3. The system of receiving newcomers to the criminal environment ("registration")

A special place in the criminal environment of minors is the replenishment of the criminal world by beginners. Acceptance of newcomers to the criminal environment is called "registration." It is surrounded by a complex verification procedure, which has its own conventions, and is very widespread not only in criminal groups, but also in law-abiding groups of minors.
Registration functions:
1) verification and acceptance of a novice in a specific group;
2) determining to him or a new group a zone and type of criminal fishing;
3) training newcomers to the criminal craft and getting involved in criminal activities.
During the survey of juveniles who committed crimes, it was revealed that over 70% of them were “registered”, and the rest did not, because their status was determined in advance (some had high, others had low). As a rule, the leaders of the groups and their members, who in the new environment claim a high position - leader of the institution ("horn of the zone"), leader of the squad ("horn of the detachment"), leader of the primary team ("horn of separation" ). Not subject to "registration" of persons who have compromised themselves in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, participation in the work of the asset. And this means that they can never become full members of a criminal group, although the group can accept them.
The essence of the "registration" is to test a novice (his reaction to ingenuity, ability to stand up for himself, the ability to endure pain, the desire to defend the interests of the group, etc.) and determine his status and place in the group hierarchy.
When a novice is accepted into a group in order to determine his status, rights and duties, places in the social space of a community, personal “moral” and volitional qualities (intelligence, resourcefulness, “experience”, ability to stand up for himself, the presence or absence of “compromising” adolescent which reduce the status or exclude the possibility of taking the group). Those unsuccessfully past the "registration", subjected to humiliation and social branding, or are not accepted in the group. Persons whose status is predetermined are not subject to "registration": "elite", "outcast"; Persons who have a guarantor in the criminal world or have bought their status. So, in the criminal group of adolescents, where the leader was an adult Vasily K., who is currently serving a sentence, he was joined by his younger brother - a teenager who immediately took a firm high position, while another teenager who was included in the group and did not have such a patron. turned out to be at the bottom of the group hierarchy.
Forms of "registration" are diverse and depend on local conditions, traditions of the group and other factors. In any cases, the registration procedure is regulated in detail. "Registration" is carried out using a variety of "jokes" ("pin" - to catch someone on the ignorance of the "laws" of the underworld), with different goals, content and procedure. The most common “jokes” are riddles (25.1% of all cases), special games (24.8% of cases), trials (20% of all cases), blackmail (15% of all cases), single combat (up to 10%). from all cases), others (5% of all cases).
With the help of mysteries, the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the novice, his knowledge of specific norms of the criminal subculture are checked. Games aim to humiliate the novice, make fun of him, and also serve as a means of group entertainment, spending free time. The newcomer is subjected to severe tests in order to confirm his readiness to observe the "laws" of the group. Blackmail is also used as a means of enslaving a novice, his moral and material subordination to "authorities." With the help of martial arts, physical (strength, dexterity) and mental (courage, readiness to stand up for yourself) qualities of a beginner are checked. Along with the traditional in each region (school, technical school, etc.) there are their own ways and rituals of "registration".
For example: "I am a boy, joining a thief brotherhood (brigade, team), I am honest, always take care of thieves' good, constantly take care of replenishing and keeping the obshchak, strictly observe our productions, not cooperate with the cops, be merciless for apostates from our rules, to be honest with the fraternity, etc. If I make my way, then let the meeting decide: who should I be "1.

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1 Pirozhkov V.F. The laws of the underworld of youth. Criminal subculture. M., 1992, ch. 2. With such an oath "by whom I should be" a newcomer signs his sentence to himself, agreeing in advance to any punishment of the meeting.
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The "registration" ends with a definition of the status of a novice in a group, assigning him a nickname in accordance with the status if he did not have it, and an oath with which he undertakes to strictly follow the norms of the group in his behavior.
A newcomer who has successfully passed the "registration" is obliged to "fraternize" with someone from the group. For this, he makes a cut wound on his arm and applies his newly acquired "brother" to the same wound. So is the "fraternization of blood." The act of "fraternization" ends with the application of tattoos on the thumbs: one of the "BRA", the other "TYA" (BRA + TYa). There is another fraternization, “on smelt,” this is the Uzbek national custom adapted to the needs of the group: breaking a cake with someone, a piece of bread means making peace, making friends1. Above the newcomers who have unsuccessfully gone through the "registration" and referred to the lower caste, are mocked, forced to do the "dirty work", give an offensive nickname, sometimes they are forcibly applied tattoos (tags), etc.
What is the survivability of these "registrations"? First of all, in the mindset of juvenile concepts of collectivism. Friendly feelings are reduced to the thoughtless, group-grouping slogan: “Don't get out of the crowd, do everything!” For the aura of male prowess, the power of the fist is perceived, and for prudence - the desire to "survive" even at the cost of humiliation. one
The second type of “registration” is the receipt by a novice (or a criminal group) of a “license” to engage in a certain type of criminal activity (by fartsky, theft, fraud, etc.) and the definition of a criminal fishing zone (settlement, route, square, point) for the "tax" that they are required to pay to the patrons. The size of the "tax", forms of collection, ways to protect newcomers from "outsiders" and "wild", the system of training newcomers to the criminal business in detail described in the criminal community. Such a "registration" is one of the forms to give an organized crime and is of undoubted interest to law enforcement agencies.
Most often, various "fights" between groups (with stabbing, shooting, etc.) are due to violations of the rules of "spheres of influence" and the invasion of criminal groups into "foreign territory".

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1 See. Gladkov N., Kosyrev I. The smell of warm bread. True, April 4, 1986
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The basis for the prevention of "registration" can be a system of working with newcomers in any institution and school (studying newcomers, including them in active, useful activities, a system of surety and creating psychological protection for them against the oppression of "old people", tight control over "authorities", hierarchization of statuses depending on the conditions accepted by the students, the democratization of all forms of student self-government, etc.).
Along with these measures, the importance of: cultivating the traditions of making newcomers to primary groups, furnished with beautiful and solemn rituals; active and purposeful debunking of the criminal nature and functions of "registrations"; deep and constant analysis of the dynamics of interpersonal and intergroup relations in the youth environment, timely identification and suppression of the activities of groups and individuals. they are trying to subjugate teenagers with the help of “propiska”, intimidate them and strengthen their leading position in the criminal world.

Seminar

Topic: Regulation of the life of juvenile gangs
Issues for discussion:
1. To analyze the different types of norms of criminal communities cited in different literary sources, and to give them a psychological comparative characteristic.
2. Characteristics of psychological phenomena that ensure the cohesion of criminal groups of minors.
3. "Registration * as a mechanism for initiating" self-affirmation of a teenager in a criminal group.


Practical lesson

The task:
1. Collect more than 100 nicknames of minors and analyze them according to the system described in the scientific literature. Nicknames are collected both among law-abiding teens and among criminogenic contingents. To do this, use: information from the periodical press describing the facts of crimes committed by minors; detective literature; visiting commissions and juvenile affairs inspections; survey of teenagers in school, lyceum, etc .; the study of "wall painting" left by adolescents in public places (in the toilets, at public transport stops, at the entrances of buildings and elevators, etc.). If possible, archival criminal cases are investigated in law enforcement.
2. "... One of the telephone consultants described a case when Mikhail B., 17, a pupil of grade 11 in one of the city’s schools, who refused to fulfill the demand of the leader of a criminal group, asked for help (by phone" Trust "- V.P.) - to transfer his girlfriend to him "for use. For this he was subjected to" ostracism "in the form of group oral sexual intercourse. Classmates who learned about it stopped communicating with him. He flatly refused, for fear of reprisals from members of the criminal group" . (See. AA Petrenko. The Role of the “helpline” in providing primary psychological assistance and organizing interaction with other socio-psychological services for adolescents // Socially disadvantaged families: problems and the search for solutions. Materials of the regional scientific-practical conference 24- October 25, 1995. Stupino, 1995, p. 75.)
Analyze the given example, develop measures of psychological assistance and support to the injured teenager Mikhail B.