Gorazd Meško
Biographic Data
| ID | 375997 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gorazd Meško |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gorazd |
| FAMILY NAME | Meško |
| SIGNATURE | MEŠKO G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Maribor |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7466-0042 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Crime and Punishment in Serbia: Seven Decades of Penal Policy Development
The paper presents a comprehensive study of the development of penal policy in Serbia over the last 70 years. Yugoslav penal policy was moderate compared to other socialist countries in Eastern Europe; however, profound differences existed among the federal republics. The evolution of Serbian penal policy was marked by significant political events and shifting state priorities. The criminal justice system transitioned from a socialist, rehabilita…
Crime propensity and lifestyle risk: The interplay of personal morality and self-control ability in determining the significance of criminogenic exposure
According to Situational Action Theory, acts of crime are the result of a propensity—exposure interaction, with greater effects of criminogenic exposure for people of higher crime propensity—the latter determined by personal morality and the ability to exercise self-control. The present study delves into this interplay using individual-level survey data from adolescents in Slovenia. It goes beyond extant research by explicitly testing the three-w…
An Examination of Police Officers’ Self-Legitimacy: A Comparative Study in Slovenia
Police (self-)legitimacy is dialogical in nature and influenced by social contexts. In this comparative study, conducted on a national sample of 1,380 police officers in Slovenia, collected over three periods, the stability of police officers’ self-legitimacy and its antecedents are tested. The regression models revealed differences in self-legitimacy and its antecedents across periods, supporting the thesis of the unstable nature of police self-…
Police officers’ self-legitimacy and support for community policing
Police officers’ perception of self-legitimacy influences their attitudes and behavior in interactions with residents. Drawing on data from a survey of 415 police officers collected in 2022 at 24 police stations in Slovenia, this study aims to test the correlations between police officers’ self-legitimacy and their support for community policing. Multivariate analyses showed that relations with colleagues correlated with the self-legitimacy of po…
Prison Workers' Perception of Self-legitimacy, Relations, and Professional Competencies: A Comprehensive Study in Slovenia
Self-legitimacy of prison workers: A comparative study in Slovenian prisons
Building legitimacy in a coercive prison environment presents a significant challenge for prison workers. Drawing on data from a survey of 465 Slovenian prison workers collected in 2016 and 2022, this study aims to test the stability of prison workers’ sense of self-legitimacy, as prior research strongly suggests that the nature of such legitimacy is fundamentally unstable. Multivariate analyses showed that relationships with prisoners and the in…
Cybercrime Correlates Among Adolescents in Europe and South America: A Cross-National Analysis Based on Situational Action Theory
Cybercrime is increasingly recognized as a global issue, with adolescents being a key group as crime trends shift online. However, relatively little is known about the prevalence of cybercrime, its specific risk factors, and how they differ across high and low-middle-income countries. This highlights the need for more cross-national comparative studies on the cybercriminal behavior of young people. This study examines the prevalence of four types…
The UN Sustainable Development Goals and Provision of Security, Responses to Crime and Security Threats, and Fair Criminal Justice Systems
The book comprises 14 peer-reviewed chapters based on research on crime and security threats in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The book represents a multidisciplinary work that combines different views of safety and security provision in local environments, at the national level, as well as in the international environment. The chapters include findings of a literature review, empirical research on crime and victimi…
Femicide and Covid-19 Pandemic: Examining the Situation in Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Slovenia
Government measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 affected crime opportunities and criminal justice systems, resulting in changes in crime trends. This article explores the effects of restrictions (lockdowns) on the number of femicides. The monthly data on femicides from 2017 to 2021 were collected in five Central and South-eastern European countries: Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. The total number of femicides fro…
Self-Legitimacy of Prison Workers and Treatment of Correctional Clients: A Study in Slovenian Prisons
Studies on self-legitimacy in the prison environment have confirmed the differences in prison workers’ perceptions of their own legitimacy in different cultural settings. This study focuses on factors influencing prison workers’ self-legitimacy and their support of the specific treatment of correctional clients in Slovenian prisons. The results highlighted good relations with correctional clients, satisfaction with payment, internalization of sub…
The Comparative Study of Prison Officers’ Self-Legitimacy and the Use of Force: Slovenian Experience in Different Periods
In the past, scant attention has been devoted to the nature of relation between self-legitimacy and the use of force in the prison context. The current study focuses on a comparative examination of prison officers’ self-legitimacy and willingness to use force in two time periods. The data were drawn from national samples of prison officers in Slovenia collected in 2016 and 2022. The manova and regression models showed differences in self-legitima…
Comparative Criminology and Comparative Criminal Justice in Contemporary Crime and Social Control Research – a Brief Overview
From Apparent Unity to Diversity: Penal Policies of (Former) Yugoslav Republics
This paper presents a comprehensive study of penal policies of (former) Yugoslav countries in the last 70 years. The Yugoslavian penal policy has been unique in the sense of leniency but was by no means uniform in its implementation. A comparative analysis of the development of penal policy in the observed states, supported by statistical data on crime, conviction and prison populations, revealed that differences have been profound. While dispari…
Punitiveness in Slovenia: A study of criminal justice students as future practitioners and decision-makers in the criminal justice system
The paper focuses on the punitiveness and support of the death penalty among criminal justice students in Slovenia. First, a literature review on punishment and punitiveness, penal changes in Slovenia, and punitive attitudes among criminal justice students, is provided. In the second part of the paper, the results of the empirical study that took place among criminal justice students in Slovenia in 2019 are presented. Statistical analyses perform…
The Effects of Justice Judgments on Police Legitimacy Across Urban Neighborhoods: A Test of the Invariance Thesis
The invariance thesis posits that the effects of procedural justice judgments on police legitimacy beliefs are consistent across a variety of contexts, including urban neighborhoods. An alternative argument, one steeped in the relational model of authority, holds that procedural justice effects are weaker in high-crime communities where residents do not identify with the police and where they place more weight on instrumental concerns. This study…
Varnost v lokalnih skupnostih – med ruralnimi in urbanimi perspektivami
Monografija predstavlja osem tematsko zaokroženih poglavij, katerih glavna tema je varnost v lokalnih skupnostih ter ločnica med varnostjo v ruralnih in urbanih okoljih. Monografija predstavlja rezultat znanstvenoraziskovalnega dela članov programske skupine Varnost v lokalnih skupnostih – primerjava ruralnih in urbanih okolij, ki se izvaja na Inštitutu za varstvoslovje Fakultete za varnostne vede Univerze v Mariboru. Avtorji prihajajo iz raznih …
Physical teen dating violence in high school students in Slovenia: Prevalence and correlates
Although teen dating violence (TDV) is internationally recognized as a serious threat to adolescents' health and well-being, almost no data is available for Slovenian youth. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and predictors of TDV among Slovenian adolescents for the first time. Using data from the SPMAD study (Study of Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Delinquency), 330 high school students were asked about physical T…
Police, Policing and covid-19 Pandemic
The past almost two years have brought many changes to our lives. The covid-19 pandemic was announced by the who on 11 March 2020, and social life soon changed significantly. Schools, universities, and kindergartens were closed down and many other work-related activities moved to the work-from-home platform as stay-at-home- and curfew measures were adopted by almost all governments while others decided in favour of a much more liberal approach. S…
A global analysis of the impact of Covid-19 stay-at-home restrictions on crime
The stay-at-home restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 led to unparalleled sudden change in daily life, but it is unclear how they affected urban crime globally. We collected data on daily counts of crime in 27 cities across 23 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We conducted interrupted time series analyses to assess the impact of stay-at-home restrictions on different types of crime in each city. Our findings s…
Rural Criminology – A Challenge For the Future
Self-legitimacy and use of force: A quantitative study of prison officers in Slovenia
The purpose of this paper is to explore self-legitimacy of prison officers and their willingness to use force against prisoners in Slovenian prisons. In 2016, 139 prison officers from all Slovenian prisons for men were surveyed. Results of OLS regression analysis revealed that relations with colleagues, supervisors’ procedural justice and age affect self-legitimacy of prison officers. Moreover, findings showed that self-legitimacy, supervisors’ p…
On Some Aspects of Cybercrime and Cybervictimization
Self-Legitimacy, Organisational Commitment and Commitment to Fair Treatment of Prisoners: An Empirical Study of Prison Officers in Slovenia
Recent work on legitimacy within criminal justice systems have drawn attention to self-legitimacy; that is, criminal justice professionals’ own recognition of their entitlement to power. The evidence on this aspect of legitimacy remains sparse and mainly from police studies. We know almost nothing about the self-legitimacy of prison officers. This paper contributes to filling this gap, with an empirical focus on prison officers in Slovenia. Speci…
Assessing police–community relationships: Is there a gap in perceptions between police officers and residents
The notion that community residents are key players responsible for the well-being of the larger society has become a cornerstone of approaches to modern policing in democratic societies. That is, residents partner with police to help maintain social order. An essential element of successful implementation of any programme is communication and understanding between various parties in the partnership. In this paper, we examine whether there is con…
Perception of police corruption and the level of integrity among Slovenian police officers
The survey of police integrity was conducted on the representative sample of 550 Slovenian police officers. The measurement was developed by Kutnjak Ivković and Klockarson the basis of 14 hypothetical case scenarios which describe different forms of police misconduct (i.e. conflict of interests, bribery, and theft). The results of this study demonstrate a high level of self-reported police integrity strictly connected to the code of silence into …
A global analysis of the impact of Covid-19 stay-at-home restrictions on crime
The stay-at-home restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 led to unparalleled sudden change in daily life, but it is unclear how they affected urban crime globally. We collected data on daily counts of crime in 27 cities across 23 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We conducted interrupted time series analyses to assess the impact of stay-at-home restrictions on different types of crime in each city. Our findings s…
Is the criminogenic effect of exposure to peer delinquency dependent on the ability to exercise self-control? Results from three countries
Is the Effect of Perceived Deterrence on Juvenile Offending Contingent on the Level of Self-Control? Results from Three Countries
The aim of this paper is to study the interplay of perceived deterrence and level of self-control in explaining individual differences in self-reported offending. Different theories of crime come to different conclusions in this regard. Some postulate independent negative effects of perceived sanction risk on offending (Deterrence Theory), while others assume that low self-control undermines the deterrent effect of legal sanctions (Self-Control T…
Self-Legitimacy, Organisational Commitment and Commitment to Fair Treatment of Prisoners: An Empirical Study of Prison Officers in Slovenia
Recent work on legitimacy within criminal justice systems have drawn attention to self-legitimacy; that is, criminal justice professionals’ own recognition of their entitlement to power. The evidence on this aspect of legitimacy remains sparse and mainly from police studies. We know almost nothing about the self-legitimacy of prison officers. This paper contributes to filling this gap, with an empirical focus on prison officers in Slovenia. Speci…
Assessing police–community relationships: Is there a gap in perceptions between police officers and residents
The notion that community residents are key players responsible for the well-being of the larger society has become a cornerstone of approaches to modern policing in democratic societies. That is, residents partner with police to help maintain social order. An essential element of successful implementation of any programme is communication and understanding between various parties in the partnership. In this paper, we examine whether there is con…
Rural Criminology – A Challenge For the Future
Fear of crime in two post-socialist capital cities – Ljubljana, Slovenia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Superhighway Robbery – Preventing E-Commerce Crime
From Apparent Unity to Diversity: Penal Policies of (Former) Yugoslav Republics
This paper presents a comprehensive study of penal policies of (former) Yugoslav countries in the last 70 years. The Yugoslavian penal policy has been unique in the sense of leniency but was by no means uniform in its implementation. A comparative analysis of the development of penal policy in the observed states, supported by statistical data on crime, conviction and prison populations, revealed that differences have been profound. While dispari…
Self-legitimacy and use of force: A quantitative study of prison officers in Slovenia
The purpose of this paper is to explore self-legitimacy of prison officers and their willingness to use force against prisoners in Slovenian prisons. In 2016, 139 prison officers from all Slovenian prisons for men were surveyed. Results of OLS regression analysis revealed that relations with colleagues, supervisors’ procedural justice and age affect self-legitimacy of prison officers. Moreover, findings showed that self-legitimacy, supervisors’ p…
Informal Networks in Slovenia: A Blessing or a Curse
People seen as benefiting from the transition from communism in Slovenia were often unfairly accused of corruption
A Letter from Slovenia: Recent Trends in Crime Prevention
Superhighway Robbery – Preventing E-Commerce Crime
An Overview of Criminological Research on Violence in Slovenia
This paper presents a survey of Slovene criminological research on violence since Slovenia's independence in 1991. The authors reviewed all research projects conducted at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana and the College of Police and Security Studies (now Faculty of Criminal Justice, University of Maribor) and other academic institutions in Slovenia. This paper shows the prevailing studied forms of violence in conte…
Policijos pastangos mažinti nusikaltimų baimę lokaliose bendruomenėse: Dideli Lūkesčiai Ir Abejotini Rezultatai
Making police officers approachable and visible is one of the most important factors in reducing fear of crime. However, the public also requires their effectiveness in crime fighting. Community policing relies on factors such as approachability and visibility of the police, but does not offer solutions for factors like neighbourhood decay. The role of police in the reduction of fear of crime is quite paradoxical - on the one hand their presence …
Informal Networks in Slovenia: A Blessing or a Curse
People seen as benefiting from the transition from communism in Slovenia were often unfairly accused of corruption
Fear of crime in two post-socialist capital cities – Ljubljana, Slovenia and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Procedural justice, legitimacy, and prisoner misconduct
Using structured interview data and official records from an incarcerated sample of adult males housed in a Slovene prison, this study tests hypotheses derived from the process-based model of regulation (Tyler, in M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice, pp. 283–357, 2003). The findings show that inmates who evaluate prison officers’ use of authority as procedurally just are less likely to report engaging in misconduct and are charged with violating fe…
Measuring Organized Crime in Slovenia
The joint EU-Europol Organized Crime Outlook project initiated in Belgium, Sweden, and Slovenia aims to identify predictive trends and apply risk theories, in support of developing more proactive and eff ective means of combating organized crime in Europe. Methodological issues of defi nition, data collection, and measurement are being analyzed by the Slovenian and other teams
Compliance with the Law in Slovenia: The Role of Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy
Is the Effect of Perceived Deterrence on Juvenile Offending Contingent on the Level of Self-Control? Results from Three Countries
The aim of this paper is to study the interplay of perceived deterrence and level of self-control in explaining individual differences in self-reported offending. Different theories of crime come to different conclusions in this regard. Some postulate independent negative effects of perceived sanction risk on offending (Deterrence Theory), while others assume that low self-control undermines the deterrent effect of legal sanctions (Self-Control T…
Perception of police corruption and the level of integrity among Slovenian police officers
The survey of police integrity was conducted on the representative sample of 550 Slovenian police officers. The measurement was developed by Kutnjak Ivković and Klockarson the basis of 14 hypothetical case scenarios which describe different forms of police misconduct (i.e. conflict of interests, bribery, and theft). The results of this study demonstrate a high level of self-reported police integrity strictly connected to the code of silence into …
Is the criminogenic effect of exposure to peer delinquency dependent on the ability to exercise self-control? Results from three countries
Assessing police–community relationships: Is there a gap in perceptions between police officers and residents
The notion that community residents are key players responsible for the well-being of the larger society has become a cornerstone of approaches to modern policing in democratic societies. That is, residents partner with police to help maintain social order. An essential element of successful implementation of any programme is communication and understanding between various parties in the partnership. In this paper, we examine whether there is con…
Self-Legitimacy, Organisational Commitment and Commitment to Fair Treatment of Prisoners: An Empirical Study of Prison Officers in Slovenia
Recent work on legitimacy within criminal justice systems have drawn attention to self-legitimacy; that is, criminal justice professionals’ own recognition of their entitlement to power. The evidence on this aspect of legitimacy remains sparse and mainly from police studies. We know almost nothing about the self-legitimacy of prison officers. This paper contributes to filling this gap, with an empirical focus on prison officers in Slovenia. Speci…
On Some Aspects of Cybercrime and Cybervictimization
Rural Criminology – A Challenge For the Future
Self-legitimacy and use of force: A quantitative study of prison officers in Slovenia
The purpose of this paper is to explore self-legitimacy of prison officers and their willingness to use force against prisoners in Slovenian prisons. In 2016, 139 prison officers from all Slovenian prisons for men were surveyed. Results of OLS regression analysis revealed that relations with colleagues, supervisors’ procedural justice and age affect self-legitimacy of prison officers. Moreover, findings showed that self-legitimacy, supervisors’ p…
The Effects of Justice Judgments on Police Legitimacy Across Urban Neighborhoods: A Test of the Invariance Thesis
The invariance thesis posits that the effects of procedural justice judgments on police legitimacy beliefs are consistent across a variety of contexts, including urban neighborhoods. An alternative argument, one steeped in the relational model of authority, holds that procedural justice effects are weaker in high-crime communities where residents do not identify with the police and where they place more weight on instrumental concerns. This study…
Varnost v lokalnih skupnostih – med ruralnimi in urbanimi perspektivami
Monografija predstavlja osem tematsko zaokroženih poglavij, katerih glavna tema je varnost v lokalnih skupnostih ter ločnica med varnostjo v ruralnih in urbanih okoljih. Monografija predstavlja rezultat znanstvenoraziskovalnega dela članov programske skupine Varnost v lokalnih skupnostih – primerjava ruralnih in urbanih okolij, ki se izvaja na Inštitutu za varstvoslovje Fakultete za varnostne vede Univerze v Mariboru. Avtorji prihajajo iz raznih …
Physical teen dating violence in high school students in Slovenia: Prevalence and correlates
Although teen dating violence (TDV) is internationally recognized as a serious threat to adolescents' health and well-being, almost no data is available for Slovenian youth. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and predictors of TDV among Slovenian adolescents for the first time. Using data from the SPMAD study (Study of Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Delinquency), 330 high school students were asked about physical T…
Police, Policing and covid-19 Pandemic
The past almost two years have brought many changes to our lives. The covid-19 pandemic was announced by the who on 11 March 2020, and social life soon changed significantly. Schools, universities, and kindergartens were closed down and many other work-related activities moved to the work-from-home platform as stay-at-home- and curfew measures were adopted by almost all governments while others decided in favour of a much more liberal approach. S…
A global analysis of the impact of Covid-19 stay-at-home restrictions on crime
The stay-at-home restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 led to unparalleled sudden change in daily life, but it is unclear how they affected urban crime globally. We collected data on daily counts of crime in 27 cities across 23 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We conducted interrupted time series analyses to assess the impact of stay-at-home restrictions on different types of crime in each city. Our findings s…
From Apparent Unity to Diversity: Penal Policies of (Former) Yugoslav Republics
This paper presents a comprehensive study of penal policies of (former) Yugoslav countries in the last 70 years. The Yugoslavian penal policy has been unique in the sense of leniency but was by no means uniform in its implementation. A comparative analysis of the development of penal policy in the observed states, supported by statistical data on crime, conviction and prison populations, revealed that differences have been profound. While dispari…
Punitiveness in Slovenia: A study of criminal justice students as future practitioners and decision-makers in the criminal justice system
The paper focuses on the punitiveness and support of the death penalty among criminal justice students in Slovenia. First, a literature review on punishment and punitiveness, penal changes in Slovenia, and punitive attitudes among criminal justice students, is provided. In the second part of the paper, the results of the empirical study that took place among criminal justice students in Slovenia in 2019 are presented. Statistical analyses perform…
Comparative Criminology and Comparative Criminal Justice in Contemporary Crime and Social Control Research – a Brief Overview
Political science (28 works) · Criminology (26 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Law (22 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (20 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (13 works) · Policing Practices and Perceptions (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Politics (12 works)