Social Reactions to Deviant Behavior under Special Consideration of the Non-Institutional Area (Criminal Judge Survey)

Judgement on criminal law and criminal prosecution in the FRG by
judges.

Topics: attitude to reading media reports on the criminal case now
being worked on; assessment of the probability of oneself becoming the
victim of a criminal act; situations in which this could happen;
expected development of the crime rate; rank order of the most
important political tasks in the FRG; attitude to reforms; preferred
role of the government as providing order for private economic
interests or as welfare state with balanced social equity; perceived
class conflicts in society; characterization of the life style of
different social classes; ideal qualifications and sense of
responsibility of politicians; understanding of democracy; attitude to
the fixed mandate; judgement on the law-abidingness of politicians;
assessment of the possibilities for representation of interests in
company, municipality, party, school, university and trade union; most
important characteristics for success; attitude to the economic system
(scale); attitude to the necessity for knowledge of criminal law in the
population; assumed (psychological and economic) primary causes for
selected criminal offenses; attitude to prison sentence (scale);
attitude to personal preventive measures to protect against crime or to
leaving the fight against crime to the police; attitude to obeying the
law; most important purpose of the penal system; most important
function of criminal law; type of legal rights most effectively
protected by criminal law; additional crimes that should be included in
criminal law or should be removed from criminal law; attitude to
resocialization (scale); psychological effects of the penal system;
attitude to civil law; preference list of offenses to be prosecuted
urgently; characteristic groups of persons conducting selected crimes
(prejudices about the demographic characteristics of criminals);
assessment of the relapse of offenders organized according to the
individual crimes; judgement on the legislation process; perceived
possibilities for a judge to exert influence against a law not in
conformity with personal attitudes; judgement on the degree to which
selected offenses deserve punishment, in one´s own view and from the
assumed view of the population; hypothetical change of conduct
regarding an acquaintance who has comitted a criminal offence;
preferred authority (probation officer etc.) to eliminate negative
consequences of the penal system; personal criteria for suspension of
sentence on probation; most disadvantaged social group; type of
discrimination; judgement on willingness to report crimes by victims
and witnesses; intensity of criminal prosecution by the police; reasons
for reduced willingness of victims of a crime to report it; assumed
reasons for the overproportional share of persons from the underclass
in prison (scale); attitude to unconditional law-abidingness; attitude
to the formalities in criminal cases (scale); professional self-image
of the judge (scale); naming the most harmful crimes for the country,
society and the individual; offenses for which there is agreement
between intensity of prosecution and harm to society; most important
aspect in reaching a verdict (moral aspect or harm to society);
assumption about the causes of above-average burden on criminal
prosecution authorities from minor crimes; point in time and city of
university degree; scientific employment with extra-legal subjects;
doctorate and side job; change of city of service and time of
appointment as judge; earlier occupation as prosecuting attorney or
lawyer; length of occupation in current function; memberships; type of
city of seat of the court; political interest; party membership.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination;
religiousness; occupational training; household size; household
composition; party membership; party inclination; social origins; year
of high school graduation; study time and college city; city and year
of finishing studies; doctorate; side jobs; membership in professional
organizations.