경찰공무원과 교정공무원의 전과자에 대한 인식ㆍ태도 차이에 관한 연구

Abstract

This study aims to compare and empirically understand the recognition and attitude of workers in criminal or judicial institutions (police officers and prison officers) towards ex-convicts. To do that, questionnaires were distributed to police officers and correction officials and 150 effective reponses to the questionnaires were analyzed. The analysis found that workers in criminal or judicial institutions took crimes very seriously, feared of them and expected that crimes would continue to increase in the future. Police officers and correction officials believed that criminals would never reflect on their bad behaviors and angrily responded to a high-handed attitude and were willing to take any hypocritical actions just to be given a less severe sentence but were not fearful of the government's public powers. Also, it was considered that criminals could not lead a new life because of the society's discriminations against them but they could not adapt themselves to their society because their will to do so was weak. Subsequently, the rights of ex-convicts might be limited so as to protect their society. The most effective ways to help ex-convicts return to their society included those reducing their stigma, such as probation or social services, not imprisonment. Furthermore, this empirical research found that workers in criminal or judicial institutions had a very negative recognition of ex-convicts or those just released from a prison. Mostly, correction officials had a more negative notion of ex-convicts than police officers did.