Juvenile Delinquency

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, a concept that encompasses types of legal violations of childhood and youthful age, the study of which is inextricably linked with the analysis of the causes of criminality, research into the properties of the personality of the offender, and the rationalization of measures for prevention and intervention. In the study of these issues and in the practical implementation of medical-pedagogical measures, the direct participation of a physician became possible in Russia only after the October Revolution, when a decree of the Council of People's Commissars (14/1 1918) established commissions for cases of minors accused of socially dangerous acts; in these commissions, the physician (along with the educator and judge) is a full member. Before the October Revolution, the role of the physician was limited to extremely rare participation in examinations of minors and to the care (mainly somatic) of shelters and colonies for juvenile offenders. The helplessness of the pre-revolutionary physician in the practical implementation of medical-pedagogical measures is vividly illustrated by the resolution of the bureau of the VII Congress (1908) of representatives of correctional institutions for minors, which "after comprehensive discussion came to the following decision: such supervision, as recommended by psychiatrists, is undesirable and even in many respects dangerous and harmful"; therefore, the bureau expresses itself against the need in correctional institutions for medical-pedagogical supervision carried out through a psychiatrist. Despite such limitations on rights, medical intervention in the development of issues concerning J.D. not only constantly took place but also played an outstanding role. First of all, this intervention manifested itself in clarifying the causes of juvenile delinquency, studying the properties of the personality of the offender, and (as a result of this study) in the rationalization of measures of medical-pedagogical intervention. In the first place, among physicians, psychiatrists (Krafft-Ebing, Kraepelin, Aschaffenburg, Kovalovsky, Korsakov, Serbsky, etc.) became interested in these issues, laying the foundation for the systematic study of J.D. In 1912, a work by Gruhle appeared (in some parts of which it has not lost its significance even to the present day), in which the causes of juvenile delinquency are divided into 3 groups: 1) violations associated with the adverse influence of the environment, 2) violations depending on hereditary, innate character traits, and 3) a mixed group where violations depend to a greater or lesser extent on both factors (environment and hereditary predisposition). Unfortunately, abroad to the present day, hereditary character traits are still given considerable importance (Gregor, Scholz, Ziehen, Kramer, etc.), although there too voices increasingly begin to be raised about the socio-economic origin of juvenile delinquency. Adler, for example, denies the direct congenital nature of specific character traits and believes that specific character traits are established and developed in the process of the child's struggle for social positions, i.e., a certain social orientation of the child in the environment develops in him certain character traits. This view of Adler is close to Soviet scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom hold the opinion that the cause of juvenile delinquency as a mass phenomenon lies not in the child himself, not in one or another structure of his personality, not in his psycho-physical properties, but in social conditions. This dependence of violations on socio-economic conditions easily explains the fact that children of underprivileged classes (children of workers and the poorest peasantry) commit violations in a significantly higher percentage of cases (from 80% to 90% according to our and foreign statistics) than children of privileged classes. The increase in criminality in connection with the deterioration of the country's economic well-being can be demonstrated by the scale of post-war J.D., which, for example, in Germany in 1920 increased (compared to 1914) 3-fold and continued to grow until 1923, when it gradually began to decrease. In Vienna, during the war years, J.D. increased by 150%, similar phenomena are also noted in Paris and London. According to data from the Leningrad Commission on Minors for 1918-1922, J.D. compared to the pre-war period increased overall by 70%, while property violations increased 6-7 times. The dependence of juvenile delinquency on socio-economic causes also explains the types of violations, of which property violations occupy first place everywhere, constituting on average in different countries from 70% to 80% of violations committed by children. What has been said about the types of violations is illustrated by the following table (in %). Violations In Moscow 1921 1922 Attracted for the first time repeatedly In Leningrad 1923 Attracted for the first time repeatedly 1922 1923 1921 1922 Attracted for the first time repeatedly 1923 Attracted for the first time time Property...... Against the person..... Official (service) Against the order of administration** State...... Other........... 44,9 1,8 0,8 51,8 0,3 0,4 63,7 1,8 1,5 32,3 0,2 0,5 0,6 0,3 11,в 0,0 0,9 61,4 2,6 0,0 35,3 0,1 0,6 80,5 0,9 0,0 18,1 0,0 0,5 67,5 4,3 2,0 25,1 1,1 80,2 3,7 0,0 14,3 0,3 1,5 68,1 6,7 1,5 21,1 1,0 1,6 84,3 8,0 1,7 3,2 0,2 2,6 94,4 3,0 1,4 0,3 0,0 0,9 64,3 8,2 0,3 26,2 0,3 0,7 83,0 2,9 0,0 12,7 0,1 1,3 * Without Moscow and Leningrad. ** In these years mainly violations against rules of trade (so-called speculation). The difference in views on the causes of juvenile delinquency in the USSR and abroad also determines the difference in approach to juvenile offenders. In the USSR, measures to prevent juvenile delinquency by eliminating the causes that bring the child into conflict with society come to the forefront. Therefore, the work of social legislation with its protection of the rights of the child plays an outstanding role with us. In relation to the offender, measures of medical-pedagogical intervention (suggestion, conversation, explanation, supervision of the investigator, establishment of guardianship, placement in work, isolation in medical-educational institutions, etc.) are applied, rather than punishment. Abroad (with the exception of America) in relation to children of a certain age (13-14 years), punishment prevails: a very common measure of intervention is the placement of minors in so-called houses of compulsory re-education (reformatories, colonies, etc.). With us, compulsory education is practiced in relation to minors from 14 years of age only in extreme cases, when all measures of medical-pedagogical intervention have been exhausted. The difference between our labor houses from foreign reformatories and colonies is the more humane approach to offenders (absence of corporal punishment, punishments that humiliate the person, deterioration of nutrition, deprivation of walks, cultural entertainment, etc.) and the firm labor orientation of the houses, which have as their ultimate goal "to create from offenders self-active and conscious of their rights and obligations citizens" (Article 175 of the Corrective Labor Code). According to our and foreign statistics obtained from the material of houses of compulsory education, the percentage of mentally abnormal individuals is calculated at 50-60, i.e., in other words, in these Houses are concentrated the most difficult in educational respect adolescents, while milder ones are re-educated (at least with us) by parents, in children's homes, in labor communes, etc. Among the mentally abnormal (according to Kramer, Monckemoller, Schwartz, Thoma, etc.), oligophrenics occupy first place, psychopaths second; according to other data (Gruhle, Gregor and Voigtlander, Mischler, Kleefisch, Ozeretsky, etc.) psychopaths are in first place, oligophrenics in second. All researchers agree that epileptics, who occur 7-8 times less frequently than oligophrenics and psychopaths, occupy third place, fourth place - residua (residual forms) after encephalitis. The percentage of mentally ill (for example, schizophrenics) is extremely negligible and is expressed (in relation to the total number of mentally abnormal offenders) in tenths of a percent. The presence in houses of compulsory education of a large percentage of mentally abnormal individuals dictates the need to create special institutions for them, first of all institutions for criminal psychopaths. Such institutions already exist in small numbers in America; in the USSR this role is performed by neuro-points organized at infirmaries of labor houses, served by a psychiatrist. Neuro-points, being small clinical departments, perform therapeutic, diagnostic and preventive functions. -As for the general mass of offenders, mentally abnormal individuals constitute among them a relatively small percentage, which in individual researchers ranges from 3 to 10. (According to data from county commissions on minors - 3%, according to data from Joly on the material of children's courts - 10%, Prussian statistics - 9.1%.) This fluctuation in percentage is explained by the fact that some authors expand the framework of psychopathies, others generalize the pedagogical and social neglect of the child with intellectual deficiency, third combine physical and mental inadequacy.

The study of the personality of the offender consists of studying and examining socio-domestic conditions, physical examination (including anthropometry), clinical observation in studying behavior and characterological features, research of intelligence (according to Binet-Simon, Terman, Rossolimo), research of the emotional-volitional sphere (Fernald-Jakobson, Giese, Vel'sky), psychotechnical examination with attention to motor skills. - The provision of medical care to offenders and the study of issues of juvenile delinquency in the indicated aspects is in the USSR entirely in the hands of the state, concentrating in the agencies for the protection of the health of children and adolescents and the Medical Inspection of Places of Deprivation of Liberty. In addition, a number of cities have special offices for studying the personality of the criminal and criminality. In Moscow, besides the office, there is also an institute. Abroad (with the exception of America) in the provision of medical care and in the study of juvenile delinquency, the state recedes to the background, yielding first place to various charitable societies. The wide opportunity that is now given to the physician in studying issues of juvenile delinquency and in the practical application of measures of medical-pedagogical influence requires from the latter great knowledge and experience not only in relation to the abnormal, but mainly the healthy personality of the child.