution.

16

Prostytucja w Skandynawskiej perspektywie

51%

Prieur A. , Giertsen H. , Jasiński J.

Archiwum Kryminologii

|

1985

|

nr XII

139-156