2. Psychological questions of the organization of preventive work among minors in places of social exclusion

In the system of prophylaxis, an important place is occupied by legal education, aimed at forming in minors a correct understanding of the prescriptions of the laws, instilling confidence in the inadmissibility of their violation and developing a stable habit of their exact and strict execution. At the same time, organizing the legal education of minors, one should take into account the existing distortions in their legal consciousness. Consider these distortions and defects.
First of all, it should be noted such a defect as legal ignorance - ignorance of a part of the juvenile legal norms. The prevalence of this defect is evidenced by the results of a study of the legal knowledge of offenders. It turned out that over 70% of the respondents did not have clear ideas about the criminal punishability of their actions. When asked if they would have committed unlawful actions, if there was a shat that could be criminalized, the majority would say no. Of course, in such a ret-responsive study there are significant distortions, and it does not fully reflect the picture. Some adolescents really would not have committed a crime, others would go to a crime with considerable hesitation, and still others would not hesitate. But in hindsight, at the time of the survey, it was important to justify the crime committed by ignorance of the law. It was necessary for self-complacency, and to look better in the eyes of others, including the researcher. Here there is an effect of the mechanism of psychological defense and self-justification.
Legal ignorance often arises due to the lack of proper information when legal education is not up to par. Such a defect is eliminated through the improvement of such education, a systematic study of the foundations of law and legal advice.
The situation is worse when the reason for legal ignorance is a person’s unwillingness to obtain relevant knowledge, or he considers them optional for himself. Here, legal ignorance develops into a more serious defect - social and legal infantilism, expressed in the person’s indifferent attitude to the rule of law, undemanding attitude to himself and others, lack of understanding of the significance of legal prohibitions in society and the inability to comply with them. Such an infantile teenager does not survive the feeling of repentance for the crime committed, does not perceive punishment as a “retribution” for his deed due to undeveloped ethical and legal feelings ... Due to social irresponsibility he does not survive his guilt for systematic escapes, self-harm, acts of vandalism, and t .P. in the "zone" because there is no such thing for it.
The next defect of legal consciousness is the absence of a legal culture in which a minor can agree with the requirements of legal norms (for example, the regime in the VC), is convinced of the need to comply with them, but violates all regulations due to the lack of a habit of law-abiding behavior. At first, the lack of legal culture is manifested in administrative offenses, and then they inevitably develop into criminal acts. The lack of legal culture, for example, in a teenager under investigation, under trial or serving a criminal sentence, established in a special school, special vocational school, is also expressed in ignorance and inability to find the necessary legal assistance, to ensure proper legal protection of their interests. Unfortunately, they are not taught this. There are no legal consultations for the contingent contained there in several special schools examined by us, special vocational schools and vocational schools. The tutors and staff themselves provide them with legal assistance, and these are interested people. It is not by chance that in one of the studies conducted in Moscow and New York, when modeling life situations that teenagers can get into and where the help of a lawyer is required, Moscow schoolchildren were lost, not knowing what to do, and their New York peers demanded to connect them with his family lawyer. Unfortunately, minors who are “in the zone” have no one to consult with, except for the “experts” of the law from among their peers who are also in isolation.
However, among juvenile offenders and juvenile offenders there is often such a defect in legal consciousness as social and legal nihilism, expressed in a wrong, distorted understanding of legal norms, disagreement with their demands, a distorted assessment of moral and legal prohibitions. Social and legal nihilism (negativism) is manifested in the active amoral and unlawful behavior of a minor. It arises due to the discrepancy of the requirements of society with personal interests, moral convictions or personal experience. Most often - this is the result of an incorrect assessment of the ratio of personal and public. Under social and legal nihilism, legal feelings are dulled, the adolescent is prone to self-justification of his criminal behavior by referring to others, their wrong behavior, forcing him, for example, to simulate illness, escape, racketeering, etc. The thirst for self-affirmation in the environment of their own kind "in the zone" causes the adolescent's desire to by all means immediately prove their superiority by any, even illegal, deeds, bravado, self-harm, etc.
A common form of social and legal negativism is youthful maximalism, expressed in places of social isolation not only in the non-self-critical attitude of the minor towards himself, but also in the unwillingness to listen to the warnings of educators, other employees of the institution, to heed their advice. Here, social-legal negativism is formed on the basis of age-related negativism as a result of the growing age opposition of minors into criminal opposition.
The most profound defect of moral and legal consciousness of persons contained in social exclusion is social and legal cynicism, manifested in the denial of the importance of any prohibitions, tendency to anarchy, active immoral and illegal position, in stable criminal installations that are the trigger mechanism of deviating and other types " prison "behavior. Such adolescents and young men believe that "the laws are not written about them." They are their own lawmakers. They need not justify anyone before their behavior, since it is the only acceptable for them. It is they who create their own "laws" in the "zone", demanding from the rest of the teenagers their strict implementation.
As we see, most often the defects of legal consciousness of offenders are aggravated by defects in their moral consciousness, which consist either in the presence of antisocial views and attitudes, principles and habits, or in the absence of solid positive moral attitudes, principles and habits. At the same time, the considered defects of legal consciousness significantly affect the behavior of the individual in conditions of social isolation, and without eliminating them it is difficult to talk about the prevention of deviant behavior of minors in the “zone”. In order to meet the challenges of preventing deviant behavior, it is important to step up the legal education of juvenile offenders.
Means of protection and supervision, regime restrictions should create such conditions in places of social exclusion, which would exclude the possibility of committing offenses, would contribute to the destruction of criminal habits and attitudes and the formation of habits of law-abiding behavior. And the point here is not to “stand above the soul” of a teenager every minute, but to organize his life and activities in such a way so that he does not have time to think, or to commit a criminal act, and most importantly, not there would be a desire to make it.
Preventive work also includes the creation of conditions for the psychological and physical isolation of the worst morally adolescents and young people from the best. This is because the concentration in the “zone” of a large number of persons with different depths and different combinations of moral vices, criminal infection, in the process of their interpersonal and intergroup interaction generates specific socio-psychological phenomena of mutual criminality.
Psychological isolation of the worst from the best in VC, special schools and special vocational schools is ensured by: separation of negatively directed groups and groups, the difficulty of mutual contacts of minors from among the “authorities” (criminal elite) with each other by placing them in different shifts at school and at work; strengthening the control of the administration, workers of the regime service, caregivers and the collective of minors over their behavior; attaching to negatively minded activists; ensuring an advantage in each contact group (educational group, class, brigade, etc.) of positively-minded adolescents and young men over negatively minded; applying moral condemnation and boycott to them, etc.
In cases where there is no delay, those who violate the regime, order and discipline (those who refuse to work and study, are prone to self-harm and escape, etc.) are subjected to physical isolation measures - temporary placement in a disciplinary detention center (disciplinary room).
A very effective means of preventing offenses and deviant behavior is reorientation of emerging or emerging criminal groups, which is achieved by strengthening their positive core (if there are such people in the group) or reorienting the leader, bringing him closer to the caregiver and organizing individual preventive work with him. At the same time, the discrediting of “thieves of authority” in the eyes of the majority of minors, showing their cruelty, injustice, and dishonesty in relations with the lower classes and the bulk of minors can play a significant role; creating conditions for the manifestation of leadership qualities of minors with positive attitudes, around which friendly groups would later be formed.
An important condition for the effectiveness of prevention of any types of deviant behavior of minors in the “zone” is to ensure the daily employment of every teenager and young man, to actively engage them in general education and vocational training, in mass cultural and sports work, in interest clubs, to ensure strict and continuous monitoring of their behavior.
It is known that some offenses are committed by minors with various deviations from the mental norm, which were not revealed during the investigation and trial, and this should also be taken into account in preventive work.
Planning preventive work in places of social exclusion. Studies show that planning in areas of social isolation of preventive work has not been given due attention. Not all institutions make plans for social prophylaxis, and if they are made, they suffer from vagueness, they do not take into account the basic initial data for planning. Sometimes they are not updated for a long time, although the composition of minors has changed significantly in terms of criminological and socio-demographic indicators.
It is recommended, based on experience, when planning preventive work to consider:
1) the most criminogenic places (these are areas of the territory and premises of the institution where offenses, violations of the regime, discipline and order were most often committed). Such places are predominantly little-attended by caregivers, other employees are hard-to-reach and poorly viewed premises and areas of the territory (utility and utility rooms, various alleys, storerooms, fences, toilets, etc.);
2) the most favorable time for committing offenses. Here we should proceed from statistical data, which show that most often offenses and crimes are committed during free hours of minors when control over their behavior is weakened, and sometimes at night (after hanging up), when members of negatively-minded groups and criminal groups organize “registration” for newcomers, “disassembly”, extortion, violence, etc .; with the approach of the warm season, the curve of violations of the regime, the risk of crimes and escapes (unauthorized leaving) by minors increases;
3) the composition of minors in the "zone" and its dynamics depending on the criminological and socio-demographic indicators. If, for example, the institution is dominated by perpetrators of violent acts, then first of all it is planned to prevent violent crimes. If the persons participating in the racketeering prevail, then a wave of extortion and “in the zone” should be expected;
4) situations that may provoke juveniles to commit crimes. With the help of regime, organizational and other measures, these provoking situations should be excluded from the life of minors. Thus, the timely identification of the emerging conflict between the leaders of the two warring factions will help eliminate fights and “fights” between these factions, harassment by a stronger group of representatives of the weak faction. However, it should not be forgotten that the effectiveness of prevention is not so much the exclusion of external factors that provoke a teenager or young man to crime and the creation of a rigid system of external control, but rather to ensure the person’s transition from external to internal control, which consists in developing the necessary ability of a minor to correctly and resolve acute life situations.
When planning a prevention system, it is necessary to ensure its continuity with measures taken to prevent crime in adolescents and young people in freedom. This will eliminate the negative impact of criminal groups operating at large on members of these groups who have been isolated. Thus, representatives of criminal groups operating in St. Petersburg often come to Kolpinsk VC and begin instructing former members of the groups (by shouting over, transferring notes, passing them through nominees with access to the territory of the colony, etc.) to behave in isolation, on whom to be guided, and who should be “punished” for treason. Without revealing these groups at large and without taking measures against them, it is difficult to achieve proper law-abiding behavior on the part of minors and inside the colony. The same applies to the succession of measures carried out with juveniles in a special school, special vocational school and the receiver-distributor, the remand prison. Thus, the success of preventive work in a special vocational school largely depends on the state of such work in the distribution center from which minors arrive. In order to prevent crimes among minors on the way, they are sent to a special school and a special technical school, accompanied by police officers or other adults, and sent to an educational colony from the detention center under escort.
Preventive work does not end with the graduation of a teenager from a special school or special vocational school (release from VK), but continues upon the arrival of his home by the police, the commission on juvenile affairs and the place of residence. So that minors do not commit offenses on the way home, they are accompanied by their parents or guardians, and in boarding-type institutions (in the absence of relatives and guardians) by employees of the institution. This is how the principle of continuity of preventive activity should be carried out (“from hand to hand”).
At the same time, prevention work must be carried out systematically, and for this, all measures taken must be consolidated into a system where each individual measure is consistent and docked with any other measure, does not contradict it. So, the mismatch of the measures applied over time leads to the fact that at some period of the day, minors can be out of control, which contributes to the commission of crimes.
Heads of institutions of places of social exclusion should be well aware of the operational situation in the “zone” and be able to choose the main direction (main tasks) of preventive work. So, revealing ripening among minors discontent with the domination of one group or another, one should expect possible excesses: group escapes, attempts of the disgruntled to crack down on those who “wipe them out”, mass cases of self-harm and simulations of diseases. This means that all attention and efforts should be directed to the elimination of ripening discontent, and at the same time all anti-flight and other measures should be taken.
At the same time, when determining the directions of prophylaxis, it is necessary to proceed from the correspondence of the assigned tasks and the forces and means determined for this.If this is not taken into account, then the tasks of prevention will remain on paper, which often happens, especially during such crucial periods as mass leave of employees, their withdrawal to study, when the prevention system is exposed.
It is important to keep the prevention system in constant readiness for an immediate emergency response. Thus, in one of the special schools, when making a mass escape, the students were detained and returned to the zone within two hours after giving the signal of the perfect escape. Each employee knew what to do and where he should be on such a signal: all roads, railway and bus stations were immediately blocked. The traffic police on the incoming signal took control of all the cars and buses passing through the area. Possible places of shelter (ravines, bushes, forest plantations) were combed by patrols, etc. Outfits were sent to nearby settlements. Another principle of preventive work follows from this: each employee of the institution is obliged to participate in it, solving the tasks according to the general plan. Besides,planning preventive work, it is necessary to provide for the participation in it not only of representatives of this institution (administration, educators, minors themselves), but also law enforcement agencies, other social institutions.