Capítulo II Marco teórico
FACTORES INTERNOS FACTORES EXTERNOS
Mizonova 4, Bogdan S. Vasyakin 5, Larisa V. Orlova 6, Vitaly G. Pichugin 7
1 Faculty of Humanities, Ulyanovsk State University, Ulyanovsk, Russia.
2 Department of Economic and Social Geography, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russia.
3 Department of Management of Nursing Activities and Social Work, The Sechenov First Moscow State
Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
4 Department of Psychology, Historical and Sociological Institute, Mordovia State University named after
N.P. Ogarev, Saransk, Russia.
5 Academic Department of Psychology, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
6 Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science and Chemistry, State University of Humanities and
Social Studies, Kolomna, Russia.
7 Faculty of Management, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation,
Moscow, Russia. *corresponding author Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of the problem of minors’ deviant behavior and determination of geographical factors of juvenile delinquency in the RF regions. The article contains the results of theoretical analysis of the problem of children and teenager’s delinquent behavior and results of the analysis of the statistical data on a number of crimes committed by the minors in the regions of the Russian Federation. Four groups of factors have been identified that determine the crime situation in the region and the regional scale in the number of crimes committed by minors has been presented. The article can be of use to pedagogical workers of the system of education (teachers, psychologists, social workers), as well as staff members of the penitentiary system.
Keywords: deviant behavior, delinquent behavior, minors, criminogenic and geographical factors. Introduction
The solution to the problem of deviant behavior among children and teenagers, the problem of reforming and resocialization of convicted minors has assumed a special importance at present not only in connection with the processes of reforming the activity of penitentiary institutions where offenders are held, the improvement of their complex rehabilitation and full-fledged social recovery, but with the necessity of psychological recovery of the whole society.
Social and economic processes that take place in contemporary Russia are accompanied by the change of people’s consciousness and behavior models (Larionova et al., 2017; Ezhov et al., 2017; Zaitseva et al., 2017). These phenomena have led to a significant change of morals and values in a person’s personality, first of all in the younger generation. Contemporary teenagers living in the world which is very complex in its content and structure, depend, probably more than any other age categories on the norms and values cultivated in the society. Unfortunately, our society has a very serious deficit of positive influence on the younger generation which is bound to take its toll on the formation of the sphere of values and meaning of contemporary Russian teenagers. This sphere is an internal regulator of their behavior and one of the most significant factors of teenagers’ inclination to commit offences.
Teenage period is a special stage of the personality development in the course of which qualitative changes take place in self-consciousness that are a determining condition to form the personality on the whole.
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Often in practice of teaching and upbringing the notion «morality» serves as a philosophical category understood as compliance with the set of behavior norms accepted in society. In the methodology of preventive work with minors to prevent offences and rehabilitation work with deviant teenagers it is required to rely on the psychological category – moral consciousness which due to established social circumstances in deviant teenagers did not get any development that is correspondent to the norms- compliant developing personality (Efimova, Oschepkov & Salakhova, 2015; Gnedova et al., 2015; Kalinina et al., 2017; Masalimova & Chibakov, 2016; Mitin et al., 2017; Salakhova et al., 2016a, 2016b; Shukshina, Mizonova & Katainen, 2017; Vasyakin et al., 2015).
The problem of reforming and correcting the unlawful or any other deviant personality must touch upon the study of the individual specifics of inner life, the reconstruction of the subjective picture of the world of the individual. In the situation of the social stereotypes’ breakdown and the new socio-cultural tendencies that are gaining strength, the formation of “abnormal” structures of individual consciousness, including value-semantic entities, is taking place. Taking account of the fact that the value-meaning sphere is the central, nuclear construct of the personality and, acting in general, on the behavior of a person in each specific situation, determines the overall direction of his life, the system of value orientations and the orientation of the person associated with this system are the central link, ultimately determining the lawfulness or wrongfulness of human behavior. As D.A. Leontyev (1977), points out “in order to understand the behavior of a person, it is necessary to reveal his meaning.”
However, the problem of reforming and correcting the deviant personality should include not only the study and analysis of the personality characteristics of a teenager as a psychological category, but also the study of the factors and mechanisms of its formation under the influence of socio-cultural factors, including geographic ones.
Materials and Methods
Deviant behavior is the behavior that does not correspond to generally accepted or officially established social norms, which causes a negative evaluation of society. While assessing the teenager’s behavior as deviant, the following points should be taken into account:
- the socio-cultural nature of the person’s deviant behavior determines the historically changeable nature of deviant behavior, linked with changes in social norms and rules in different historical times;
- a negative evaluation of deviant behavior can be represented in the form of public condemnation or the application of social sanctions, and in case of delinquent behavior this can be a criminal penalty;
- the result of deviant behavior is the real damage to people around and society, as well as the subject of such behavior in various forms – the destabilization of public order, moral and material damage, physical and mental violence, deterioration of physical and mental health and well-being;
- deviant behavior is persistently repetitive (multiple or prolonged);
- deviant behavior is combined with the general antisocial and antisocial orientation of a person;
- deviant behavior does not go beyond the limits of the medical norm and should not be identified with mental illnesses, although it may be its consequence, passing into pathological behavior;
- deviant behavior leads to social disadaptation of varying degrees of severity;
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- deviant behavior has a marked individual and age-gender identity (Shukshina et al., 2017; Oshchepkov & Struchkova, 2015; Masalimova et al., 2014; Salakhova et al., 2016c, 2016d; Ovsyanik et al., 2016; Efimova et al., 2015; Lipatova et al., 2015; Yemelyanenkova et al., 2017).
E.V. Zmanovskaya (2003) identifies three main groups of deviant behavior:
1) antisocial (delinquent) behavior, which breaks legal norms and threatens social order and well-being of the people around;
2) antisocial behavior as a violation of moral standards, threatening well-being of interpersonal relations; 3) auto-destructive (self-destructive) behavior, including suicidal, fanatical, autistic, victimized, risky, addictive behavior, including food dependence and dependence on psychoactive substances.
Typical examples of teenagers’ deviant behavior are systematic absenteeism, cases of running away from home, vagrancy and begging, addictive behavior (dependence on psychoactive substances, alcoholism, smoking), early sexual life and auto-destructive behavior (parasuicidal and suicide). Early alcohol and drug addiction in the teenage period is associated with the desire for an external adulthood, falsely understood, curiosity and a desire for new experiences, with the motivation to be accepted in a group of peers, to be uninhibited and to gain a sense of self-confidence.
The psychological nature of deviant behavior lies in compensatory defensive behavior in the form of a protest, retreat, anxiety and uncertainty, emancipation from parents and grouping reactions. The causes of deviations are low social success and unrealized claims for social recognition in the family, school and peer group. F. Pataki (1983) used the term “pre-deviant syndrome”, defining it as a complex of symptoms – the precursors of deviant behavior. These include the affective type of behavior, the orientation to getting pleasures, difficulties in school, the manifestation of aggression, family conflicts, a low intellectual level, a negative attitude to learning. These symptoms make it difficult for the teenager to communicate and interact with other successful peers and make them look for a company of those who also have the above-mentioned symptoms (Salakhova et al., 2017a).
In the sphere of psychopathology, the phenomenon of behavioral disorder is distinguished separately in respect to deviant behavior, defined as a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior, in which the basic rights of another person or social norms, requirements and rules correspondent to this age, are violated. In the manual on diagnostics and statistics of mental disorders - DSM-IV, the following forms of behavioral disorders are distinguished: mild (a small number of behavioral problems with minor damage to other people), moderate (moderate and moderate severity of behavioral problems) and severe (a large number of behavioral problems with significant damage to others). The development of behavioral disorders is often associated with other disorders: the presence of the syndrome of attention deficit and hyperactivity, an oppositional-defiant disorder (manifested in persistent anger and emotion symptoms not related to the age norm), learning difficulties, depression, and alcohol and drug abuse.
One can distinguish two variants of the behavioral disorder genesis:
1) behavioral disorders that began in childhood and continued in the teenage period, and 2) behavioral disorders that occurred only in the teen age.
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Behavioral disorders in the teen age, which initially appeared in childhood, have distinctive characteristics in comparison with behavioral disorders first found precisely in the teen age. These disorders are usually more stable and severe, are manifested in more aggressive forms of behavior and physical violence. Teenagers often show inattention, impulsiveness, low school performance. Teenagers with the diagnosis of “behavioral disorder” made in childhood, are more likely to commit violent crimes (the threat of physical violence, rape, the use of weapons).
It is necessary to briefly dwell on the notion of delinquency and point out that the term “delinquency” is fixed in the framework of international legal acts as a legal term related to the commission of an offense or a crime by a person. Thus, the notion of “delinquency” abroad is customarily used to characterize the commission of a serious misconduct, unlawful action, including by a minor (Salakhova et al., 2017b). In domestic science, delinquency is used in two different meanings. For example, A.E. Lichko (1979) and other researchers assert that delinquency is a repetitive antisocial misdemeanors that slot into a certain persistent stereotype of actions that break legal norms but do not entail the criminal liability because of their limited public danger or the failure to reach the age at which the criminal liability begins. E.V. Zmanovskaya (2003) et al. point out that delinquent behavior is “the actions of a particular person who deviate from the laws established in society and at the present time, threatening the well-being of others or social order and can be punished in their extreme manifestations”.
In domestic psychology, a rather wide range of terms is used that correspond to foreign notions of delinquency (unlawful, criminal, criminal behavior, etc.). At the same time, there is a significant number of studies devoted to the study of both the phenomenon of delinquency and the teenager’s personality prone to commit an offense (Belicheva, 1994; Oryol, 2002; Salakhova & Oschepkov, 2016; Mitin, 2016). Delinquent behavior is a kind of deviant behavior, while deviant behavior is not always delinquent. Cases of running away from home are a common form of delinquent behavior of teenagers. The causes of running away lie in the fear of punishment, the reaction of protest against excessive demands and control in the family, lack of care and attention in the family, neglect of the parents, rejection and cruel treatment of peers; the search for pleasures and new impressions, entertainment, unmotivated wish for a change in the situation, boredom, despondency, accentuation of the nature of teenagers.
Crimes are anti-social actions provided for by criminal law, such as murder and physical violence, theft (theft, extortion, fraud), vandalism and intentional destruction of material and spiritual values, theft of cars, motorcycles and bicycles; terrorist acts, rape, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, arson, etc. In case of committing crimes committed by people who have not reached the age of criminal responsibility, the measures of educational effect are applied, including placement in a special educational institution. The most important criminogenic factors that cause difficulties in personal self-determination of teenagers are the general dehumanization of society; the family destabilization and ineffective family fulfillment of the socialization function; inconsistency of the actions of social institutions (family, teachers' staff, law enforcement bodies, youth associations, etc.) aimed at solving the problems of offenses prevention; the lack of real prospects for teenagers to obtain the desired education and profession, which provide a decent lifestyle in an economic recession; negative influence on the formation of the teenagers’ personality of anti-culture and subculture of criminal circles and antisocial youth groups, romanticization and idealization of the criminal way of life; a low level of legal culture, legal and social devaluation of the principle of the inevitability of punishment in relation to the disclosure of crimes; the lack of a clear youth
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Low rate (20-100)
Relatively low rate (101-300) Average rate (301-500)
Higher than average rate (501-700) High rate (701-1000)
Extremely high rate (1001 and more) No data available
policy strategy, children's, teenagers’ and youth public associations and organizations directed to resolving the tasks of ideological upbringing.
Offenses have become one of the objects of research in social geography today, which is primarily due to the identification of territorial differences in these phenomena and the geographical factors that determine them. The analysis of social and territorial aspects of crime is reflected in such a synthetic category as the geocriminal location, which in turn determines the criminal situation in the region. Offenses of minors are also part of the criminal situation, they are an essential factor in destabilizing public systems of various ranks from a settled area to the federal districts and the country as a whole and can become a catalyst for adult crime.
Results and Discussion
Geographical aspects of the study of juvenile delinquency are directed, first of all, to the identification of groups of factors that determine the territorial heterogeneity of manifestations of this phenomenon. The region serves as a territorial unit within which the interaction of these factors determines the criminogenic situation. According to the results of the conducted research aimed at studying statistical data of the number of crimes committed by minors in the regions of the Russian Federation (2015-2017), four groups of factors determining the criminal situation in the region were identified (Fig. 1, Fig. 2).
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Regions with increased crime
Regions with a decrease in crime rates
Regions with relatively stable indicators
No data available
Figure 1. The number of crimes committed by minors (based on the data of the General Prosecutor’s Russian Federation)
Figure 2. Typology of the Russian regions in relation to the juvenile crime rate for 2014-2016 (based on the data of the General Prosecutor’s Russian Federation)
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The first group of factors is socio-economic. Demographic, economic and social factors can be referred to this group. The level of social and economic development of the region can have a significant influence on the level of juvenile delinquency. Thus, the growth of the number of crimes is typical of the regions with a low level of social and economic development (The Republic of Altai, the Altai Territory). A decline in juvenile crime rates is observed in the regions with a high level of socio-economic development (Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)). A high level of urbanization serves, on the one hand, as a factor in the social stratification of society and as a result of the growth of crimes, including in the youth milieu. In the European part of Russia, in southern Siberia, the leading factor is the level of urbanization of the territory. Cities are the centers of concentration of organized criminal groups, which also contributes to the growth of the crime rate. At the same time, the law enforcement bodies are more effective in the cities. It contributes to a reduction in crime rates in the centers themselves and outflow to the neighboring regions. For example, with a decline of crime rates in Moscow, the Moscow region keeps high figures. High rates of youth crime are in the large industrial centers of the Urals (the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Perm Territory, the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions), Siberia (the Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory) and the Far East (the Trans-Baikal and Primorsky Territories). On the contrary, the regions with a low level of urbanization are among the relatively prosperous (the Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Districts).
The second group of factors is natural and geographical ones, among which the recreational potential of the territory is particularly worth highlighting. A high recreational potential of the territory (the Krasnodar Territory, the Rostov Region, the Republic of Crimea) attracts wealthy tourists, thereby contributing to an increase in the level of the crime rate in relation to them. In these regions, as a rule, the control over the law enforcement bodies’ activity is weakened.
The third group of factors - ethno-cultural in different ways can affect the level of the crime rate. So the traditional religiosity of the population reduces the crime rate growth among the Islamic population in the republics of the Northern Caucasus, the Buddhist population of Kalmykia. At the same time, the ethnic community creates a fertile ground for the formation of national organized crime groups, which also involve young people. This is clearly manifested in large cities, where there are many ethnic groups with a certain “criminal specialization”.
The fourth group of factors is organizational and legal, among which it is necessary to single out the activity of the law enforcement and judicial bodies and the penitentiary system. Thus, there is a clear territorial relationship between the geographical location of institutions of the Federal Service for