3. Group adolescent vandalism

Manifestations of modern adolescent vandalism Acts of barbaric destruction committed by adolescents alone and in a group are found at every turn. Coming out of the apartment, you will encounter entranced and inscribed entrances, spoiled elevator buttons, walls cut into them, interrupted intercoms, intercom windows, broken stained-glass windows for the entrance halls, broken doortops, and sandboxes for the door hinges. into useless playgrounds and sports grounds in the microdistrict, broken down by a picket fence and fences, tubes cut off in telephone booths and even with payphones torn from the root. For 8 months of 1995 in Moscow "it was fixed (this is only recorded. - V.P.) 43,617 cases of vandalism over pay phones, damage - 280 million ...". "Carried away

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See also: Kochenov MM Introduction to forensic psychological examination. M .: 1980; Kudryavtsev, I.A. Forensic psychological and psychiatric examination. M .: 1988; Lichko A.E. Psychology and character accentuation in adolescents. L .: 1983; The appointment and conduct of the forensic psychological examination (Methodical letter of the USSR Prosecutor's Office). M .: 1980; Prevention of suicidal behavior: Guidelines // Comp. A.G. Ambrumova and V.A. Tikhonenko. M .: 1980.
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the wind "350 payphones entirely, with all the giblets, stolen 18067 and smashed 10355 handsets, pulled out 6242 microphones, 1058 moneyboxes for tokens and 113 dialers ..." 1.
If you have to go by public transport, then at your service are broken glasses of bus and trolleybus stops, broken timetables for the movement of urban transport, broken and turned bins. If you decided to walk through the park, you will see broken and filthy gazebos, broken trees, littered ponds, scorched glades, etc.
And if you want to go out into the countryside for the nature, then the cut seats of the electric trains, the glass broken in them, decorated with obscene inscriptions of the vestibule, broken luggage racks, broken and stolen heating systems of cars will long remain in your memory. There will inevitably come to mind the picture from the movie "Is it easy to be young?"
Once in a newly renovated school or a vocational school, in a few days you will see the whole set of destruction: from torn entrance doors to the walls of toilets and broken toilet bowls, chopped school desks, torn textbooks. And in public toilets in general would not be recommended to go in order not to lose consciousness from the destruction seen.
They beat windows and headlights at cars standing in the courtyards, "scatter" them, cut "rubber", break the boot, etc.
It would be possible to continue to list all the known facts of adolescent and youth madness, which is often reported in the press. This is what Literary Russia wrote.
"The new car of the train on the Moscow-Serpukhov line. Soft seats, pleasant interior trim. But the trouble is: the leather substitute on one of the benches is disfigured and polished. Next to it are fat, causing large letters with a blue felt-tip pen. Without hiding, they tried to immortalize their yard nicknames The elephant, the Prince and the Navel from SPTU-129 are people of the third millennium, the future creators of perfect technology. Nearly wished to leave an autograph for a certain Shurik from LSSh-1 from Lvovskaya station that along the same railway line. And he also wanted to paint an emblem like sports club. The same emblems adorn the wall of the vestibule, interspersed with graffiti like: "I, Dima, was here."
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1 Nedorezov E. 350 payphones was uprooted. From the history of vandalism in the capital // "KP" in Moscow, 1995, No. 20, October 7.
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I do not know what LSSH is and who they cook there. I see something else: Shurik, Elephant, Prince and Navel are blood brothers of the one who left his name in the shadow of an individual who fixed his fiery feelings for a woman with indelible black paint ... Where do you think? On the monument to the great Georgian poet and thinker Rustaveli, which is in the very center of Moscow.
Ilf and Petrov wrote about the defilers of the bust of the poet Zhukovsky. But this was sixty years ago, when two thirds of the country's population did not know not only poets, but simply alphabets. Do the children and grandchildren of the infamous heroes of our satirists continue their work? It's good that chalk and paint are not bullets. But there are young people shooting obelisks above the graves of fallen soldiers "1.
The elephant, Prince, Navel, Dima and Shurik together with the heroes of Ilf and Petrov form a kind of fraternity of destroyers and defilers of spiritual and material values ​​created by them2, they are akin to vandals (from the Latin - non-Germanic tribe3), who did not leave no temples, no literature, no inventions, not even a language. Their only legacy is the loud and unkind glory of the rioters. In 455 AD, having seized Rome, hordes of vandals meaninglessly and wildly dealt with the defeated city, destroying everything that came to hand, monuments, works of art, marble sculptures, fountains, burning buildings. Hence the vandal is an ignoramus, a barbarian, a destroyer of cultural values4. V. Dahl stresses that "the name of the people appealed to the common name of a barbarian, a rude, unenlightened person" 5. Therefore, “vandalism is an act rude, contrary to enlightenment, education” 6.
Ancient vandals could still be understood. It was a persecuted, wandering across Europe and Africa, a tribe that could not find refuge anywhere. For them, fed up with power and luxury, and mired in debauchery Rome was an "evil empire",
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1 Zotov B. Navel asks into history // Literary Russia. 1989, February 24th.
2 Skoblo S., Ilyin A. Monument to Chernyshevsky sent for restoration after an act of vandalism // Moskovsky Komsomolets. 1995, December 2nd.
3 Soviet encyclopedic dictionary. M .: 1989, p. 193.
4 Ibid.
5 Dal V. Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language (in four volumes). M .: 1989, T. 1, p. 163.
6 Ibid.
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world center of violence and injustice, with which they tried to crack down.
Modern vandals can not be understood. They destroy what serves not only other people, but also the same destroyers - adolescents. The same elevator, the same public transport stop, because they use them daily. Moreover, modern vandals arrange peculiar competitions with creators. Once the wood-trimmed elevators became objects of pogrom, they began to trim them with metal from the inside. Then modern destroyers moved from knife, chalk and pencil to metal-cutting tools. Only the content of the texts that drive people into the paint remains the same. Intercoms began to protect the thick bars, but they hack.
Of the code devices in less than a year, all the "insides" are mercilessly reversed. Telephone booths are broken, pipes are torn off, coin acceptors are opened. The service life of pay phones is halved. They beat cast iron and concrete, iron fencing and other alloys, bring down the supporting poles of electric networks, dismantle light signaling on the railways. But art works are particularly affected. Sometimes it seems that the Vandals burns the inner need to destroy, destroy, desecrate.
Take the same dance floors, discos, houses of culture, cinemas, which are often visited by modern vandals. These "points" turned into latrines, there they go to spend time, relax.
The main signs of vandalism. This brief review of modern vandalism reveals its main features.
1. It is characterized by the senselessness of destruction, his zyashnost.
2. The energy of the modern vandal is primarily aimed at the destruction of works of art, objects and common use conditions that facilitate the lives of other people (elevators, benches, intercoms, etc.).
3. Modern juvenile vandalism is a special type of activity through which they try to assert themselves in their midst.
4. Along with disinterested there is mercenary vandalism in the form of grave-digging in search of products made of gold, orders and medals (the so-called "black paths").
5. Many are capable of acts of vandalism, but vandalism in a group is gaining particular prosperity even among conscious, mentally normal and law-abiding citizens. And in criminal groups of minors, it acquires a monstrous scope.
Of course, widespread vandalism is facilitated by external economic, political, social conditions prevailing in society: social instability, economic instability, disruption of society’s life, unemployment, unfair capital accumulation by some and the impoverishment of others, resulting in the devaluation of material values, loss of economic, social , moral and legal guidelines for adolescents, the disadvantages of their socialization. However, internal, personal reasons also contribute to the widespread vandalism among adolescents: the moral underdevelopment of the individual, social and legal infantilism, and the infectiousness of this destructive activity in the group.
Vandalism can be combined with the use of drugs and toxic substances. So, the students of one of the Moscow schools were engaged in substance abuse, and then proceeded to destroy and destroy the school’s property: the doors and floors were broken, the equipment of the physical office was looted, the windows were broken, the schools were cut down, the equipment was damaged and moral and material damage was caused. school, totaling 30 million rubles.
The motivation of vandalism can be very different. First of all, age features are manifested here: the desire to demonstrate strength, courage, to gain authority with friends, to assert oneself. So, school desks, walls in the porches of houses, elevators are painted, seats are cut in electric trains, weaker, defenseless people are beaten, material values ​​are taken from them and destroyed.
Vandalism is associated with the activation of the motive of revenge on teachers. For example, a student of the 6th grade, Boris E., left for the second year, smashed glass in the school office in retaliation, entered the office together with his comrades and girlfriends. They broke glasses in sideboards, mirrors, dishes, spoiled and stole teaching aids, samples of items made by students. After some time, they repeated the raid, looted the offices, including the director's office.
Vandalism teenagers resort to an argument. Teen B.A. argued with his friends that he would infuriate the teacher. To this end, he threw off the cover of the demonstration table in the office of physics, almost leaving the teacher without feet.
One of the motives of vandalism can be - "take time", "nothing to do", as well as simply rashness of the consequences of vandal manifestations.
Not in all cases, adolescents act thoughtlessly, spontaneously. Often they are thoroughly prepared for this. They have a motivation for self-justification. This is a kind of psychological protection of the personality of a teenager in a traumatic situation. Adolescents support each other, which is why “in group acts of vandalism,“ feeling of an elbow "gives them strength and courage. Studies show that impunity leads to new, more dangerous manifestations of vandalism1.
Types of modern vandalism. Vandalism is very diverse and diverse: adolescent and adult, sports and student, individual and group, etc. Let's stop on some of them. Vandalism can act as a result of group affect, as well as conscious, pursuing a clearly defined group goal. Thus, group vandalism in criminal groups is found in a "pure form" (destruction for the sake of destruction) and combined with other crimes, most often with thefts, murder, robbery, malicious hooliganism, rape, etc. Thus, a criminal group of 16-year-olds penetrated the apartment and murdered a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel of a military unit with the aim of robbery, "and then set fire to the apartment with its traces" 2 to hide the traces of the crime. Every autumn and winter, the hordes of young vandals attack empty cottages and garden houses, steal everything that can be carried away, destroy buildings, and often to conceal the traces of their atrocities arson.
One of the ways to fight mafia groups for dominating the markets and keeping the price of goods at the right level is economic vandalism - hiring teenagers and young men to pogroms at markets when hired young people with a whoop, whistle and other noise effects run in a crowd through the malls, crashing and sweeping away everything on the go.
Political vandalism is also very dangerous, when various opposition groups and parties, organizing rallies and demonstrations, organize teenagers, youth and youth groups to carry out destruction (break windows in houses, burn cars, blow electric supports, blow up
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1 According to the data of our applicant Vatova L.S.
2 Chronicle of incidents // Moskovsky Komsomolets. 1993, 14th of August.
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various facilities, etc.) to rivet the attention of society. Hiring minors is necessary for political groups in order to avoid responsibility for the barbarism committed. Political vandalism is dangerous because it teaches society to believe that the struggle for democracy cannot be without acts of massive destruction. October (1993) events in Moscow give concrete examples.
Closely adjacent to political vandalism is nationalist vandalism prevalent in areas of national conflict, where the destruction of wealth (apartments and houses, personal property, transport, etc.) belonging to persons of so-called non-indigenous nationalities is regarded as valor and heroism. As a striking force, adolescent-youth groups are also used here, often seduced by the possibility of personal enrichment at the expense of looting.
With the development of farming and individual entrepreneurship in the village, agricultural vandalism is becoming widespread, the essence of which is the deterioration and destruction of agricultural products, the burning of farms and other economic structures, the destruction of animals. In cities, adolescent and youth groups hired by mafia leaders are used to inflict economic damage on agricultural producers (destruction of food products, arson of trade pavilions, stalls, etc.). Ecological vandalism, consisting in the destruction of living and inanimate nature, poisoning of water bodies, littering with forest debris, also abuts here.
You can also highlight cultural vandalism, manifested in the destruction and destruction of cultural property (monuments, buildings, paintings, museum rarities, temples, etc.).
A special kind of sports-fanatical vandalism, expressed in the fact that supporters of any sports team (often football or hockey) for joy (when the team wins) or with grief (when the team loses) after the match, falling out of the stadium, smashing shops, kiosks, turns over and sets fire to cars, beats street lighting, destroys transport stops, trashes the interior of vehicles.
In connection with the rise in prices for non-ferrous metals, industrial vandalism has been widely developed, consisting in the destruction and theft of non-ferrous metal from electrical grids, transformers, and rolling stock. Often, this type of vandalism not only leads to a power outage, but also the death of adolescents, which is constantly reported by the press. So, in the Yaroslavl region when stealing electrical cables from electrical networks, several teenagers died, in the Tula region when a young man was trying to steal metal from a preserved mine, there were deaths of teenagers in other areas and territories as a result of industrial vandalism.
Finally, it should be noted cemetery vandalism, manifested in the desecration of graves, the destruction of gravestones, desecration of graves.
For example, everything is dragged from the tombs of the capital: simple iron fences and cast-iron gravestones, articles made of non-ferrous metals, all kinds of food and flowers. One owner found his next day his flowers from the grave, which the "little boy at the entrance" was selling. "I gave them their aunt - that's trading," he explained. When I began to frighten the police, he laughed: "Oh, uncle, to no avail - we pay the police" 1.
With all the conventions, this classification allows you to more deeply understand and reveal the essence of this phenomenon.
In criminal groups, vandalism acquires a special scope due to the anonymity of each of the group members and the illusion of irresponsibility and impunity. And not only this provokes teenagers in the group to the most sophisticated acts of vandalism. There is also a special infectiousness, an example of others, when, through perfect destruction, a minor tries to assert himself in his criminal environment, displaying strength, ingenuity and sophistication.
The study of the psychological mechanisms of vandalism shows that vandal teens in their midst have support, their actions are approved, so it is difficult to prevent their destructive activities.
Vandal manifestations depend on the socio-psychological climate, the atmosphere in the team, which can both contribute to and prevent vandal manifestations of adolescents.
According to the observations of Watova, LS A group of six students studied for nine years at a Moscow school. For antisocial behavior and vandal manifestations, they were put on record in the OPPN. But in the 10th grade, the whole group self-
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1 Milutin S. The Living Dead are fed // Moskovsky Komsomolets, 2001, January 19.
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Stoed to the next school, where their behavior became normal. Acts of vandalism ceased.
This happened because the socio-psychological atmosphere in the team of teachers has changed. In the new school there is a rule: you are nasal - clean, smoke - pay the fine yourself, or let the parents pay, break - do it. But such a rigor of girls suits more. On the one hand, severity, and on the other - order, benefits. At recess, the guys stopped running, you can watch TV in the lobby. There is no need to make repairs here, the students save the school, but with the money saved the students went to Italy for free. So influenced the social climate on the behavior of adolescents.
Vandal manifestations most often take place at recess, therefore, where recreation and leisure of students at recess are organized (games, aerobics, dancing, working on simulators under the guidance of specialists), manifestations of vandalism diminish or disappear altogether.
Thus, the vandal manifestations of adolescents, on the one hand, are influenced by the attitude of the collective of teachers and the school administration and the organization of their leisure time to them, and on the other hand, the participation of parents and the students themselves in creating material and spiritual values, in organizing children's leisure, engaging them this activity.
There are fewer or less vandal manifestations where parents and adolescents are involved in the production of material values ​​(office decoration, school renovation, costume making, etc.), in the formation of spiritual and patriotic qualities (excursions, disputes, meetings with war veterans and labor), as well as in the organization of leisure (preparation and holding of evenings, concerts, discos, New Year celebrations, etc.).
We have touched upon only some aspects of group vandalism in the adolescent and youth environment. But this little excursion shows that, to a large extent, adolescent youth vandalism is generated by social, political and economic processes in society, erosion of people's morality, in short - this is a reflection of the established way of life of our society, which does not develop respect for property belonging to other people. In this connection, a craving for destruction becomes a distinctive feature of modern society - a society of vandals.