Attitudes to Punishment. The Results of Three Surveys

In public debate the subject of penal policy often returns on the extent of sentences for par-ticular crimes and petty offences. Questions are raised such as whether the Polish criminal law is effective, just and\or severe. The discussion focuses on the need to make the existing provisions stricter, especially those concerning the most frequent crimes. The general ques-tion of punishing perpetrators of offences is regularly undertaken in the media, especially with every subsequent criminal case that receives extensive coverage. One such occasions the same question is raised again: does the criminal law need amendments?Today we are witness to acrime drop and improvement of safety in Poland, nonetheless questions to do with penal policy remain the same. It is therefore worth checking what opinions Poles currently express about this very issue. This research is aimed at checking what Poles think of the criminal law currently in force and what the attitude is to in-creasing the severity of punitive provisions. For this purpose, in July and August 2018, on the commission of the Institute of Justice, three independent opinion surveys concer-ning penal policy were conducted. The following were chosen for this purpose: Kantar, CBOS and Ipsos. Every survey was conducted by means of the Omnibus Method, which guarantees the completion of research on anationwide representative sample of Polish residents.In all the surveys discussed in this study, aclear majority of respondents were of the opinion that in order to limit crime and improve the safety of citizens it is necessary to make the provisions of the Penal Code stricter, with harsher punishments for offences. Over half of respondents in every survey took the position that punishments should be made more severe only in cases of serious offences. The remainder (approximately 30% in every survey) answered that was necessary to introduce more severe punishments for all crimes.In the light of apreference for tougher penal laws, of particular interest was Poles’ stance on the age from which juveniles might be held criminally liable just as adults. The majority of respondents were of the opinion that the age of criminal responsibility for juveniles (15 years) should not be changed, while those who thought otherwise most often suggested increasing this threshold.