engleski

Students' Attitudes towards Risk, Victimization and Punishment in Croatia

In the last few decades punitiveness − although still a rather vague concept − has become an important aspect of criminological research. Research findings suggest in general that, as far as punitive attitudes of the general population are concerned, age, gender, political orientation, fear of crime and media influence are the most important factors. Levels of punitiveness have also been measured for specific subgroups of the populations, for instance for students in different fields of studies. This paper examines the results of a survey on Croatian students' attitudes toward risk, victimization and punishment with a view to test eventual differences depending on the students' study programme. The survey was carried out as part of an international project Attitudes to crime 2009 that included the former Yugoslav Republics Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Serbia. The findings for Croatia indicate that the students of our sample experience low levels of personal or social fears and do not express great concerns about personal victimization. In terms of their attitudes toward sanctioning, they favour traditional repressive sanctions and tend to recommend imprisonment for a substantial number of the offences listed in the questionnaire. They are, however, less in favour of the death penalty then respondents from other studies. In terms of differences regarding the students' study programme, law school students appear more fearful, while police college students are more punitive.

students, attitude, risk, victimization, punishment, Croatia

nije evidentirano