Communal response to criminal behavior in the kibbutz during periods of crisis

This research examines whether the situation of crisis which has been developing in the majority of secular kibbutzim since the eighties has influenced the attitudes of kibbutz members towards criminal behavior. Previously, the kibbutzim were accustomed to dealing with any deviant behavior in their midst, with the exception of serious crime, by means of their own internal control institutions. Our assumption is that there would be a greater tendency among members of kibbutzim in crisis, as compared to those in a situation of stability, to see criminal behavior as a disturbing, even threatening, social phenomenon, and to turn to outside agencies, such as the police. In order to examine this hypothesis, we selected 230 kibbutz members from six well-established secular kibbutzim in the center of the country, which differ from each other with regard to levels of crisis which in turn determined by means of specific economic and social criteria. Our findings show that criminal behavior is more prevalent in the kibbutz than the members themselves believe. The more stable the kibbutz, the more the members continue to rely on their own conventional methods of dealing with criminal behavior, while the more severe the crisis situation, the greater the tendency to pass the responsibility for the offender to outside agencies.