The criminologist named the main forms of juvenile delinquency

Theft accounts for about 70% of the structure of juvenile delinquency, but the trend in recent years has been a sharp increase in violent assaults and the involvement of minors in drug trafficking, Sebila Salamova, associate professor at the Department of Criminology and Penal Enforcement Law at the Moscow State Law Institute, told Izvestia.

Pampering is one thing: teenagers arrange terrorist attacks and sabotage on transport

At the same time, the total number of crimes is decreasing.

According to the expert, if five to seven years ago, juvenile delinquency was mainly limited to theft and petty hooliganism, today there is a steady increase in serious and especially serious crimes. In 2025, almost 1.5 thousand minors were brought to justice for drug crimes, who, as a rule, act as mortgage couriers. At the same time, the segment of violent crimes is dynamically growing — beatings, robberies and robberies, a characteristic feature of which is the video recording of the committed acts. Teenagers often post images of beatings on social media in order to demonstrate dominance, which Salamova qualifies as "digital exhibitionism." There has also been an increase in the use of pneumatic, traumatic and cold weapons in conflicts and attacks on educational institutions.

"We are dealing with a systemic crisis that has been maturing over the past few years. It is not only the quantity, but also the quality of the crimes committed that is alarming. In recent years, there has been an increase in serious and especially serious crimes in the structure of juvenile delinquency," the criminologist stated.

Salamova cited digital desocialization and a decrease in the threshold of sensitivity to violence among adolescents as the main reasons for the current situation. Children spend up to 6-8 hours a day in the digital space, and the constant stream of heavy content from social networks, movies, and computer games distorts their perception of reality. In addition, through digit, it has become easier for adult organizers to attract minors to criminal activities, using them as "consumables" for selling drugs through bookmarks, arson of military enlistment offices and "cashing out" money in dropper schemes.

For more information about the increase in juvenile delinquency, see the Izvestia article.

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