Robberies in Prague

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the issue of robberies in the Czech Republic, primarily in the capital city, Prague. Statistics show that there has been a sharp rise in the number of robberies recorded in the Czech Republic following the political upheavals of 1989. In spite of this, current Czech criminology does not give proper attention to this kind of criminal activity. For this reason, the authors will attempt not only to summarise research efforts hitherto undertaken in this field and place them in a wider international context, but also to offer basic and criminologically relevant data on offenders, victims and some other significant factors, making use of official crime statistics as well as special police statistical records, including data obtained through the authors' own analysis of a sample of court files.

Public opinion and awareness regarding probation in the Czech Republic

“…Previous research on non-custodial sentences has pointed to the relatively low public knowledge of probation in many European countries (Allen and Hough, 2007; Durnescu et al, 2013; Lulei, 2011; Rozum et al, 2009), revealing that this lacking awareness significantly influences public opinion on alternative sentencing (Allen, 2016; Butter et al, 2013; Van Gelder et al, 2015). Nevertheless, existing studies are still relatively limited in their scope, as they are often based on small non-representative samples (Durnescu et al, 2013).…”

“…We thus had to limit our analysis to suspended sentence under the supervision of a probation officer , which the reader should take into account when interpreting the results of our study. Second, as probation is not a well-known concept for many Czechs (Rozum et al, 2009), we decided that inquiring about this measure would have to be preceded by a brief description of what a suspended sentence under the supervision of a probation officer actually means. However, it is possible that any substantial changes to the wording of the question would alter the results.…”

“…Public’s support of a measure is known to significantly influence its chances of being implemented by the state (Maruna and King, 2004; Matthews, 2005; Roberts and Hough, 2005). Nevertheless, previous research has shown that public awareness of probation is relatively low in many European countries (Allen and Hough, 2007; Durnescu et al, 2013; Lulei, 2011; Rozum et al, 2009) which can further be associated with relatively weak public support for non-custodial sentences and their application in practice (Allen, 2016; Butter et al, 2013; Sanders and Roberts, 2000; Van Gelder et al, 2015). Drawing on these findings, the main objective of our study is to examine the extent to which public opinion on probation in the Czech Republic is influenced by awareness of the PMS and support for probation in general.…”

“…Surveys conducted in the Czech Republic showed that the probation service is a virtually unknown institution for the majority of Czechs. In a survey conducted in 2008, that is, eight years after foundation of the Probation and Mediation Service of the Czech Republic, 73% of respondents acknowledged that they were entirely unaware of its existence; only 8% proved to be sufficiently informed (Rozum et al, 2009). In a study by Lulei (2011), the majority of Slovak citizens (85%) said they had never come across the word ‘probation’.…”

Recidivism as a Measure of the Effectiveness of Sanctions: Experience from the Czech Republic

“…It encompassed a sample of 642 individuals released in 2003. New convictions during the period of supervision were registered in 39.9% of cases (Rozum, Kotulan, & Tomášek, 2008).…”