NCJ Number
120343
Date Published
1989
Length
386 pages
Annotation
This statistical analysis explores French attitudes toward the criminal justice system, criminal policy, and the regulation of deviant behavior.
Abstract
The study is based on a questionnaire, which was submitted to a representative sample of 1,830 French citizens in December 1984. The statistical analysis of the results indicates that 26 percent were satisfied with criminal policy and the institutions of the criminal justice system; 39 percent expressed varying degrees of distrust; and 35 percent voiced highly critical attitudes. The study also detected a major rift in the sample population concerning the priorities of the criminal policy; 77 percent emphasized the protection of private property while 23 percent stressed the public interest. An examination of the role criminal justice should play in regulating behavior revealed four basic positions: those who favor more criminal intervention in business offenses (21 percent); those who in most cases prefer family and professional intervention to punishment (35 percent); those who want to involve the criminal justice system more in regulating juvenile behavior (25 percent); and those who desire the criminal justice system to regulate numerous behavioral and moral problems (19 percent). The study concludes that since the last attitudinal study in 1978 the French population has become more permissive and less inclined to involve the criminal justice system. The questionnaire and statistical charts and graphs are appended.