No abstract

Research into gangs has been primarily concentrated in the USA for many years. The important step leading to a more intensive analysis of this phenomenon in Europe has been made by creating a uniform gang definition of Eurogang research group, which has been operationalized and integrated in two waves of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2 and ISRD-3). The objective of this paper is to introduce methodological issues of the definition and offer possibilities for its revision. Data suggest that each type of definition used in our study may generate a different group of respondents. Although the multivariate analysis of factors influencing gang membership demonstrates some intersections, delinquency rates among gang members defined using different definitions vary considerably.

While fear of crime is frequently discussed internationally, it is currently addressed by only a limited number of Czech studies. The aim of the paper is to present the main methodological concepts that have infl uenced the research on fear of crime and the design of indicators by which this phenomenon is measured. Furthermore, we evaluate and compare fear of crime measures in three surveys-the Euro-Justis pilot project, the fi fth wave of the large-scale international European Social Survey and a survey of the Public Opinion Research Centre-and provide information about whether and to what extent people fear crime. The results of the analysis suggest that the wording and type of questions could be crucial in measuring fear of crime and that although a signifi cant proportion of respondents declared being fearful, their "fear experiences" are found to be relatively rare.

Abstract:The trend towards harsher punishment of offenders, usually termed the 'new punitiveness', is often explained as a response to deepening social and economic uncertainty. One important area that criminal policy research has long dealt with is public attitudes to punishment. Statements that the public want more severe punishments for those who break the law are often used to justify introducing measures to make the criminal justice system harsher. There are, however, different ways to measure public opinion on criminal sentencing. While general attitudinal questions indicate the public to be very punitive in outlook, when they have to evaluate specifi c cases the results are slightly more positive. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, the article aims to describe the current level of punitiveness in the Czech Republic, as measured by both above-mentioned indicators, and to assess whether the respondents' answers to such indicators are infl uenced by the same factors. Data show that Czechs tend to have relatively strong punitive attitudes. However, past studies have shown that people are less punitively inclined when they are judging a specifi c case. Moreover, regression analysis suggests that, rather than individual punitive sentiments, the general measure of punitiveness refl ects cognitive and emotional reactions of a different nature (e.g. the quality of work of the court system), which means that the information on public attitudes it produces could be misleading.

The article discusses the actual state of juvenile delinquency in the Czech Republic and its development in the last decade. The main source of data is the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) whose second sweep took place in 2006-2007 and its third sweep during the spring of 2013. Firstly, prevalences of delinquency from ISRD-3 are presented. Secondly, the development of delinquency rates between the two sweeps of ISRD is described and compared to the trend based on official police data. Thirdly, the article focuses on shifts in findings between ISRD-2 and ISRD-3. Special attention is paid to the trend of lowering gender differences in certain types of offending that has continued after 2007.