Strengthening of Administrative Responsibility for Offenses Committed in the Presence of Persons under the Age of Sixteen

Shaposhnikov Vitalii Leonidovich ORCID: 0000-0003-2215-867X PhD in Law Associate Professor, Department of Management and Administrative Activities of the Internal Affairs Bodies, Belgorod Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia named after I.D. Putilina 308024, Russia, Belgorod region, Belgorod, Gorky str., 71, room 428 v.shaposhnikov@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Examples of profanity on the part of adults, teenagers, excessively liberated behavior of young people in public places are very common today. What is the basis of these, at first glance insignificant in nature, antisocial phenomena? There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, this is a drop in the level of general culture in society and the presence of problems in the content of the educational process carried out in school and family. On the other hand, it is the influence of the mass media, relaying numerous examples of violence and cruelty, rudeness and cynicism. TV screens, computer games, and the content of mobile applications are full of stories where there is a disregard for universal values.

Mass media influence a person's consciousness, stimulating crime, changing the ideology of minors ^{[6, p. 290]}.

According to S.I. Bulatetsky, T.A. Petrova, deviant behavior can be caused by deviations from social, cultural, as well as moral and legal norms ^{[2, p. 80]}. That is, those deviations that are reflected in the antisocial behavior of offenders, including in public places.

The negative impact of these factors on the consciousness of children is of concern due to their increased suggestibility, tendency to imitation, credulity, coupled with immaturity of the psyche, disorders of the mental development of adolescents. They are the causes of adolescent deviant behavior, which is fueled and cemented in consciousness by negative examples from everyday life, examples demonstrated most often by adults.

At the same time, the effectiveness of the influence of adults on the formation of deviant behavior of adolescents of different ages differs. According to V.N. Karagodin, orientation to the opinion of authoritative adults – parents, teachers – is typical for a junior schoolboy, and communication with peers becomes of leading importance for a teenager of secondary school age (11-14 years old) ^{[5, p. 9]}. Due to age characteristics, the personality of a minor is characterized by a certain set of psychological characteristics and qualities that are exposed to unfavorable living conditions and upbringing, often deformed, thereby increasing the likelihood of illegal behavior ^{[4, p. 115]}.

Therefore, one of the key tasks facing the subjects of the prevention of offenses, juvenile crimes is to minimize the negative environmental factors that affect the formation of attitudes to processes and phenomena arising in society.

The specific behavior of adolescents in various situations develops involuntarily and is the result of a complex process of exposure to the social conditions in which a teenager exists and acts. Inattentive attitude to the life of adolescents on the part of adults often leads to harmful consequences. Children, passively assimilating models of negative behavior of adults, become their victims.

A variety of ways lead a teenager to deviant behavior, but regardless of the severity of what he committed, he is a person in need of special social and psychological and pedagogical assistance and support, on the one hand, and limiting it from negative factors of influence, on the other hand. Both are the result of conscious activity, primarily of adults. Today, we should pay close attention to the role of adults in the formation of antisocial, deviant behavior of adolescents.

The provisions of Part 1 of Article 63 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation No. 223-FZ of December 29, 1995 fix the responsibility of parents for the upbringing and development of their children. They are obliged to take care of the health, physical, mental, spiritual and moral development of their children. Society is dominated by the opinion about the dominant role of the family in the upbringing of a child. The role of the parent in the educational process is really extremely important. He acts as a mentor, as an example, as a role model.

Without detracting from the role of parents in solving educational tasks in relation to their children, it should be recognized that the upbringing of children in a broad sense involves the participation in this process of every member of society within his capabilities and competence, while being aware of responsibility, both for his future and for the future of society, the future of the state in which he lives. The fact that children are our future, we think, does not cause anyone any doubts. Children should be protected wherever and with whomever they find themselves, including in the law enforcement sphere. They have the right to receive help and care, since they cannot fully take care of themselves.

The content of the educational work of parents with their children is implemented in a set of daily activities. Experts of the 70s of the last century claimed, referring to statistics, that about 12 minutes a day is the time when parents communicate with children ^{[7, p. 36]}. Recall that we are talking about a calm and measured life of the Soviet period of the development of our society. It seems that the dynamics of today changes this figure by an order of magnitude in a smaller direction.

Let's not deny the quite obvious fact that teenagers spend most of their time outside the family and outside the home, being under the influence of a huge number of factors that affect their social adaptation in different ways. The educational impact is formed, concentrated and implemented to a significant extent in other spheres of youth social life: at school, on the street, in the yard, sports section, etc. Thus, the formation of the adolescent psyche occurs in completely different conditions, depends on many factors, therefore requires special attention not only from the family, where the child is being formed and growing, but also from the whole society.

The vast majority of people are characterized by the following point of view – parents and school should be engaged in education. In fact, this opinion is dominant today and is essentially correct. Family legislation, regulatory legal acts of a different profile do not contain norms obliging adults to carry out any educational actions in relation to children who are not related to them. Today, examples of such educational influence are, unfortunately, extremely rare. This kind of practice rather belongs to the field of traditions and customs. Somewhere these traditions are strong, given the national diversity of society, somewhere they are barely noticeable.

However, it is necessary to pay attention to the forms of passive influence by adults on the behavior of adolescents in relation to the protection of public order.

Adults often demonstrate examples of negative content by committing administrative offenses in the presence of children (for example, petty hooliganism, consumption (drinking) of alcoholic beverages in prohibited places or consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances or intoxicating substances in public places, etc.). On the one hand, these actions negatively affect on the formation of the worldview of a teenager who has become a voluntary or involuntary witness of antisocial behavior, and on the other hand, demonstrate the indifference of the offender to these consequences.

At the legislative level, attention to this phenomenon, its assessment and prevention is clearly insufficient. The issues of responsibility of persons who commit an offense in the presence of children are rarely touched upon, which is confirmed by the low publication activity in this area of knowledge. The article considers, first of all, the forms of active influence of parents and other legal representatives on the behavior of minors, as well as persons involving minors in the criminal subculture.

What tools do the police have today to influence the offender when committing, for example, petty hooliganism in the presence of a child? The actions of the police officer will be associated with bringing to the responsibility established by law under Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Taking into account the specifics of the situation – the commission of illegal actions in the presence of a child – is not taken into account, which cannot be called fair. At the same time, there is an understanding at the legislative level that the commission of illegal actions in the presence of a minor has negative consequences. So, for example, in accordance with paragraph 2.2 of Article 11 of Federal Law No. 120-FZ of June 24, 1999 "On the basics of the system of prevention of neglect and juvenile delinquency", the Commission for juvenile Affairs and Protection of their Rights, along with carrying out individual preventive work, has the right to make a decision regarding parents or other legal representatives of minors in cases of they, in the presence of a minor, illegal and (or) antisocial actions that have a negative impact on the behavior of a minor, about conducting explanatory work on the inadmissibility of committing actions that have become the basis for applying a measure of influence, and the legal consequences of their commission ^[1].

Explanatory work is carried out in the form of a preventive conversation, which consists in explaining to the person against whom measures of individual prevention of offenses are applied, his moral and legal responsibility to society, the state, the social and legal consequences of continuing antisocial behavior.

Despite the prevalence and relative effectiveness of this form of influence, it should be recognized that it is not sufficiently effective, and its result is not always obvious and tangible. While administrative punishment is a more effective tool, provided that it is unavoidable, taking into account, of course, the existing problems in this area ^{[10, 3, 8, 9]}.

The punishment, of course, for committing an offense in the presence of children should be more sensitive, more painful for the offender, given the negative nature of the consequences for them for the reasons mentioned earlier. The commission of an offense in these conditions should aggravate the administrative responsibility provided for by law. Hence, it is possible to propose to the legislator to supplement the most common types of administrative offenses committed in public places (petty hooliganism “Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation”, consumption (drinking) of alcoholic beverages in prohibited places or consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances or intoxicating substances in public places “Article 20.20 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation”) a norm that would aggravate the responsibility of the offender when committing an offense in the presence of persons under the age of sixteen, when their age is obvious or known. Moreover, the norm should also cover those cases when a teenager, due to his age or level of development, does not realize that an administrative offense is being committed nearby. Fixing this circumstance as a qualifying sign of an administrative offense aggravating responsibility will be quite justified and timely. The main purpose of this measure is not only to establish additional responsibility, but also through it to make the offender think about the impact of illegal behavior on the process of forming value attitudes in the younger generation.

This proposal is no less relevant for the prevention of very common offenses committed in the field of road safety. It is simply necessary to prevent illegal behavior of an adult in the presence of children.

Undoubtedly, today the authority of adults in the eyes of children is at an insufficient level. And this is primarily due to the established system of relations in society, when there is a certain bias in favor of regulating the relationship "adult-child" exclusively within the framework of legal mechanisms, in the legal plane. The institutions of traditional society have either become a thing of the past or are no longer capable, the educational impact of adults on children who are not members of their families has decreased, as has the level of their responsibility for these children. Recommendations on increasing legal responsibility for committing offenses in the presence of children is one of the tools that will raise it to a new technological level and pursues the goal of developing a healthy society where the rights and freedoms of minors are a priority object of protection by the state.