Depth of demoralisation of Polish juveniles

• In Event: Juvenile Justice 1. Offender and Participant Prespectives

Abstract

In Poland, a country known for its welfare-oriented approach to juvenile justice, "demoralisation" is a behaviour that triggers intervention from the juvenile justice system. This concept is often criticised for its vagueness and ambiguity, which necessitates further study. In the first phase of our study, we have examined how demoralisation is interpreted in practice, identifying behaviours that courts deem as manifestations of demoralisation and delineating boundaries of court intervention in a juvenile's life.
In the next phase of our study, we aim to measure the extent of demoralisation among juveniles by analysing the cooccurrence of its manifestations. Additionally, we will investigate the factors in juveniles' lives, such as gender, age, family, and school situation, that correlate with both the demoralisation itself and its specific manifestations.
Our analysis will be based on a representative sample of 665 juvenile court case files from 2019, all of which entail manifestations of demoralisation. Through this approach, we will explore the depth of demoralisation among juveniles and the connection between demoralisation and various personal and environmental factors in the lives of Polish juveniles.

Authors

• Maria Kopeć, University of Warsaw

• Dominik Wzorek, Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences