Young people in their teens are considered as a separate social category. This is a special age when a variety of factors influence the formation of ideals and values. Moreover, the views of a teenager often diverge by those norms that are accepted in society. In this regard, the so-called deviations and deviations arise in the behavior of young people, expressed in the commission of illegal actions by them.
That is why prevention of juvenile delinquency is of particular importance. Such activity allows the most unstable members of our society not to turn off the right path.
Definition of a concept
Crime is a phenomenon characterized by deviant behavior, which is very dangerous for people who are surrounded by the offender. That is why such an act is prosecuted by law.
And if crime is considered the most dangerous type of deviant behavior, then it should be borne in mind that unlawful acts committed by adolescents and children are its integral part. Violation of the law by young people has a number of specific features. Compared to an adult, juvenile delinquency is highly dynamic and has a high degree of activity. Anyone who has become on a crooked track at such an early age is very difficult to correct. It is very difficult to re-educate these teenagers. So there is a reserve for adult crime.
Main motives
Why do teenagers aged 14-16 commit crimes?
Young people can have either self-serving or violent-selfish motivation. Let's consider each of them in more detail:
- Selfish motives. Similar reasons are of a "children's" incomplete nature. The bulk of juvenile delinquency is committed because of curiosity or mischief, the desire to show dexterity, courage and strength, as well as “have fun” and gain peer recognition by affirming themselves in their eyes. Sometimes young people commit illegal acts, striving for something unusual, dreaming of thrills and adventures. However, similar motivations at this age are immaturity. Indeed, most offenses are committed as part of a group and have a situationally impulsive form. Motivation in adolescence is subject. Young people, as a rule, are particularly interested in things related to youth fashion, musical instruments, radio equipment, wine and sweets, sports equipment, small amounts of money and tobacco products. Recently, there have been cases of theft of drugs of the drug-containing type, and motorcycles and cars have begun to steal more.
- Violently selfish motives. For this reason, it is worth taking a closer look at the prevention of crime and juvenile delinquency. Indeed, young people have an urgent need for self-affirmation. She is the main factor contributing to the emergence of forcibly-selfish motivation. Sometimes such motivation goes in parallel with cruel behavior.
Psychological reasons for the offense
Teenage crime can be caused by a number of factors. All of them can be divided into two groups. One of them includes psychological reasons, and the second - of a social nature. The first of them are characterized by:
- a deformation of moral and legal orientation with a shift in values in the direction of momentary pleasures;
- the weakening of the feeling of shame that is observed in the emotional-volitional sphere, as well as the indifferent attitude to the experience of other people;
- aggravation of neuropsychic anomalies, as a rule, due to adverse conditions of education and life;
- high risk appetite ;
- low self-esteem.
Juvenile offenders often have neuropsychiatric abnormalities. Basically (in 80-85% of cases) they are acquired due to adverse conditions of education and life.
As defects in intellectual and psychophysical development in adolescent criminals, specialists record:
- various types of disorders occurring in the psychophysical development that occurred during the intrauterine development of the fetus, childbirth, as well as in early childhood;
- alcoholism disease;
- physical infantilism, expressed in the form of lethargy and fatigue, decreased performance, etc., as well as the lag of the body in physical development, including appearance defects.
According to psychiatrists and psychologists, most often the adoption of measures to prevent juvenile delinquency is required in relation to boys, not girls. And there are psychological and biological explanations for this. The fact is that boys have a more vulnerable nervous system. That is why they most often suffer from various traumatic circumstances and family instability. Especially dangerous for boys is the moment when fathers do not take part in their upbringing. If the son is completely dependent on an energetic and strong mother, then he grows up afraid of life, indecisive and helpless.
Girls, by contrast, become aggressive and pugnacious. They begin to strive for leadership and leadership of other children, which indicates the development of traditional male character traits in them. Sometimes they even have a penchant for profanity and smoking.
When preventing juvenile delinquency, it is worth bearing in mind that neither timid boys nor overly active girls can be ridiculed and criticized. Adults should take seriously the process of forming the psychological gender of children. The moral health of a growing person will largely depend on this.
Social causes of offenses
How to explain the phenomenon of crime in a teenage environment? To do this, it is necessary to find out how social factors lead to its formation. Their knowledge will help in taking effective juvenile crime prevention measures.
All social factors that influence the development of a negative phenomenon are divided into two large groups. One of them is macrosocial, and the second microsocial. The first of these two groups includes directly the society in which the young man lives, including his moral values, morality, cultural traditions and history, economic and political problems, etc. Microsocial causes include the immediate environment of the adolescent. These are, first of all, his friends and family, school friends, etc. Let's consider each of these groups in more detail.
Macrosocial factors
Prevention of juvenile delinquency is required where the majority of the population has a low standard of living, and where there is a sharp contrast in the distribution of income in society. Among low-income citizens, as a rule, there is a pronounced level of alcoholization and anesthesia. This in most cases is the cause of crime. Often, teenagers from poor families commit crimes just to survive.
The prevention of juvenile delinquency is especially relevant in those regions where there are deficiencies in the development of the entertainment and leisure system. This is reflected in the poor organization of the network of clubs, sports clubs and sections, as well as in the absence of measures to attract and consolidate in them those minors who have adverse conditions of upbringing and life. Very often you have to pay for visiting such institutions. Therefore, they are inaccessible to children living in poor families.
Measures to prevent juvenile delinquency should also be taken in the event of deficiencies in the educational work carried out in secondary schools, as well as in vocational schools. Indeed, in the case when teachers manifest formalism and do not take into account the individual approach to each person, adolescents do not have a sense of civic responsibility and the need to manage their behavior. Very often young people alienate themselves from the team and lose all interest in learning. At the same time, the contingent of juvenile delinquents begins to replenish at the expense of those young people who drop out of school, and are also lagging behind and second year students. The fact is that such circumstances weaken social ties and even lead to their loss. This greatly facilitates the contact of adolescents with sources of negative influences.
Prevention and prevention of juvenile delinquency should also be carried out where there are drawbacks in organizing the employment of young people. It is also necessary in those cases when their education in production teams is not carried out.
Prevention of juvenile delinquency and delinquency should be carried out with the aim of restricting the penetration into the youth environment of those stereotypes of behavior that are antagonists of public values. Among them, the cultivation of cruelty, violence, sexual licentiousness, as well as the promotion of drugs.
Microsocial factors
The occurrence of juvenile delinquency is facilitated by:
- The negative influence of the family. This unit of society is considered the most important social institution for a person. The formation of the personality of a growing person occurs precisely in the family. But if it is an unfavorable background for this process, then this can lead a teenager to a criminogenic environment. Such unfavorable factors are an incomplete family or those cases when the parents have an immoral lifestyle. An unsatisfactory financial situation, as well as constant conflict situations, negatively affects the formation of a teenager.
- Negative impact of the informal group. Under the influence of antisocial peers, a teenager who is distinguished by poor academic performance and low discipline most often falls. Such young people are not able to establish normal relationships with classmates and teachers. For adolescent offenders, the influence of friends and their opinions are more significant than adult comments.
- Incitement of adult criminals. A similar reason is detected in almost 30% of cases of teenage offenses. Often young people are preliminarily involved in gambling, drunkenness, as well as other forms of antisocial behavior. Such actions are accompanied by the propaganda of those "advantages" that the life of criminals has. It is worth noting that with the targeted influence of the criminal environment, criminal jargon and customs existing in the "zone" are becoming more widespread. In this case, the income obtained by illegal means becomes the most prestigious.
Social prevention of juvenile delinquency should be carried out in the direction of eliminating all of the above reasons.
Personal characteristics of offenders
What are the objects of juvenile crime prevention? If we consider the severity and orientation of volitional qualities, adolescent offenders can be conditionally divided into three types. Knowledge of such a classification will allow for the most effective measures to prevent and prevent juvenile delinquency. It:
- adolescents are born organizers with a strong will;
- young people with high volitional qualities who have a negative orientation and are used in preparation for the commission of crimes;
- weak-willed teenagers committing illegal acts under the influence of others.
Psychologists note the fact that the social status of a teenager is practically no different from children's. Young people only have a sense of maturity, expressed in the level of claims that elevate the position that they have not yet achieved.
Teenagers are constantly striving for self-affirmation. They equate their personality with an adult and begin to demand that their opinions be considered and respected. Adolescents also begin to learn the external adult attributes of behavior. She is expressed in the manner of speaking and dressing. Young people start drinking alcohol, smoking, etc.
Adolescence is considered transitional. Psychologists call him also critical. What does this transition period mean? In biology, it is understood as a certain phase in the development of the organism, when it becomes especially sensitive to certain internal and external factors.
When carrying out activities to prevent juvenile delinquency, it should be borne in mind that such offenders, as a rule, are persons with persistent stereotypes, inclinations and habits of antisocial behavior. By chance, only a few commit crimes. The remaining offenders are characterized by:
- A constant demonstration of neglect of the norms of behavior that are accepted in society. Such teenagers swear, pester citizens, appear drunk on the street, spoil state property, etc.
- They are addicted to gambling, drugs and alcohol.
- They run away from home systematically and wander around.
- Marked by sexual promiscuity and the presence of early sexual intercourse.
- Guilty of creating conflict situations. These teens are constantly quarreling in the family. Moreover, young people terrorize their parents, as well as other people close to them.
- They have a habit of appropriating everything that lies badly, as well as that which can be taken away from the weak, without incurring any punishment.
Early prevention of juvenile delinquency should be carried out with those young people who have emotional imbalance, vanity, stubbornness and aggressiveness. All these features are most characteristic of juvenile delinquents.
Unlike individuals with positive interests, which are approved by society, the development of the needs of offenders is most often in the opposite direction. Such young people spend their time mostly aimlessly. This forms their negative interest. In the future, he is fixed in habits that lead to the formation of socially alien needs for society. Against this background, socially dangerous, illegal ways to satisfy them are being developed.
When taking measures to prevent juvenile delinquency, it should be borne in mind that such unlawful acts are committed because of the low self-esteem of the young man. The growing personality seeks to find a way to assert itself. And he, as a rule, is not approved by the so-called positive environment.
When juvenile delinquency prevention is carried out by ATS representatives, a painfully aggressive attitude of young people to peers who have a well-deserved positive self-esteem is noted. It also leads young people into a criminal environment.
The subjects of the prevention of illegal actions
What measures should be taken to prevent juvenile delinquency? For this, actions called prevention are performed. This term means the prevention of any adverse events. Prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime is considered a special type of social practice. Its implementation allows for such transformations of social relations that eliminate or neutralize factors (causes, conditions) that lead to deviant behavior.
Prevention of juvenile delinquency is carried out by specific institutions and bodies that make up the whole system. It includes, above all, juvenile commissions. Also, the role of subjects of juvenile delinquency prevention is played by institutions and guardianship and trusteeship departments, departments of internal affairs agencies, health organizations, social protection of citizens, employment services, and others.
Consider the functions of each of them in more detail:
- Juvenile Commission. Among the functions of this body is to provide assistance in domestic and labor arrangements, as well as in the social rehabilitation of those adolescents who need help. It should be borne in mind that these commissions are not vested with direct powers to solve the problems of crime prevention among minors. As a rule, they only interact with other organizations that deal with "dysfunctional" young people.
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- Special institutions for those in need of social rehabilitation. Such organizations are called upon to provide emergency assistance to adolescents who find themselves in a difficult life situation. The list of such institutions includes social shelters, centers for helping children who were left without parental care, etc.
- Management bodies and educational institutions. Such institutes introduce and implement various methods aimed at the formation of law-abiding behavior among young people, as well as conduct comprehensive psychological, medical and pedagogical examinations, which makes it possible to identify the necessary form of education and training for children who are behind in school, miss classes, etc. Such educational institutions include boarding schools, as well as orphanages in which orphans live and those left without parental care.
- Youth bodies, tourism, sports and cultural institutions, various youth associations, as well as other social movements and organizations. All of them take part in the organization of employment, leisure and education of youth.
- Health authorities. The treatment and rehabilitation process becomes especially relevant in our time, when there is a constant increase in the percentage of anesthesia and alcoholization, as well as mental disorders in young people. In addition, health authorities organize events to disseminate sanitary and hygienic knowledge, to promote healthy lifestyles and to provide medical assistance to adolescents.
- ATS units for minors. What is the competence of these bodies? They carry out the prevention of juvenile delinquency and neglect, which pose a particular danger to society. In addition, the OPPN works with those legal representatives of adolescents who do not fully fulfill their educational responsibilities. Carried out by the bodies of internal affairs bodies and the prevention of re-crime of minors. An important task of the OPPN is also the identification of those persons who involve young people in antisocial actions and in the commission of illegal acts.
- Guardianship and trusteeship agencies, as well as employment services. The main directions of juvenile crime prevention with these elements of the system are auxiliary. The fact is that all their activity involves the implementation of administrative and control measures not related to direct work with adolescents and their families.
- The head of the juvenile delinquency prevention system is the Interdepartmental Commission established under the Government of Russia. In addition, the list of entities performing work to prevent the unlawful actions of adolescents includes the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation. Her tasks include monitoring the observance of the freedoms and rights of young people, as well as coordinating the work of law enforcement agencies aimed at combating crime.
Stages of prevention
Those measures that are taken by the above entities to prevent adolescents from violating legislative acts are carried out in a certain sequence. Moreover, each of the stages of juvenile crime prevention is unique and represents the adoption of a certain set of measures applied to difficult children. Among them:
- Early prophylaxis. At this stage, the subjects of prevention of juvenile delinquency are given the task of assisting those who are in difficult conditions of education and life. These measures are being taken even before the negative factors that have arisen on the young man.
- Immediate prophylaxis. The objective of this stage is to prevent the teenager from switching to the path of crime, as well as work to correct those who commit criminal offenses and have a significant degree of maladaptation.
- Prevention of criminal behavior. The main goal of this stage is to prevent the teenager from switching to a wrong path. At the same time, all necessary measures are being taken that create the conditions for the correction of those who systematically commit illegal actions, which indicates a high probability of committing a crime in the very near future.
- Relapse prevention. Prevention of juvenile delinquency aims not only to protect adolescents from antisocial actions, but also to protect law-abiding youth from them.
Consider these steps in more detail.
Early prophylaxis
This stage is the most critical to prevent teenagers from committing unlawful acts. It implies the prevention and elimination of significant violations in the upbringing of children, as well as in negative changes in their living conditions. At the same time, the sources of adverse effects on the personality are eliminated and the conditions of both specific adolescents and their groups are normalized.
Prevention of juvenile delinquency at school is carried out in the following sequence:
- dysfunctional families are identified;
- diagnosed with family dysfunction;
- preventive measures are being taken that contribute to the normalization of the family microclimate;
- administrative and criminal legal measures are being taken to influence those parents who maliciously violate the obligations regarding the upbringing of children.
Families with signs of distress are identified by the institution through surveys of adolescents, as well as parents or close relatives. This event is held by teachers or educators.
Immediate prophylaxis
Carrying out the next stage becomes a necessary measure only if the adolescent’s propensity for offenses was not eliminated when taking early measures, and he began to commit them. At this stage, the conditions of life and upbringing of children are normalized, and their living environment is being improved.
At the same time, the direct impact on the minor is enhanced and, if necessary, legal measures are included. They consist in monitoring the behavior of youth by the departments of the internal affairs bodies, as well as in the adoption of coercive measures applied to parents.
In this case, it is necessary:
- develop a positive orientation for minors;
- conduct their moral education;
- involve in physical training sections;
- carry out medical prevention and rehabilitation;
- raise the level of legal culture.
Prevention of criminal behavior
At this stage, measures are being taken against adolescents who are already on the verge of crime. At the same time, an intensive and demonstrative control is made over the behavior and relations of the young man, as well as over his pastime. The main objective of such measures is to keep the teenager moving on the path of crime.
Relapse prevention
How to influence a minor who has already committed a crime?
For this, one of the following models can be applied:
- Punitive. This model is the most common in the world. Teenagers are punished by depriving them of their freedom, while paying little attention to rehabilitation issues. For example, a special school has been opened to prevent juvenile delinquency in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Also in the country there is a whole network of children's educational colonies.
- Therapeutic. This model does not recognize punishment and involves the intervention of competent authorities to correct violations that occur in the process of socialization.
- Restorative justice. Using this model, the fight against crime is carried out by drawing attention to the damage that occurs during the commission of illegal actions.