engleski

Public opinion on probation, punitiveness and sentencing goals

In many countries the criminal justice sector and its probation service have undergone a period of rapid changes, and Croatia is not an exception. In the last couple of years due to the legal system and legislation reforms imposed as one of the preconditions for joining the EU, the probation service has become a highly politicised issue in Croatia. On the one hand, the media plays an integral part in creating public opinions and beliefs on various social issues, including crime and criminal justice, but also influences the views and practices of the major social institutions they report on, including the criminal justice system. On the other, public and individual perceptions of criminal punishment and sentencing not only can give insight into the level of information the public have about different correctional measures, but can also affect how the criminal justice system responds to criminal behaviour. Personal and crime-related characteristics as well as attitudes and beliefs have been shown to be highly influential factors in the punishment preferences of the public. Thus, the aims of this study were two fold. First, this study aims to give an illustrative view on how the political context in Croatia over the years (e.g. budget cuts, penal populism, political usage) influence the development of the probation service in Croatia through analyses of media representations of the probation service over a five-year period. Second, to assess the magnitude of the effects of socio-demographic variables (e.g. age, sex, educational level, social class, level of urbanization), crime-related characteristics (e.g. previous victimization, fear of crime), and attitudinal variables (attributions about the causes of crime, political ideology and religiosity) in predicting the observed severity of sentences in Croatia, approval of probation measures and views on sentencing goals. Therefore, self-reported data on the above-mentioned variables from a nationally representative sample will be presented and compared to a similar survey on a nationally representative sample in 2004.

public opinion; punitiveness; probation; sentencing goals

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