Problems of formation of legal awareness and legal culture of youth

Slanov Oleg Taimurazovich ORCID: 0009-0002-9876-078X Postgraduate student, Department of Production Organization and Industrial Economics, North Caucasus Mining and Metallurgical Institute (State Technological University) 44 Vatutina str., Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia, 362025 slanov_oleg@inbox.ru Other publications by this author

The relevance of the scientific development of the problem of legal awareness, as well as the legal culture of youth, is beyond doubt. In modern Russian society, there are still various forms of legal nihilism, manifested in disrespect for legal values, distrust of law enforcement institutions, skepticism about legal remedies, etc. At the same time, young people are the mainstay of the Russian state, in fact, its future. This was also noted by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, calling the youth the mainstay of today and the future of Russia (RIA Novosti. URL: https://ria.ru/20181220/1548320561.html (accessed: 09/20/2023). It is not difficult to conclude that the low level of legal awareness and legal culture of young people has its consequences both an increase in social tension and a decrease in the effectiveness of state institutions.

During the period of a special military operation, the relevance of the subject of the study of this article only increases. Here is just one example. Ruslan Zinin's attack on the military commissariat in the Irkutsk region, which occurred in September 2022, can well be regarded as an extreme form of distrust of state power. It manifests itself in an extremely distorted position that one can defend one's rights in the authorities only by force.

Before proceeding to the substantive part of the study, it is necessary to determine the terminology. For the purposes of this work, we will understand by legal awareness the knowledge, ideas and moods of a person related to his attitude to law and the state, legal phenomena, the need for the existence and implementation of generally binding rules of conduct. Legal culture can be understood as the qualitative state of the legal life of society, which reflects the level of development of the entire legal system and its individual elements (current legislation, legal awareness, judicial practice, legal science and education, etc.), as well as the degree of state guarantee of individual rights and freedoms. Legal culture, therefore, includes the concept of legal awareness, i.e. it is a more general concept.

The concepts of legal culture and legal consciousness are the subject of many years of discussions in legal science (these discussions were brilliantly summarized by M.N. Marchenko, a prominent Russian legal theorist) ^{[1, pp. 45-61]}. Without going into polemics, let's focus on the fact that legal awareness is primarily a person's attitude to law. Legal culture is a consequence of the manifestation of individuals in society of their attitude to the law. If a certain degree of situativeness and emotionality is inherent in legal consciousness, then legal culture presupposes an already established awareness of the importance of law in a person's life.

It is worth noting that the problems of legal awareness of young people were dealt with by Russian scientists such as: Klochko I.V. ^[2], Samygin P.S., Isakova Yu.I., Pechkurov I.V., ^[3], Popov M.Yu., Samygin S.I. ^[4], Grechin A.S. ^[5], Gulevich O.A. ^[6] and other authors whose works we will consider below.

The concept of "youth" was concretized by the legislator. Thus, at the end of 2020, Federal Law No. 489-FZ dated 30.12.2020 "On Youth Policy in the Russian Federation" was adopted (Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 2021. No. 1), in which youth is understood as a socio-demographic group of persons aged 14 to 35 years inclusive (Article 2). At the same time, it is separately noted that federal or regional legislation, by-laws of the head of state, the Government of the Russian Federation, federal or regional public authorities "upper limit" of the age limit finding a citizen in the status of youth can be increased. For example, a young scientist from the point of view of the Russian regulatory framework is understood to be a researcher under the age of 39 (this regulatory framework (quite voluminous) is systematized by Volkova N.S., Putilo N.V., Aksu E.) ^[7].

In general, we can agree with the approach of the legislator. However, it also draws attention to the fact that the concept of youth includes an extremely diverse group of the Russian population. It is obvious that the legal consciousness of a citizen at the age of 14 differs from the legal consciousness of a thirty-year-old person. Therefore, the task of forming legal awareness among young people is differentiated in relation to a specific age group of young citizens.

Within the framework of this study, we will focus on the problems of the formation of legal culture and legal awareness among young people aged 14 to 18 years, while not denying the importance of the development of legal awareness among citizens over 18 years of age.

V.K. Tsechoev, A.R. Shvanderova distinguish four functions (roles) of legal consciousness: cognitive, modeling, evaluative, educational ^{[8, p. 300]}. We agree with this approach, however, we note that the process of formation of legal consciousness actually proceeds in two directions – internal and external. The internal aspect presupposes a kind of independent work of a person to form his attitude to the law – his self-reflection on the value of law, its significance in the life of society as a whole and a particular individual in particular, the need to comply with legal norms. The external aspect assumes the influence of the human environment and society (educational environment, a group of classmates or classmates, parents, etc.). Depending on the achievement of a specific age, a youth representative actualizes one or another function of legal awareness.

So, in the period from 14 to 18 years, the legal consciousness of an individual realizes a cognitive function. During this period, the individual almost for the first time in his life encounters the right as such. A representative of the younger generation, of course, interacted with other social norms earlier (under the normal state of things at the age of 14, a person should already have quite specific ideas about good and evil). But he begins to face legal norms for the first time.

At the same time, the process of legal awareness goes in an external direction. An individual who receives a school education during this life period also receives general knowledge of law from training courses. It is during this period, as a rule, that the study of social studies begins, during which students learn that social norms are built into a certain system in which there is a place for both legal and moral and ethical regulation.

A number of problems are associated with the formation of legal awareness in an individual aged 14 to 18 years. Let's look at some of them.

1. Competition of the social environment and education for the provision of knowledge about the law

The information provided to the student by school education representatives and the information offered by the surrounding social environment may not only not coincide, but also contradict each other. During the study of educational material, a representative of the younger generation can learn about the need to comply with legal norms, their significance and role in the life of a civilized society. The social environment, however, can impose other ideas about law – "The law is what the drawbar is: where it turned, it went there", "There are lawyers who know the law, and there are lawyers who know the judge", etc. The task of pedagogical work (obviously not the easiest) in this situation is to form respect for the law. This task should be implemented both in regular and extracurricular activities. In educational work, the already mentioned social studies course is of great importance, designed to show the younger generation why there are legal norms in society at all.

We especially note the role of lessons that have the name "Talking about important things". At these lessons, in an interactive and accessible form, the task of forming an appropriate level of legal awareness among schoolchildren (and not only at the age of 14-18, but also younger) can also be implemented. At the same time, it should be understood that such lessons should really be a conversation and discussions, and not reduced to lecture monologues about the value of law. Conducting a "Conversation about important things" in a formal mode, in order to tick a box in the report, is more likely to play a role in lowering the level of legal awareness than increasing it. Let's add to this the fact that information about the right should be conveyed to children in a timely and dosed manner. Apparently, there are problems with the implementation of this principle in practice. So, for example, the topic of conversation about important things on September 25, 2023 is the electoral system of Russia and the thirtieth anniversary of the Central Election Commission. Without denying the importance of discussing such topics with schoolchildren, we note that in elementary school, such a topic of conversations about important things still seems premature. At this age, the formation of legal awareness among schoolchildren has not yet begun, and the discussion of the topic of suffrage is perceived by younger schoolchildren at best as a conversation about some fictional reality.

The formation of legal awareness also takes place during extracurricular activities. Thus, visits to state authorities engaged in law enforcement activities have a great potential for the development of the legal culture of schoolchildren, especially since many of them have their own museums. Meetings with representatives of the legal profession: police officers, judges, lawyers, notaries, etc. will also help to form a sense of justice. There is also a practice (somewhat extravagant) for organizing excursions to places of deprivation of liberty for schoolchildren.

The legal consciousness of the younger generation is formed in the most problematic way with a low legal culture of the family. If, for example, corrupt behavior in the family is considered as generally permissible, then it is obvious that it will be very difficult to form a legal consciousness in an older student by pedagogical means. This problem requires independent study and scientific development.

2. Competition between the social environment and the virtual space (the Internet) for the provision of knowledge about the law

It is no secret that representatives of the modern younger generation are active users of the Internet and digital technologies. Moreover, modern sociological studies substantiate that Internet communications have actually changed the vector of socialization of modern youth ^[9]. If earlier a representative of the younger generation socialized in the circle of classmates, at school, friends, now socialization takes place in the Internet environment, and even more so than "offline".

The digital environment is an obvious factor in the formation of legal awareness (in one form or another) among young people. At the same time, the conclusions of researchers who have already studied the influence of the Internet on the legal culture of young citizens are, to put it mildly, pessimistic: "labile consciousness, irrationalism, craving for innovation, the need for self-presentation contribute not only to the active participation of young people in informal Internet communication, but also form trust in it, therefore, messages posted on popular among young people Internet resources, including those of an anti-legal nature, do not cause rejection among the majority of the audience who trust informal virtual communication" ^[10]. The general conclusion is even more sad: the state has lost control over information flows on the Internet and therefore is unable to counteract the negative impact on the emerging legal consciousness ^[10].

By itself, the problem of the negative impact of digitalization on the formation of legal awareness among young people, obviously, cannot be solved in a one-step way. Nevertheless, there are at least two ways to counteract this negative trend.

Firstly, it is, oddly enough, working with young people offline. The means of forming legal awareness in this context coincide with those discussed above: these are both educational activities and extracurricular work. The environment that has developed in a teenager's family is also of great importance. It seems that the problem of the influence of the Internet on a teenager would not be particularly relevant if he was given due attention by parents and relatives, and a meaningful dialogue on the topic of legal norms would be built in family communication.

Secondly, the state should offer in the Internet space a qualitative alternative to the negative information that is distributed by unscrupulous entities. Various educational websites, youtube channels, social media pages, etc. have great potential. Examples of such educational Internet projects already exist, for example, the website "Explain.rf". The problem is the scarcity of Internet resources focused specifically on educating young people, both in general and on legal issues in particular.

Higher educational institutions with educational programs in the field of "jurisprudence" could well provide support to the state in the implementation of such a direction of youth policy. For example, a branch of the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg is implementing a project "Just about complicated", in which teachers of the Faculty of Law (leading legal scholars) post five-minute videos on the university's website and social networks about various areas of legal regulation. We especially note the extremely accessible and simple language of the proposed material. It seems that the experience of implementing such a project can be extended to other Internet sites.

3. Entering the age of administrative and criminal responsibility

Another significant problem is related to the fact that the period of formation of legal consciousness coincides with the onset of the age when a citizen can be brought to administrative and criminal responsibility. According to the legislation on administrative offenses, the age of bringing to administrative responsibility is 16 years (Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses of 30.12.2001 No. 195-FZ // Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 2001. № 256).

A more differentiated approach has been applied in criminal legislation. As a general rule, a person can be brought to criminal responsibility from the age of 16, but with regard to individual crimes, this age has been reduced to 14 years (Criminal Code of the Russian Federation No. 63-FZ of 13.06.1996 // Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation. 1996. No. 25). The criminal legislation does not provide for other lower age marks, however, it is obvious that a number of crimes by older schoolchildren cannot be objectively committed (for example, it is impossible to imagine bringing a young man to justice under Article 305 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for making a deliberately unlawful decision in court).

The general approach of the legislator to delineating the ages of criminal responsibility for specific crimes is as follows. From the age of 14, a young man is subject to criminal liability for those acts that he can already independently qualify as a crime. These include, for example, murder, causing serious harm to health, hostage-taking, deliberately false denunciation of an act of terrorism, participation in a terrorist community, etc.

The main problem is that the legislator does not answer the question of what exactly a minor should be aware of in order to recognize him as criminally liable at a certain age. This issue is facing both the legislator, differentiating the age of criminal responsibility, and judicial practice. The criminal law makes it possible to recognize a minor not subject to criminal liability if, according to the results of a comprehensive psychological and psychiatric examination, he is recognized as retarded in development (and this lag is not related to a mental disorder).

On this issue, the position of S.A. Markuntsov seems to be the most balanced and justified. The scientist proved that the awareness of the criminal law prohibition presupposes:

- the possibility of obtaining a conclusion by the subjects about the illegality of the committed act, that is, its prohibition by law;

- awareness of the public danger of the committed act (Markuntsov S.A. Awareness of criminal law prohibitions in the structure of criminal responsibility of minors. Autoref. diss. K.yu.N. M., 2007. p. 9.).

It is the presence or absence of these two aspects that should reflect the conclusions of the examination conducted in relation to the minor. At the same time, this type of expert activity is actively used in judicial practice, and the expert's conclusions on the compliance of the level of development of a minor with age are fully investigated by the courts (the Moscow City Court's Appeal ruling of 27.02.2020 in case No. 10-1032/2020 // SPS "Consultant Plus", Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court of 05.04.2021 in case No. 10-5016/2021 // SPS "Consultant plus".).

It should be noted that the legislator does not distinguish between the possibility of bringing a minor to criminal responsibility depending on the specific form of intent of the crime committed. Article 25 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation distinguishes between two types of intentionally committed crimes:

– direct intent: if a person was aware of the public danger of his actions (inaction), foresaw the possibility or inevitability of the onset of socially dangerous consequences and desired their occurrence;

– indirect intent: if a person was aware of the social danger of his actions (inaction), foresaw the possibility of socially dangerous consequences, did not want, but deliberately allowed these consequences or treated them indifferently.

A minor who has reached the age of 14 is subject to criminal liability for the relevant crime, regardless of whether there was direct or indirect intent.

So, for example, if a minor takes a gun from his father and "for fun" shoots out of the window of an apartment building into the street, then when one of the passers-by dies, the grounds for criminal prosecution under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Murder" still come.

The above implies the need for another direction of pedagogical work – both in academic and extracurricular activities. The formation of legal awareness and legal culture presupposes the need for a clear and concrete awareness by minors of the public danger of acts enshrined in criminal legislation and the prohibition of their commission. First of all, representatives of the younger generation should learn the axiom that ignorance of the laws does not exempt from responsibility.

Thus, based on the results of the brief generalization, it is possible to emphasize once again the relevance of the problems of the formation of legal awareness and legal culture by pedagogical means. Methods of interaction with representatives of the younger generation, dialogue with them and, in general, education about the law require further improvement.