Socio-Pedagogical Prevention Aspects Of Criminal Behavior Among Minors

Abstract

Over the past few years, the problem of juvenile crime in Russia has become particularly relevant. This negative trend is associated with many external and internal factors of Russian society and the state, however, the topic of involving adolescents themselves in engaging in criminal activity is of most interest. This aspect has been known since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when anarchy and decentralization of power reigned on the streets of the country. Criminal authorities and gang members often attracted young people to criminal activity, which, as a rule, was poorly socialized. Teenagers began to engage in criminal activity for various reasons and circumstances. If we consider the issue on a larger scale and globally, then the factors influencing the decision of minors about their participation in possible criminal activity are, including in the political and socio-economic spheres of society, which subsequently form certain life guidelines for adolescents. For the successful implementation of the goal, this article considers the socio-pedagogical aspects of the prevention of criminal behavior among persons who have committed crimes in their minor age.

Keywords: Minorscriminal behaviorpreventionillegal activities of adolescentssocio-pedagogical aspects

Introduction

Crime in the broad sense of the word is a socio-legal historically transient phenomenon, as well as a set of socially dangerous acts that violate the criminal law. The crime rate is the system of all crimes committed over a certain period, in a particular state, city, region, among a diverse contingent (for example, teenage or youth crime).

In the Soviet Union, real opportunities were created to combat crime based on a combination of preventive measures and the principle of the inevitability of the responsibility of those responsible. The existence of crime in modern society is associated with vestiges of the past in the minds and behavior of people, with the shortcomings of practical work in various areas of public life, and with the delay in solving urgent problems and tasks facing the state.

Criminal behavior, in turn, is a process of human interaction with the environment, which is of an antisocial nature, as a result of which he commits a socially dangerous act called crime ( Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, & Paluckaitė, 2017).

Problem Statement

Of particular interest for the study is the process of interaction with this category of persons - minors who have committed crimes. In the course of contact of such specialists as psychologists, teachers, educators with adolescents, the goals and objectives of further work with them are determined. As a rule, the main goal is to establish the motives, prerequisites, environmental conditions and the internal state of the teenager during the commission of the crime for the most accurate selection of a set of preventive measures.

Research Questions

Subject to consideration are issues directly related to the study of the categories of minors who have committed crimes in different periods of time and under different circumstances. The object of study are: motives that encourage teenagers to commit crimes alone or in complicity; goals pursued by minors in the course or at the end of the commission of a crime; reasons and prerequisites for committing a crime by minors; situation of crime, etc.

Of particular interest is the question regarding the young men and women of the middle age who are capable of committing socially dangerous acts. These data will allow to determine the quantitative characteristics of minors who may be the subjects of crimes. For the most fruitful work and interaction with minors, it is necessary to establish statistics on types of criminal attacks that are relevant for the period under consideration. To analyze each corpus delicti and correlate it with the capabilities (abilities) of minors, as well as their propensities for certain criminal activities. In the course of studying the problem, it is necessary to establish the most effective methods of prevention in the process of exposure and work with minors, which are characterized by delinquent behavior ( Kozyrin, 2002).

Based on the information received, in the framework of this study, socio-pedagogical methods for the prevention of work with minors can be developed.

Purpose of the Study

To identify urgent problems associated with the behavior of adolescents in criminal environments, as well as to generalize the methodology of working with minors in order to eliminate the criminal worldview and apperception errors.

Research Methods

For the most effective research, empirical methods were used - a description with recording information, observation, comparison, as well as a general scientific method - an analysis method - in order to study the phenomena and processes in the field of prevention of juvenile delinquency in detail.

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Based on Figure 1 , “The structure of juvenile delinquency in Russia,” it is clear that 54.4% of adolescents commit theft, that is, secretly steal someone else’s property to take possession of it or to appeal for enrichment (for example, selling); 5.9% are beaten as a result of criminal activity, which, as a rule, is not their ultimate goal; 4.1% are engaged in extortion; 1.9% carry out robberies; 1.4% - intentional grievous bodily harm / homicide; 1.4% - robberies; hooliganism is 0.5% of the total; 12.4% - other crimes, which include rape, participation in extremist / terrorist organizations / communities, riots, the acquisition, possession of drugs and their precursors, etc.

At the moment, there are several methods for influencing the illegal activities of adolescents and their coordination. For the most part, we are talking about legal and socio-pedagogical leverage.

In the legal method of preventive impact, of course, the central link is the laws that establish the categories of crimes, offenses and responsibility for them. However, the most trained adolescents at a basic level possess such information as the age of criminal responsibility and for which specific crimes criminal punishment is inevitably ensured. The bottom line is that the legislation of the Russian Federation takes place only in conditions of an already committed socially dangerous act or in the case when an attempt is made on certain public relations. The rules of law in the existing reality are aimed at bringing the perpetrator to justice as soon as possible and eliminating the harmful consequences of the crime ( Minkovsky, 1996).

The socio-pedagogical method of preventive action is aimed at realizing another goal - demonstrating to a minor the negative sides of illegal behavior even before he can commit crimes and convincing a teenager that being a law-abiding citizen is much more prestigious and safer. Under this method, specialists in the field of pedagogy and psychology carry out activities for the general and individual prevention of juvenile delinquency.

General prevention is the most common and can be implemented in greater volume in connection with the possibility of mass events. It pursues the goal of a general impact on potential subjects of offenses and illegal activities in general. This type of prevention is reflected in the classroom activities with adolescents in schools, orphanages, thematic circles and sections. It is worth noting that psychologists themselves recognize the low efficiency and effectiveness of general prevention, which cannot be said for individual one ( Russell, 2013).

Of course, individual prevention is the most detailed, since it represents a whole range of measures aimed at interacting and influencing a specific minor. The goal is to eliminate the negative influence of external and internal factors that can form an antisocial orientation and create a model of socially dangerous behavior in a teenager. In contrast to the general type of prevention, individual can also be applied at the stage of an already committed crime, at the time of the educational process aimed at correcting the minor ( Oliferenko, Shulga, & Dementieva, 2012).

Among the tasks of preventing the criminal behavior of minors, researchers and practitioners distinguish: the formation of legal consciousness and the elimination of legal nihilism; preventing the commission of unlawful acts; prevention of relapse (in cases when it comes to minors who have served their sentences); elimination of the causes and conditions of criminal behavior among minors and beyond.

Findings

Firstly, when we speak about the minors, it is necessary to talk about the instability of their character and the inconclusive form of their personality. By and large, they can be called children who fell into difficult situations for them for various reasons.

Secondly, juvenile delinquency is often accompanied by aggression, apathy, cruelty, a negative attitude towards a particular gender or a person as a whole. If we associate the previous thesis with this one, then we can reveal some connection with the institution of the family ( Silva et al., 2018).

Thirdly, the criminal behavior of a minor is most often associated with the actions of a social group. In fact, this thesis cannot enlist the full support of the practice of manifesting and studying the criminal behavior of adolescents.

Taking the category of juvenile delinquency as a relatively new phenomenon in Russia, one can turn to statistics, which indicate that every year young people aged 12 to 17 commit more than 300 thousand socially dangerous acts. Over 100 thousand of them do not fall under the status of the subject of a crime, since they do not reach the age of criminal responsibility. At the same time, administrative offenses even more attract the attention of researchers. According to information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, over 1 million offenses committed by persons under the age of majority are registered each year in total throughout the country.

However, the crime rate is rapidly declining every year. Statistics show that the number of crimes committed by minors and with their complicity in the Russian Federation in 2011 was about 78 thousand, in 2012-2013 about 63 thousand, by 2014 the number of crimes was again recorded at around 63-64 thousand, from 2015 by 2017, the level of juvenile crime was approximately the same and amounted to 55-60 thousand crimes a year, and by 2018 the level reached the number of 53 thousand crimes annually.

In this regard, it should also be noted that the minor environment is the epicenter of the accumulation of protest potential. Adolescents perceive any external manifestations with increased severity, aggression and negativity. In the process of realizing this potential, the most active progress is taking place in the formation of criminal views and beliefs in the human mind ( Figueiredo et al., 2018).

The preventive work of psychologists and specialists in the field of pedagogy with minors who have committed socially dangerous acts is significantly different from the preventive activity in relation to those who have not yet committed a crime. Of course, in the first case, it can only be an individual method of preventive exposure, since a minor who has overcome the conditions of deprivation of liberty is undergoing a process of resocialization and adaptation in society. However, it cannot be said with whom preventive work will be more difficult. A teenager who has served his sentence can be much more conscious and with a greater understanding of approaching the essence of the issue of prevention, rather than one that has not yet committed a crime and only carries a criminal intent. This is due to the fact that after the commission of a socially dangerous act, in addition to criminal liability, social responsibility in the form of public censure falls on a minor offender. This fact directly correlates with the thesis that a teenager is not a personality as such and that in the process of becoming and growing up he can be influenced by countless internal and external factors. Public censure is one of them. Subsequently, the social circumstance under consideration will assist the psychologist or teacher in the work and preventive action on the minor in order to eliminate and eradicate criminal behavior ( Araújo, Fernandes, Martins, & Mendes, 2018).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be noted that state policy in the field of prevention of criminal behavior among minors has been functioning for a long time, forming fundamentally new mechanisms of influence and institutions that have the ability to successfully carry out preventive activities. It is important to understand that prevention is an organized process in which everyone needs to take part: relatives, first of all, law enforcement agencies, teachers, psychologists, educators. The task at the same time facing these subjects of prevention activities is to prevent a teenager from conflict with the law, to form a correct understanding of a minor about the negative consequences of criminal behavior, and also to create a law-abiding person in a state based on the rule of law.

References

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• Figueiredo, A., Paciência, E., Sousa, S., Martins, E., Fernandes, R., & Mendes, F. (2018). Emotional dimensions of eating behavior and quality of life in adolescents/youth. Future Academy: Abstract Book. International Conference on Health and Health Psychology 04-06 July 2018/ IPV - Escola Superior de Saúde de Viseu - ESSV / Portugal.
• Kozyrin, M. (2002). Fundamentals of the system for the prevention of neglect and juvenile delinquency. Ros. Justice, 7. [in Russ].
• Minkovsky, G. M. (1996). Causes of juvenile delinquency and measures to prevent it. State and law. [in Russ.].
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• Silva, R., Silva, E., Cabral, L., Carvalhal, A. L., Alves, C., & Simões L. (2018). Promotion of family skills: focus on parental role. Future Academy: Abstract Book. International Conference on Health and Health Psychology 04-06 July 2018/ IPV - Escola Superior de Saúde de Viseu - ESSV / Portugal.
• Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, K., & Paluckaitė, U. (2017). Adolescents’ perception of risky behaviour on the internet. Future Academy: Abstract Book icH & Hpsy 2017 International Conference on Health, and Health Psychology 05-07 June 2017 Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto (ESEP) - Nursing School of Porto in partnership with The Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto (FMUP) – Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto.