20 March 2025 – Szczeczin
The event, due to the specificity of the team in which the researcher participates (Team Social exclusion of older people – legal responses), was organized in a place familiar and accessible to seniors – specifically, the Senior Academy. It was held at the Knowledge Academy Association, 70 Wyzwolenia Avenue – in the former Telecommunications building room 347, 71-506 Szczecin. As the Academy’s founders point out: „From the beginning, our goal was to convince mature people that, regardless of their age, they can develop themselves, improve their skills, meet new people and actively spend their free time. We set ourselves the task of activating the elderly in a broad sense. It started with a computer course. The huge interest and success of the project gave us a picture of the educational needs in this age group. This was the impetus for initiating a series of training courses and workshops that allowed us to become a leader in the city in terms of providing classes for the elderly” (https://akademia-seniora.pl/). Thus, it appeared to be the ideal location to hold the lecture under discussion.
The event was promoted using a poster prepared by the researcher:
The event was titled as follows: „Seniors in criminal proceedings – equality of opportunity or social exclusion?” As such, the title of the event fully corresponded to the subject of the researcher’s analysis within the team in which he participates.
During the event, which lasted almost two hours for the substantive part – and more than two hours including the „unofficial” part – the researcher, Konrad Burdziak, and Michalina Kucharzak, a lawyer and doctoral student specializing in criminal cases, particularly in the problem of so-called „grandchildren’s crime,” delivered their lectures. Michalina Kucharzak was invited to speak by the researcher.
The event took the form of a lecture designed to encourage participants to engage in discussion. The lecture was accompanied by a multimedia presentation, which, however, was only ancillary to the content delivered.
The event was attended primarily by seniors interested in the issues, who engaged in vigorous discussions, including presenting factual states from their lives and proposing solutions that could be implemented to make their lives easier.
Photos from the incidentevent:
Information about the event, along with thanks, appeared on the Facebook profile of the Senior Academy:
The event was streamed online for all stakeholders via GoogleMeet.
The event was recorded via GoogleMeet, with only the speakers being filmed. The camera was positioned in a way that prevented third parties from recording. However, both before and during the meeting, participants were informed about the recording and gave their explicit consent. Link to the recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q_vfwidPNUYZOSE5QY-nfNjhH8Ljo7EY/view?usp=sharing
The topics covered during the event focused on criminal law sensu largo, with a special emphasis on procedural issues – specifically, aspects of criminal proceedings that for seniors may constitute an unjustified inconvenience and be the basis for discrimination-related charges.
Among the topics covered were:
- issues related to the characteristics of crimes committed by seniors (the specific types of crimes most frequently committed by seniors and why; crime rates among seniors, especially crimes against traffic safety, relative to perpetrators of other ages);
- issues related to proposed European Union legislation to require seniors to undergo more frequent examinations, training, and tests due to the allegedly greater danger from seniors in road traffic (the focus here was in particular on demonstrating that this is a potential manifestation of discrimination against seniors and that solutions of this kind should not come into force, or – alternatively – should be replaced by other solutions, such as imposing speed limits on individuals who forgo consent to undergo periodic medical examinations);
- issues related to the abrogation of criminal responsibility in the case of the actual commission of a criminal act by a senior citizen (special attention was paid to the issue of the so-called „right not to use the Internet” analyzed by the researcher. The right not to use the Internet, which, in the case of some digitally excluded seniors, can be a real safeguard for seniors who commit a mala prohibitia crime, i.e., a crime that is not obvious in terms of moral justification and that they may not have been aware of due to their inability to use the Internet or simply because they do not want to use modern technologies);
- issues related to the dangers or impediments that seniors face during criminal proceedings depending on whether they are perpetrators or victims of a crime (in particular, regarding a potential situation in which the attorney of a senior witness is excluded from proceedings, the risk of
- issues related to the possibility of obtaining free legal assistance as a way to avoid exclusion of the elderly due to lack of competence related to the law, and access to legal acts, as the latter are published only electronically (among other things, the possibility of accessing free legal advice within the framework of student legal clinics operating at individual universities was pointed out);
- issues related to specific crimes committed against seniors (reference was made, in particular, to issues related to crimes that are not prosecuted ex officio, but on application or private prosecution; issues related to stalking (Article 190a of the Criminal Code), defamation (Article 212 of the Criminal Code), insult (Article 216 of the Criminal Code), and violation of bodily integrity (Article 217 of the Criminal Code), among others);
- issues related to so-called „grandchild scams” (they discussed what grandchild crimes are and their potential consequences for victims of this type of crime, what steps should be taken if there is suspicion about being targeted by „grandchild scams,” how to report the crime to the appropriate authorities, how criminal proceedings against perpetrators are conducted, the rights of victims and auxiliary accusers during criminal proceeding, what problems may be associated with attempts to recover lost funds).
However, the main subject of discussion during the event was specific factual scenarios, which served as the basis for discussing complex legal issues. In doing so, the factual scenarios were not only referred to by the speakers, but also by the audience. During the event, particular attention was given to an exceptionally tragic event that took place in Poland that sparked an intense legal and political discussion in the countryy – specifically, the death of a witness who had previously been questioned in the presence of a prosecutor and two professional attorneys of the injured party after he had been prevented from receiving legal assistance from his own attorney (see https://wydarzenia.interia.pl/kraj/news-smierc-barbary-skrzypek-adwokat-zabiera-glos-jest-oswiadczen,nId,7932005).
The meeting expressed the desire of the participants that the de lege ferenda postulates proposed during the meeting be summarized and forwarded to public authorities for consideration. Additionally, the desire to meet with the researcher during the next lecture-training was announced.
