Młodociani i młodzi recydywiści w świetle badań kryminologicznych część pierwsza

This work deals with the results of research carried out by Department of Criminology of the Polish Academy of Sciences concerning young male recidivists aged 17-25 who had been repeatedly convicted. The fundamental material consists of: 100 young adult recidivists (aged about 20 on on the average) investigated in prisons in the years 1957/58. Follow-up studies comprise the period of 7-8 years; the average age of those investigated amounted recently to 23; 6 years. 100 recidivists, aged 21-25, investigated in prison (their average age being 23 years and 6 months), 60 of whom were subjected to detailed investigations in the years 1961/62. Follow-up studies comprised the period of 3 years; the average of the investigated amounted recently to 26;8 years. The additional material incrudes results of the follow-up studies concerning 331 juvenile recidivists, investigated in various periods of time as of 1957: 1. 158 former juvenile recidivists (cases taken from the Juvenile Court) whose average age is now about 24; 82 of them still continue to commit offences, 2. 81 of former juvenile recidivists discharged from educational and correctional institutions, whose average age now amounts to 31; 50 of them still continue to commit offences, 3. Formerly irrvestigated 92 juveniles and young adults guilty of hooligan misdemeanours whose average age is now about 28; 52 of them still continue to commit offences. Moreover, while dealing with certain questions, results of the research concerning 1,394 juvenile recidivists, a part of whom has recently become young adult recidivists, were also utilized. The above material was chosen for the research in such a way as to satisfy the needs of representativeness. The task facing the investigators at the outset of the research in prisons with regard to young adult recidivists aged 17-20 in 1957 was the verification of the following hypotheses: such recidivists derive as a rule from among individuals who alreardy in their childhood displayed symptoms of social maladjustment and repeatedly committed thefts during their minority. Prisoners aged 17-20, domiciled in Warsaw or its environs, convicted for at least the second time after the completion of 17 years of age and imprisoned for the second time at least, were successively chosen for the research in prison without any selection whatever. After a check in Juvenile Courts it appeared that 90 out of 100 young adult recidivists were tried by Juvenile Courts (for thefts as a rule); on the basis of the information given by their mothers and themselves it has been ascertained that merely 9 out of the remaining 20 did not as juveniles commit thefts repeatedly. Only 9 % of the investigated recidivists did not display any symptoms of serious maladjustment in their childhood. In connection with these results of the research, in 1961 investigations of recidivists aged 21-25 were initiated in the Warsaw prisons. Recidivists of that age who were convicted at least twice and imprisoned for at least the third time were qualified for this research, the purpose of which was to find out a) whether also among recidlvists older than the previously investigated recidivists of 17-20 there are as a rule individuals who began to commit offences as juveniles (under 17), b) and to reveal, in cases when delinquency and recidivism begin at after the completion of 17-18 years of age, the factors influencing the subsequent beginning of the process of social degradation. In course of one year, there were in two Warsaw prisons 259 recidivists aged 21-25, convicted at least twice and imprisoned for at least the third time. After a check in the Juvenile Courts it appeared that 153 of them (59 %) were formerly tried by the Juvenile Courts. Since they constituted an analoguous population in relation to the previously investigated 100 recidivists aged 17-20, they were not included in the research. No information could be obtained at Juvenile Courts with regard to the remaining 106 recidivists aged 21-25 as to their committing offences before the completion of 17 years of age. In course of detailed investigations of 60 out of 106 recidivists, it has been asserted on the basis of interviews held with them and their nearest relations, that 27 % of these recidivists repeatedly committed thefts already in their childhood. Thus, when these results were calculated in relation to the entire population (259) of 21-25 years old recidivists, it appeared that individuals whose delinquency began in their childhood (minority) constitute 70 % of the total. Recidivists who began committing offences after the completion of 17 years of age constitute only 30 % of the total. Below are presented the data relating to the deliquency of 100 recidivists aged 21-25, supplemented by follow-up studies in course of a three years period (their age already amounted to 24-28 years). Among recidivists aged 21-25, only 44 % were tried 3 times after the completion of 17 years of age, and 35 % were tried 5 times and more. After a lapse of 3 years merely 20 % of recidivists three times tried were left while already 58 % of recidivists were tried 5 times and more 24 % were tried 7 times and more). The average length of time spent on liberty between particular arrests in connection with instituting of new judiciai proceedings, was as follows: it did not exceed 6 months for 26 % of recidivists, it amounted to 7-12 months for 37 %, 13-18 months for 19 % and did not exceed one year and a half for merely 18 % of recidivists. 63 % of recidivists remained on liberty between subsequent arrests at most one year on the average and 82 % less than year and a half. The age at which first judicial proceedings were instituted against recidivists after their completion of 17 years of age was as folows: 17-18 years for 57 % of recidivists, 19 years for 13%, 21-22 years for 10 % and 23-24 years for 2 % of recidivists. During detailed investigations of 60 recidivists it appeared that they could be divided into two groups: Group A (34) consists of individuals, who were first tried at courts aiready at the age of 17-18 and probably committed offences before. These recidivists are seriously socialIy degraded and at leasts 40% of them are closely connected with the criminal environment, 56 % perpetrated robberies. 62 % were tried six times and more at the age of 24-28 years. Group B (26) consists of individuals of whom 69 % were first tried at courts only at the age of 20 and over and only 39 % were tried six times and more. They are less socially degraded, their deliquency being closely connected with alcoholism. An analysis of deliquency of the seriously socially degraded recidivists from Group A permits to assert that offences against property constitute 55 % of all the offences for which they were convicted, while offences committed under the influence of alcohol - against authorities (mostly insults and attacks on the policemen) and against person (infringement of bodily inviolability, assaults occasioning actual bodily harm) constituted 27 % of the offences committed. Theft (burglary or larceny), the typical offence against property, constitutes 70 % of all offences against property. A relatively large numer of offences against authoritiers, mostly against the policemen and against the person, committed under the influence of alcohol, indicates at once that frequent abuse of alcohol must also play an important role in the delinquency of the Group A recidivists, especially as practically all their robberies were committed in the state of drunkenness. Detailed investigations have shown that 80 % of these recidivists already drank alcoholic beverages several times a week before the completion of 18 years of age and now as many as 56% display symptoms of alcohol addiction although their average age is only 26;6 years. The delinquency of the less demoralized Group B differs from that of the Group A. The percentage of offences against property is only 28 %, most of the offences were committed under the influence of alcohol and offences against the person amount to 18 %. At the time of the research that group did not contain individuals connected with criminal environment or with professional criminals and the thefts they committed were not serious. Ten out of 26 recidivists did not commit offences against property at all. The percentage of alcoholics in that group is as high as 61,5 %; all the others drink large quantities of alcohol several times a week. A group of recidivists, similar to Group B now under review, appears also among the previously investigated 100 recidivists aged 17-20. After a lapse of 8 years, recidivists of that group whose offences against authorities, infringement of bodily inviolability and assaults occasioning actual bodily harm perpetrated under the influence of alcohol, amount to three fourths of all the offences committed, constitute 21 %. Likewise, among the formerly investigated 158 juvenile recidivists now aged about 24, the seriously socially degraded recidivists, who for the most part commit offences against property (analogously to Group A) constitute 42 % and recidivists committing offences mostly connected with abuse of alcohol (similarly to Group B) 25 %. Similar populations of recidivists also appear in other follow-up studies among the other formerly investigated juvenile recidivists. In each of these populations there exists at present a group (less numerous) of adult recidivists whose typical offences are not thefts but offences against authorities and against the person. In connection with the intensified alcoholisrn of the investigated recidivists it should be remembered that these recidivists cannot be identified with the typical aicoholics who commit offences. Apart from the fact that not all alcoholics commit offences, indiviluals who where not tried at courts under thirty years of age can usually be encountered among the convicted alcoholics. The period of time from the beg

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