The aim of the article, based on my doctoral thesis (Mitar, Theoretical and Methodological comparison of selected approaches for assessment of security of modern society, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2005), ...is to present my slight modification of Bailey’s SET as an explicit theoretical approach for an empirical assessment of security of contemporary societies. I formed a model D=f(PLOTIS), in which component D was defined (various deviant or unwanted phenomena—in present article measured by the number of deaths in violent conflicts), which was conditioned by macro-societal factors (Population, Level-of-living, Organisation, Technology, Information, Space), denoted by acronym PLOTIS. The model is tested by cross-sectional design, 19 (non-random) chosen former European socialist countries are compared, available secondary data at the end of a period of transition (1989–2002) are used. The model is tested by different methods of analysis: descriptive statistics, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA). The comparison of results acquired by different methods confirmed usefulness of the modified SET as starting point for formation and testing of hypotheses about the influence of macro-societal characteristics (measured by PLOTIS) on unwanted phenomena. Last but not least, some proposals for further research are presented.
Purpose: The article consists of an overview of some problems between environmental protection and security of contemporary society from the perspectives of security studies and especially from the ...perspective of social entropy theory. The main aim is to draw attention to Bailey's social entropy theory as an explicit theory from the field of modern systems theories. It does not discuss the environment and the society separately, but the basic theoretical framework deals with the environment as a factor which influences and is influenced by human behaviour. Design/Methods/Approach: The analysis and some results of social entropy theory, security studies and some findings of selected ecological studies are presented. Findings: The theory of social entropy can be a useful framework, which enables operationalisations of environmental problems in order to diagnose and evaluate the existing problems as well as to plan preventive and reactive activities in search for solutions. Research limitations/implications: Only some possibilities of theory of social entropy are presented, there are neither presented comparisons (similarities and differences) with other theories, nor the historical development of social entropy theory. The article is an exploration and a reflection about some possibilities of further development and empirical testing of social entropy theory. Practical implications: The article enables an insight in embeddedness of environmental problems in the problems of contemporary societies (overpopulation, quality of life, culture, technology, social organisation). The article draws attention to the need for various theoretical and empirical research endeavours. Originality/Value: The article is important because it shows possibilities of use of social entropy theory as a framework for theoretical and empirical research of problems of societal and environmental security. Adapted from the source document.
Purposes of a paper are an exploration & comparisons of attitudes toward death penalty of three samples of respondents (students of law, students of criminal justice & security studies, & police ...officers). The paper is a part of a broader research "Attitudes on crime" in Slovenia in 2006. In the paper several methods were used. After an overview of basic theoretical views toward death penalty, the main characteristics of the survey & three samples were presented, then discriminant analysis is done & interpreted. It was found, that police officers support death penalty more than students. Differences are also in arguments for & against death Limitations of the paper are conditioned by characteristics of our survey research, which is a snapshot of a situation, there are needs for longitudinal research & comparisons with other students, occupational groups & public opinion. Results have a practical importance for designers of new contents in educational programs, & as information to broader public to different attitudes toward death penalty in a period of changes of Slovenian penal law. Originality of the paper is that the theoretical views are supported by empirical results. It can contribute important arguments to public discussion (among students, police officers, legislators, others) about the most serious penalties (death penalty, life-sentence, long-term sentences) in the contemporary democratic society. Tables, Figures, References.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe police officers' opinions on the prevailing anxieties, feeling of fears and threats, attitudes towards crime and punishment.Design ...methodology approach - The paper took a quantitative approach to data collection that included a survey on a representative sample of the Slovene police.Findings - Comparisons of attitudes (anxieties of everyday troubles, feelings of insecurity, importance of appropriate measures against crime and adequate severity of punishment) has been conducted to find similarities and differences between police officers regarding gender and age. The results show that male police officers and senior police officers have more conservative attitudes towards the most appropriate measures against crime and are more likely to defend severe punishment of offenders. Such attitudes indicate persistence of traditional authoritarian police orientation in (post)modern society.Research limitations implications - The results are generalizable for the Slovenian police but not generalizable for the police worldwide.Practical implications - A useful source of information learning about some characteristics of police professional culture and police officers' attitudes towards punishment and their understanding of threats in society.Originality value - This paper furthers understanding of police occupational culture in a new democratic country.
The authors deal with anxiety related to crime & respondents' attitudes towards appropriate state's reactions to tackle crime in this paper. Three samples of respondents (students of law, students of ...criminal justice & security studies, & police officers) are compared. The data were acquired by a survey ) "'Attitudes on crime" in Slovenia in 2006. First, socio-demographic characteristics of three samples are presented. Second, two comparisons of anxieties & attitudes were conducted (comparison of students of law with students of criminal justice & security, & comparison of students of criminal justice & security with police officers) by use of discriminant analysis. The most significant results are: the least anxious respondents (especially police officers) propose harsher measures against criminal offences, criminal justice students respond in a quite similar way as police officers, law students stick to "rule of law" way of responding. The authors have also learnt that a discriminant analysis is a useful tool for exploration of data because it shows significance in responses between the three studies groups as well as classification shows similarity in responses of respondents which belong to different samples. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
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