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- They'll teach you a good lesson: The Ministry of Justice has developed measures to educate arrested teenagers
They'll teach you a good lesson: The Ministry of Justice has developed measures to educate arrested teenagers
The Ministry of Justice has proposed a procedure for conducting cultural and educational work with minors. We are talking about suspects and accused persons in custody. The proposed activities are designed to help the moral, patriotic, socio-cultural, physical and spiritual education of children. Paying attention to the younger generation is extremely important, because minors are easier to "fix" than adult criminals, experts say. Whether the new rules will help improve the lives of teenagers is in the Izvestia article.
Protection and prevention
The Ministry of Justice has prepared rules for conducting cultural and educational work with children in custody. The corresponding draft order is posted on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts.
It is expected that these measures will contribute to the moral, patriotic, socio-cultural, physical and spiritual education of adolescents, which will lead to the sustainable and harmonious development of their personality.
It follows from the explanatory note to the draft order that this work will be carried out in individual and group forms.
In the first case, the age, physical and psychological characteristics of minors will be taken into account. The administration of the correctional institution will study the materials of the minor's personal file, establish his social ties, as well as the level of physical and intellectual development. For this purpose, an introductory conversation with the child himself will be conducted.
Group events, in turn, include lectures, talks, contests, quizzes, tournaments, debates, meetings with cultural and artistic figures, sports events, as well as classes in interest groups.
The proposed rules provide for the assignment of employees of the educational work departments, the regime, the operational service, the psychological laboratory and other specialized departments to each child. All necessary specialists will be appointed within three working days.
The editorial board of Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. No response has been received at the time of publication.
Serious consequences
Criminal liability for minors today is a relaxed and flexible system of sanctions, says Sean Betrozov, a practicing lawyer at the Moscow Chamber of Lawyers and a member of the Russian Bar Association. At the age of 14, for example, a child is responsible for particularly dangerous acts, including murder, serious harm to health, rape, robbery, robbery, carjacking, terrorism, etc. From the age of 16, children are responsible for any crimes.
"Instead of life imprisonment, the court may impose a fine, compulsory labor, restriction of liberty, arrest for up to four months or imprisonment in an educational colony, the maximum term of which does not exceed 6-10 years, depending on the severity of the crime," the lawyer points out.
At the same time, even such a period can be shortened — the court is obliged to check the possibility of using compulsory educational measures, such as transfer to parental supervision, compensation for harm caused, or referral to a special institution of a closed type.
— When the colony is still chosen as the main sanction, the child has the right to early release after serving at least a third of the sentence. The repayment periods of criminal records have been halved compared to adults, which facilitates further employment and integration," explains Betrozov.
There are also situations when a minor is involved in criminal activity unknowingly, not realizing that he is involved in committing a crime, adds Elizaveta Selezneva, PhD in Law, Managing Partner of Mensigroup. As a rule, this happens if the child has been deceived.
In this case, the responsibility will be borne by the one who attracted the child to illegal actions.
— Starting from January 8, 2025, the responsibility for involving minors in crimes and antisocial acts has been strengthened at the legislative level. They will be punished, in particular, for involving a child in criminal activity via the Internet, involving children under the age of 14 in it, or involving several persons," the Izvestia interlocutor clarifies.
Risk factors
The causes of juvenile delinquency lie in macroeconomic trends, the state of local communities and individual biopsychosocial characteristics, lists Sean Betrozov.
— When earning problems accumulate in the family, and the city block degrades due to the lack of leisure infrastructure, the teenager begins to look for alternative sources of recognition and income. He often finds them in the digital environment: modern messengers and gaming platforms generate so—called "viral" forms of aggression, in which flashy content instantly collects likes, and illegal actions turn into a quest with scoring points, the lawyer clarifies.
Child crime is largely explained by the fact that during this period there is an active formation of personality, draws the attention of Olga Propubertat, a master of psychology and pedagogy, an expert on the upbringing of adolescents. And if society is afraid of ambiguous actions, without giving the child the necessary support, his situation becomes even worse.
— At the level of neurobiology, the situation is aggravated by the discrepancy in the timing of "maturation" of different areas of the brain. The pleasure centers are activated by the age of thirteen, and the prefrontal cortex, responsible for impulse control, is only twenty—four, complementing the Neurosis.
The child's psyche is extremely unstable and more susceptible to external stimuli. The uncomfortable climate in the family forces us to look for what is missing in society. And if the environment pushes to break the law, the child often turns out to be unstoppable, acting psychologist Iya Kim is sure.
According to the Center for Child and Youth Psychiatry, 7 out of 10 minors involved in criminal cases lived in an incomplete family, with parents suffering from alcoholism, or faced school maladjustment.
However, the detention of minors is not always explained by the lack of well-being in the family, Kim emphasizes. This is often caused by a banal lack of attention from loved ones, the inability to be heard, and ignoring individual needs.
Disturbing statistics
Today, however, there are fewer cases of child crime than there were 30 years ago, says Olga Propubertat.
— The number of stupid, senseless actions "for the company" has decreased. Teenagers have become smarter and more aware. But they still make mistakes, because they are just learning to be adults," the Izvestia interlocutor notes.
The number of crimes committed by minors has indeed decreased significantly, confirms Sean Betrozov. According to the Interior Ministry, about 46,000 such crimes were registered in 2014. By the end of 2024, the indicator dropped below 22 thousand.
However, despite the positive dynamics, there is also a very worrying trend: the proportion of serious and especially serious crimes committed by teenagers is steadily increasing. It has increased by about 20% in a year.
However, the first place in the structure of child crime is still occupied by a selfish motive - various theft of property accounts for more than half of all reported cases. This is followed by crimes against the person, drug trafficking, vehicle theft and vandalism.
"The resulting cross—section confirms the conclusions of criminologists: despite the overall decrease in the number of offenses, the social danger of juvenile delinquency remains high, and preventive programs should be aimed not only at an individual child, but also at the entire microenvironment in which his motivation is formed," Betrozov is sure.
The reeducation program
Elizaveta Selezneva is convinced that cultural and educational work can become one of the important tools for correcting juvenile suspects and accused persons in custody. It has long ceased to be an "additional option" and is considered as a constitutionally guaranteed right of a child to full development, regardless of whether he is free or in temporary isolation, says Sean Betrozov. The effectiveness of such programs is confirmed by departmental statistics of the Federal Penitentiary Service and independent academic research.
— It is important that the proposed educational cycle is built around a personalized plan — the teacher-psychologist, together with the minor, forms educational, creative and sports goals, analyzing the intermediate results in the process. This approach allows a teenager to see a clear structure of the future, feel control over their own development and, as a result, reduce anxiety," the lawyer points out.
And this is right, because it is extremely important to focus maximum efforts on the younger generation, Iya Kim is sure. This is necessary because a more mature criminal is much more difficult to fix.
— At all stages of development, a child needs attention and a competent course of action from adults. If he is left to himself, then development will go into primitivism and the development of "instincts". In adolescence, a minor urgently needs a competent environment that can consider his talents and direct these "instincts" in the right direction, the psychologist believes.
But it is important to understand that cultural and educational work with teenagers should be based on a real adult attitude towards them, says Olga Propubertat.
— If a teenager can talk to a mentor after hearing not a lecture, but a real human experience, it will work. It is important that educational activities proceed not from top to bottom, but with respect," the expert emphasizes.
The child needs to be offered a playground where he can gain support and recognition through sports and creativity without the risk of ending up behind bars. Such a program will be able to neutralize the influence of the street and anonymous online users by creating adequate self-affirmation scenarios, Betrozov adds.
Statistics from the penitentiary system show that the level of verbal aggression among teenagers involved in cultural and educational work drops by almost half in just one and a half to two months. The number of disciplinary actions is reduced by about 40%. There is also a delayed effect.
— Within three years after their release, the proportion of repeat crimes among "graduates" of cultural and educational projects was consistently lower than the control group by almost a third. As a result, the state receives savings on security and investigative measures. And society is about young people who have received education, pay taxes and start families," the lawyer sums up.
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