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

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.