Incarceration as a result of the play of interests in the Polish judicial system

The main aim of this article is to show one of the social trap of the Polish justice system. Using Mertonian category of 'unforeseen consequences' the authors show how the constellations of interests of the main social actors in Polish courts leads to far-from-optimal effects. Inside the system, judges, court staff, lawyers, defendants and others fall into the trap of unforeseen consequences. At the same time, from the macro-social perspective, the effects imply increasing fragmentation of society, instead of cohesion, for increasing which the whole judicial system is constructed.