SLOVAK ADOLESCENTS' VIEW OF THE PERSONS SERVING AN ALTERNATIVE SENTENCE.

OBJECTIVES. The authors examine the current state of adolescent university students’ awareness of restorative justice in Slovakia, while focusing on the attitudes towards persons serving an alternative sentence (other than a custodial sentence). BACKGROUND. Presented research has background in theoretical concept of forensic social work which. Forensic social work generally focuses on the dimension of problem behavior, which in Slovak conditions falls within the competence of the Department of Social and Legal Protection of Children and Social Guardianship. Also this area of social work concentrates on the behavior of the social work clients in the context of delinquency to criminal activities. The present paper attempts to explicate the factors, including changeable and risky ones, affecting the attitudes of adolescent university students (from the fields of humanities and technical sciences) towards a shift from retributive to restorative justice by means of alternative non-custodial sentencing. METHODS. In present research, original questionnaire (consisting of 26 questions) was used in order to explore the stu′sd eantttitudes to restorative justice and persons serving an alternative sentence. RESULTS. The findings of the study have revealed that social work students are more sensitive to restorative justice and alternative sentence. Furthermore, the present research has shown that attitudes can be changed trought the level of knowledge and awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]