Law enforcers neglected by state authorities? The regulations governing the bailiff profession and the resulting arenas of dispute

Abstract

This article aims to describe and sociologically analyse the “conflict” between bailiffs, who are executors of the law, and other state authorities. The considerations are based on my research, in which I used the technique of a free interview. In the text, I also refer to the sociological concept of the so-called “dirty work” (Everett Hughes). From the collected research material, it can be concluded that, according to bailiffs, the legal regulation of their profession is unclear and unstable. Reservations were also raised about the legislature’s decisions, making it challenging to enforce debtors’ claims. Bailiffs spoke of a sense of “being abandoned” by higher authorities in their efforts to change the public perception of their profession and improve working conditions and comfort. My analyses also use the notion of the “arena of dispute” characteristic of, among other things, rhetorical and discursive analyses in sociology. Grounded theory and symbolic interactionism (and the theory of social worlds also developed on this basis) have inspired my research.