4. Ways to work with criminal groups

It is not always possible to prevent the emergence of criminal groups in an educational institution and neighborhood. Therefore, a problem arises: what to do with such groups, how to work with them, if they appear?
Answers to these questions can be found if we thoroughly analyze the practice of the work of inspectors of the departments for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and the foremen of industrial training who are directly involved in the prevention of juvenile group crime. For this purpose, the work of 20 OPPN inspectors and 45 industrial training masters was studied, the characteristics of which are given in table 11.3.

From the table it is clear that the practice of representatives of the TFD and vocational schools that are typical in their socio-demographic and professional indicators has been studied. This indicates that the data are representative: the advantages and disadvantages of their work are characteristic of the majority of such categories of persons working with juvenile offenders1.
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1 Unfortunately, the issues of working with already formed criminal groups in schools receive less attention. All work is shifted to the "shoulders" of the departments for the prevention of juvenile delinquency or is reduced to calling police on duty in cases of school mass events.
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Table 11.3. Characteristics of persons whose experience in the prevention of group crimes was studied

The study of practical experience included two stages. At the first stage, the approximate amount of work carried out by these individuals with criminal groups was clarified. Then, the data obtained were systematized, which made it possible to classify the identified methods and ways of working with criminogenic and criminal groups and compare them with the information on the problem in the criminological and psychological literature.
At the second stage, each OPPN inspector, a master of industrial training had to give and analyze only one specific example of the use of one method or another, indicating whether he used this method himself or he became aware of this from other sources (the method was used in the school by another master training, about this method received information from the department of prevention of juvenile delinquency, read about it in the literature, etc.). The obtained data are reflected in table 11.4.
From table 11.4 it can be seen that the methods of restraint in the prevention of group criminal manifestations take the largest share. The initiators of their use are OPPN inspectors, criminal investigation officers, and other law enforcement officials. Industrial education masters learn about these methods most often from other sources, when, for example, a criminal group from among the students of “their” school is arrested in connection with the crimes committed by it.
The method of suppressing the activities of criminogenic groups is to apply measures to disband the group and place its members in conditions of strict supervision and isolation or

forced reeducation in special institutions with a pedagogical regime (special schools and special correctional institutions).

Table 11.4. The main methods of working with criminal groups (in the opinion of the respondents)

The timeliness of the suppression of the activities of criminal groups is of great predictive importance. If, with the suppression of the activities of these groups, it is late, then the growing process of mutual criminalization can end in the rebirth of a group into a criminal gang or gang.
The reason for the untimely suppression of the activities of criminal groups until recently was the underestimation of the danger of their development in criminal gangs, as well as the common practice of embellishing the true state of crime in vocational schools or in the territory served by the police. However, the predominance of methods of restraint suggests that the actual prevention of the emergence of criminogenic and criminal groups is carried out with considerable delay, when the criminal group turned into a criminal gang. It means that the following were not revealed in time: the true leader of the group, its hierarchical structure, the norms and values ​​of the group, the meeting places of its members, criminal interests, ways of spending leisure time, relationships in families with adolescents, strengths and weaknesses of each member of the group, external relations of the group, possible influence on its activities of adult "mentors" from among the repeat offenders, etc.
Contributed to the acceleration of the process of criminalization of these groups is a vicious practice, when the conditional conviction to criminal punishment or the postponement of execution in the form of imprisonment, determined by the court, were not supported and not supported by subsequent measures of social control and educational and preventive work with these students. Perceiving conditional conviction and postponement of execution of the sentence as impunity, members of criminal groups move from committing less serious to committing serious and especially serious crimes. Such successful joint criminal activities further unite and activate the criminal group. It is not by chance that in the criminal environment, “blurring” each member of a group in a crime is considered a condition of its strength.
Therefore, the implementation of the principle of the inevitability of criminal responsibility for the crimes committed is the most important condition for the prevention of juvenile group crimes.
Less commonly used methods are the reorientation and separation of criminogenic groups, although they are of the greatest importance in the prevention of group crimes. Of the persons interviewed, only 11 (13% of all respondents) have personal practice in applying these methods, and 29% received information about these methods from other sources. This demonstrates the need for targeted training of inspectors and industrial education masters (class teachers), as well as social teachers and school psychologists to work on the prevention of juvenile group crime.
Reorientation and dissociation of criminogenic groups are more complex and difficult to use prevention methods. They are based on a targeted invasion of the interpersonal relationships of the group and their management. And here the help of a practical psychologist is irreplaceable.
Reorientation is a change in the activity of a group, its value orientations and group attitudes (without change or with partial changes in its structure).
Dissociation is a physical (territorial or in time) separation of a group that does not allow it to assemble and commit group crimes.
The primary condition for the reorientation or separation of the criminal group is the identification of all its members, the study of the characteristics of their personality, status and roles in the group, the establishment of external relations of the group. It is especially important to identify adolescents who could withstand the actual leader in order to either split the group or change the leader in it.
Before choosing a particular way of working with a criminal group (separation or reorientation), it is necessary to study the features of its norms, values, interpersonal relations, the place of each individual in the group, the personality of the leader (leader), and then decide. After all, every criminal group includes minors with different levels of criminal infection, conformity, sociability, different levels of culture and interests. Although cohabitation in the criminal group eliminates the tendencies and interests of adolescents, evokes low-lying needs, it is still necessary to grasp differences in their psychology and find "weak links" that can be successfully used to dissociate or reorient the group, detach individual students from this community and including them in new teenage associations.
Let's give some examples. For a long time, a group of four teenagers (3., B., Sh., X) terrorized the neighborhood: they beat younger schoolchildren, robbed them of personal belongings and money. The group hijacked two bicycles and unmounted the coded alarm at the entrance of the house. Starting the reorientation of the group, police officers took into account the fragility of ties between the adolescents B. and 3., their struggle for leadership. Teenager B. was less pedagogically neglected, was fond of hockey. It was decided to use for this purpose a 17-year-old boy K. (who played for the district’s youth hockey team), to which teenagers B., Sh., X were drawn. In the neighborhood a hockey team was created, the coach of which was K. and the captain B The teenagers B., Sh. And X. began to train willingly in the team, but the teenager 3. didn’t like it, who was trying to disrupt the classes.
Having gathered for the next training session, the teenagers announced 3. an ultimatum: either he does it together with everyone, or the group announces him a boycott. Having lost the support of the group and being afraid of being in the neighborhood in isolation, teenager 3. was forced to comply. In this case, the group was reoriented in a way to discredit the leader with the emergence of a new leader from the group who had positive qualities and the creation of his authority. Two more factors are characteristic of this example:
1) the presence of K., reorienting the group, in common with the group of sports interests, and its superiority over the members of the group in this sport;
2) the proximity of the age of K. and members of the group, therefore there was no age psychological barrier between them and he was for them "his" boyfriend.
There are historical examples of mass reorientation of criminogenic and criminal groups in the Kolomna district of the Moscow region that became historical in the past few years. In this case, the activity of the leaders was used for socially beneficial purposes. Here the group leaders' reorientation was elected; a wide range of the public, sports coaches, law enforcement officials, and others took part in this work.1.
Often used the method of temporary full dissolution of criminogenic groups. For this an opportune moment was selected: the period of summer or winter holidays. Members of the criminal group were included in various student groups, were sent to different labor and recreation camps, they were sent to hikes, where they were included in the new system of interpersonal relations and sought to form the installation of law-abiding behavior. After returning from student detachments, labor and recreation camps, archeological expeditions, hiking, former members of criminogenic groups lost interest in each other. Contributed to this and the inclusion of such groups in the work of student associations after returning from trips. In modern conditions of galloping inflation to send adolescents to such units, labor and recreation camps neither parents, nor social security and education bodies have financial resources. For the whole summer, teenagers are out of constant control in the city, which is conducive to the formation and consolidation of criminogenic groups and their development into criminal groups. These groups are characterized by high criminal activity and mobility. They make raids on other cities, most often on Moscow, subjecting their peers to oppression and instilling fear in adults. Such raids of Kazan "winders", gangs of shuttle traders (from Naberezhnye Chelny), as well as groups from nearby settlements (Lyubertsy, Ivanteevsky, etc.) are constantly reported in the independent and dependent, democratic and pro-communist, left, conservative and centrist press seriously concerned about the state of group crime among young people.
In practice, there were cases when the leader, for whatever reason, temporarily left the group (went to his family1, found himself in the reception center, was treated at a hospital, left with his parents on vacation, etc.). At this time, the OPPP inspector and the master of industrial training (the class teacher) sought to include in the group that remained temporarily without a leader, a teenager capable of leading her. As a rule, there was not enough time for such an operation, so all the work was carried out very intensively. So, taking advantage of the temporary absence of the group leader Nikolai Sh., The inspector, together with the school counselor, reoriented the group, including its members in the law enforcement detachment (adolescent patrol). After seeing the effectiveness and social utility of their new activities, the group members negatively met the attempts of the returning leader to return the group to the previous asocial activities.
Applying this or that method should be especially careful and resourceful. There are cases when
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1 Karpets I.I. The specified work.
1 Thus, several groups were reoriented when, by agreement with their parents, the leaders went on vacation to the grandmother (grandfather) in the village, with whom they had previously discussed ways to influence their grandson during the holidays.
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externally divided members of the group (the leader was in a correctional institution, two members of the group transferred to other schools, one moved with parents to a residence in another district) continued to maintain interpersonal contacts, and after the minor leader returned from the correctional institution the group was restored and, secretly leaving their parents in another locality, committed a series of serious crimes (robbery, robbery, gang rape).
Using the method of separation, it should be remembered that:
1) the dissociation of group members cannot be so long that during this time all members (or most) can be re-educated;
2) dissociation cannot be absolute: group members, as a rule, find opportunities to maintain contact with each other in any way, including by correspondence;
3) disunity can cause opposition in minors to adults who have deprived of their friendships, and even more unite the group.
The most interesting from a psychological and practical point of view is the method of reorienting the orientation of the group. However, reorientation can be successful with full consideration of the socio-psychological characteristics of this group, a clear organization of interaction between the subjects of law enforcement, the ability to intrude into the system of interpersonal relations of minors and rebuild them for educational and preventive purposes.
The greatest success is achieved in the prevention of group crime by the complex use of methods for suppressing the criminal activity of the group, reorienting its focus, in the necessary cases of separation and suppression in the form of isolation from society.
For a long time, the staff of the Department of Education and Training did not succeed in reorienting the group of apartment thieves consisting of 8-14-year-olds and children, although the whole set of well-known methods and methods of influencing the group were used: sending a 14-year-old leader to a special school and then depriving him freedom to leave the penal colony. There were no results. The group all the time replenished by 8-10-year-old children, on which the two-month "imprisonment" in the receiver-distributor, fines imposed on parents did not act. The leader's letters were intercepted from the places of isolation, in which he instructed the child, taught her the wisdom of the thieves, expounded to them the thieves' statements (rules and laws of the underworld). It was possible to put an end to this grouping only when criminal investigation officers uncovered a real “mastermind” and “mentor”, a deeply secretive adult repeat offender D., nicknamed “Shipun”. A similar case was described by the well-known journalist V. Agranovsky in his remarkable story “Stop Malakhov” in the 70s. As we see, this method of using children and adolescents for their own purposes by repeat offenders is typical. Sometimes, for Sny-Kers, Mars, chewing gum, Pepsi, the guys willingly carry out the tasks of such an “adult uncle”.
However, it should be noted that in modern conditions the reorientation of criminogenic groups of adolescents by including them in various sports sections, circle work, extracurricular activities, etc. It turns out to be ineffective, because in the mass consciousness of the younger generation there was a change of value orientations. Adolescents are attracted primarily by the possibility of rapid enrichment in any way, focus on owning foreign cars, having sex, the possibility of a "beautiful life" (in the form of visiting restaurants, casinos, having "their girls", relaxing in prestigious places, etc.).
This change in the value orientation of adolescents was sensitively caught by the leaders of organized criminal groups and successfully exploited, including, for example, adolescents in groups (on the “protection” of commercial shops, tents, stalls), for which they receive a solid “fat” (in the form of rubles and dollars) and the opportunity to have sex with night saleswomen, which is brilliantly described in D. Koretsky's deeply scientific novel "Antikiller".
Mafia structures are extremely interested in preparing their “shift” from among adolescents, widely using for this purpose a huge and diverse arsenal of means, methods and mechanisms of practical psychology for comprehensive diagnostics and taking into account the individual and age characteristics of minors in order to draw them into criminal activity and get the most out of it. A teenager untrained and inexperienced in the criminal craft will not be sent alone to a complicated crime. The group secrets and secrets are not trusted to the talkative one, they will not take a drunkard and rokhlyu into bodyguards, who do not keep this word they will not trust not only the storage of the “common cash register”, but also an important task, etc. There are many such examples. But even more dangerous is the creation for selected candidates for future leaders of the criminal world of special schools (polygons, centers), where they are trained in the basics of law, economics, psychology, gun shooting, computer science, paying special attention to comprehensive physical training, mastering various types of martial arts, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, various methods and methods of criminal professions, etc.
All this obliges scientists of different profiles (psychologists, lawyers, educators, criminologists) and practitioners engaged in preventive work with minors to pay the most serious attention to the study of the psychological mechanisms of juvenile crime, the mechanisms of its expanded reproduction and their inclusion in educational and preventive work.
What is the reason that leaders of organized criminal groups are able to introduce adolescents to a healthy lifestyle, playing sports, to exclude the slightest use of alcohol, drugs and toxic substances from adolescents, and representatives of law enforcement agencies and pedagogical groups are powerless in this regard? Why do teens willingly join criminal communities, strictly follow the rules established there without any coercion, and avoid participating in various teenage associations under the guidance of teachers? You can ask a lot of such questions. And the law here is very simple, as in military affairs. As soon as the means of attack are improved, in response, the means of defense are also intensively developed, which in turn causes the development of new means of attack. If we consider crime as an adversary of society, then for all preventive and punitive measures the adversary will develop its means of protection, which makes it necessary for society to be constantly looking for new means, methods and measures to influence crime. This is especially true of juvenile delinquency, which is very sensitive to all developed and applied measures.
For example, if adolescents are focused on making money, then why not redirect criminogenic groups to use the opportunity to attract them to classes in business schools, teaching them legal ways of doing business? The first experiments of such business schools showed high efficiency in reorienting criminal groups. If adolescents willingly go to groups of racketeers to “guard” commercial stalls and tents, then why not use this propensity to wield weapons and martial arts for positive purposes, creating groups of law and order, under the supervision of law enforcement officials.
Thus, the main conclusion is that it is necessary:
- Continuous prolonged study of juvenile and youth crime in order to timely identify new trends in it;
- truly scientific prediction of the dynamics of common and juvenile crime in the country in order to develop proactive measures;
- to discredit the criminal way of life with the help of mass media and educational work;
- rely on the age-related psychological characteristics of adolescents in order to unite them into law-abiding communities, which realize to the maximum extent their age needs, interests and needs;
- to rebuild in a timely manner all preventive work taking into account changes in the criminal world and in the ways of its impact on the younger generation, taking into account the reactions of adolescents and young people to educational and preventive measures;
- develop and implement a special program "The Psychology of Modern Teenage Crime" in higher education institutions in the preparation of practical psychologists, teachers and social workers, as well as in the training of law enforcement officers.

Ways to prevent group crimes of minors

Business game
Обучаемые разбиваются на группы по 5-6 человек, составляющих Совет профилактики учебного заведения (отдел профилактики правонарушений несовершеннолетних ОВД, комиссия по делам несовершеннолетних при администрации района и т.п.). Пользуясь существующими нормативными документами, каждая группа разрабатывает "Положение о Совете профилактики учебного заведения" ("Положение о подростковом правоохранительном отряде" ("Отряде юных друзей милиции (ГАИ)", "зеленом патруле" или каком-либо другом правоохранительном формировании).
После обсуждения, дискуссий и утверждения разработанного "Положения" каждая группа разрабатывает "План работы" своего формирования на месяц и организует его выполнение задействованными силами.
После обсуждения и подведения итогов группы переходят на другой участок работы по принципу "вертушки".
Для разработки соответствующих документов и планов их реализации руководитель занятий использует типичные жизненные ситуации криминального содержания
1. Криминогенная группа подростков микрорайона (часть из них учится в данной школе) занимается вымогательством денег у учащихся. Непокорных избивают.
2. Группа учащихся школы поставила подростка К. "на счетчик", требуя для погашения долга ограбить коммерческую палатку.
3. Двое старшеклассников отбирают в столовой пищу у младших учащихся. Эти поборы повторяются регулярно. Пострадавшие не заявляют, боясь мести.
4. The student 3. constantly comes to school all bruised. In a confidential conversation, he told the class teacher (or master of industrial training) that he was constantly met and beaten at the entrance of the house by “alien guys” so that he would not meet with the girl from “their neighborhood”.
5. A teenager from another educational institution was transferred to the school due to his parents moving to this neighborhood for permanent residence. A group of pedagogically neglected teenagers decided to “prescribe” Sh., Requesting 100,000 rubles for a “registration”, otherwise he would be “lowered”.
6. Михаил Б., 17 лет, учащийся 11 класса, отказался выполнить требование главаря преступной группы - передать ему "в пользование" свою девушку. За это он был подвергнут "остракизму" в виде группового орального полового акта. С ним перестали общаться узнавшие об этом одноклассники. Обращаться в правоохранительные органы от отказывается, опасаясь расправы со стороны преступной группы1.
7. Марина К., 16 лет, стала жертвой группового изнасилования. Опасаясь беременности, заражения венерической болезнью, испытывая страх перед родителями, она обратилась к школьному психологу за консультацией, прося его оказать ей также юридическую помощь, чтобы привлечь к уголовной ответственности насильников2.
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1 Example taken from the publication Petrenko A.A. The role of the "hotline" in the provision of primary psychological assistance and organization of interaction with other socio-psychological services for adolescents // Socially disadvantaged family: problems and the search for solutions. Stupino, 1995, p. 75
2 Ibid, p. 75-76.
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8. Three teenagers - Vasily Eskin, Andrei Lukanov and Alexey Vasilyev (surnames are changed) - entered the school. The operative-investigation team, called by a former student of this school, who noticed strangers in the building at night, wandered with torches, "who looked around the premises were amazed by what they saw. There was a wild pogrom at the school. Not a single door remained, class, table, chair, school appliance ... "A month before this incident, they drank two bottles of vodka and entered the school:" they burned the cool journals, "" they destroyed the medical office, threw out and trampled on drugs and medicines. " In conclusion, they opened the school garage, started two trucks, drove around the city, knocking down a lamppost, mutilated the private Moskvich, crashed into a tree and disappeared.
9. The school is located in the microdistrict adjacent to the passing railway. Beginning in March, a group of teenagers from your educational institution constantly hang out on the slope of the railway. The main occupation of this group: competition in breaking glass in passing trains. The group is headed by a teenager, recently returned from a correctional institution, living with his mother, who leads an immoral lifestyle, is constantly drunk. During the month, the group knocked out more than 155 glasses, while one passenger was injured and a crutch almost thrown into the windshield killed the driver. At the very first station, the incident was reported to the police, which an hour later detained this group of 5 vandals (9, 10, 11, 12 and 15 years old).
10. At school, there was a fashion for tattooing. This happened after the student M. was returned from the correctional facility. In the toilet of the educational institution, a group of teenagers tried to force a “cheeky” (tattoo-stigma) to student 3. in retaliation for participating in the school’s asset. At the same time, the school constantly breaks down classes due to telephone terrorism.
11. The school held an autumn disco dedicated to the autumn holidays. The deputy principal of the school learned that several students had brought alcoholic beverages with them in order to “cheer themselves up”. At the same time, it became known that a group of local non-students and non-working adolescents and young men came to the school to "teach the students a little."
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1 B. Sokolov. The new generation chooses "litrobol" // News. 1995, December 7th.
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12. Учащийся Г. терроризирует всю школу, принуждает других учащихся, своего класса (группы) выполнять за него все домашние и контрольные работы. Не выполняющих для него эти задания он избивает.
Примечание: При решении конкретных жизненных ситуаций и организации системы профилактики в учебном заведении обучаемые должны учитывать экономическую сторону проблемы. В настоящее время нет секретаря райкома (горкома) КПСС, который приказал бы директору ДЭЗ выделить для занятий педагогически запущенным подросткам помещения, залить хоккейную площадку, а руководителю спортивного общества - снабдить группу, подлежащую переориентации, спортивной формой и выделить ей тренера, пункту охраны и общественного порядка - взять под контроль поведение данных учащихся. Сейчас за все приходится платить деньги, и немалые.