Punitive Attitudes in Poland – The Development in the Last Years

Research results show that Poland’s population considers sentencing policies of courts to be too lenient, and represents often even extremely punitive attitudes. This punitiveness may have increased in recent years. For instance, results of surveys on attitudes towards the death penalty show widespread support for that kind of sanction, in recent years higher than under the communist regime. On the other hand, answers to the ICVS item regarding punitivity (asked in Poland five times) do not necessarily show Poles being extremely punitive against the background of other countries. With respect to those proposing imprisonment, Poland is among average countries, although duration of this imprisonment is above the average, especially for Europe. All this may indicate that attitudes towards punishment of offenders constitute a complicated issue. This is confirmed by the results of recent research confirming that there is a gap between abstract declarations about support for the death penalty and punishment proposed in more concrete cases. This research confirmed that there is a substantial majority of those supporting the death penalty in abstract terms. However, only in one sweep (out of three) and in one of five homicide cases respondents were confronted with, there was a majority supporting actual imposition of the death penalty. The fact that Poles are not necessarily always unusually punitive may be also confirmed by a rather broad support for mediation and restitution as a way of reacting to offences.