Violation of Rules as a Reaction to Declining Living Standards among Workers and Intellectuals (From Psychology and Law: International Perspectives, P 76-85, 1992, Friedrich Losel, Doris Bender, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-148224)

• NCJ Number: 148228
• Author(s): W Wosinska
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Walter de Gruyter & Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

This research study was conducted in June 1990 to assess the economic situation in Poland, strategies used by citizens to maintain a reasonable standard of living, and kinds of rules people violated in order to maintain that standard of living.

Abstract

Subjects included 47 coal mine workers and 41 intellectuals. All subjects were men with families consisting of a wife and at least one child and were between 29 and 45 years of age. Analysis of interview data revealed that many people perceived the deteriorating economic situation as an important factor in the increased readiness of some individuals to violate rules in order to improve their economic situation. Crimes included theft, burglary, tax evasion, and smuggling. As a consequence of rule violations aimed at maintaining a reasonable standard of living, there was a continuous decline in social and legal order. Contrary to more peaceful strategies, such as using intermediaries for commodity shortage situations, money shortages evoked active destruction that was prejudicial to individuals, institutions, and society as a whole. Perceptions of the social and economic situation were similar for workers and intellectuals, probably because economic decline was a sudden and relatively recent occurrence in Poland and no single group had yet created specific adaptive strategies adjusted to their own lifestyles. 5 references and 11 tables