Analysis of juvenile delinquency in the Republic of Tyva

Mongush Aziyana Saryg-Oolovna PhD in Law Associate Professor, Department of Civil Law and Procedure, Tuva State University 667010, Russia, Republic of Tyva, Kyzyl, Bai-Haakskaya str., 12, sq. 39 aziana-tyva@mail.ru

Ondar Aldyn-Kherel Ezir-Oolovich PhD in Law Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Tuva State University 667000, Russia, Republic of Tyva, Kyzyl, Rabochaya str., 4a, office 212 aldynxerel.ondar@mail.ru

Crimes committed by and against minors are one of the pressing problems in the Republic of Tyva. According to statistics, in 2021, 203 crimes were committed by minors or with their complicity, and in 2022, 235 crimes were identified and investigated on the territory of the Republic of Tyva, thereby, there is a tendency to increase by 15.8%.

This fact was announced by the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Tyva, while noting the overall decrease in the number of crimes by the end of 2022 in the region, she noted an increase in the number of crimes committed by minors, as previously indicated by 15.8%, most of which were committed by minors who had previously committed crimes. Considering the above, we believe that this phenomenon indicates the insufficient effectiveness of the measures taken by the authorities whose competence includes the prevention of juvenile delinquency. It is worth noting that the subject under consideration has previously been studied by some experts in this field, in particular Bondarenko N. V.^[1], Kuzhuget M. T.^[2], Oyun A. S.^[3] and others^[4]. However, the causal relationships and some other aspects of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of juvenile delinquency have not been studied by these authors.

The majority of offenses are committed by students of educational organizations. Particular attention is drawn to the 2-fold increase in the number of crimes committed by minors under the influence of alcohol from 26 in 2021 to 52 in 2022^[5]. Based on this, it is possible to judge the low level of cultural and moral qualities of minors, which primarily depend on upbringing in the family, preschool and school educational organizations.

An empirical study was conducted to fully analyze the criminogenic situation in the sphere under consideration. Within the framework of which 137 students of Tuva State University were surveyed in order to establish, according to their vision, the causes and conditions of the growth of juvenile delinquency in the Republic of Tuva. The majority of respondents believe that the family plays a key role in the formation of a minor's personality and the main factor in their committing offenses is the negative influence of the family, insufficient control over the behavior of a teenager, which further generates neglect with all the ensuing consequences of such behavior. In particular, the respondents believe that scandals and fights are the way to resolve internal conflicts in about 40% of dysfunctional families, and alcohol abuse in almost 65%. Their point of view is confirmed by the research of other criminologists, so according to N. I. Svechnikov and A. Y. Knyazkina, "the formation of the personality of adolescents occurs in communication in everyday life with their social environment: adults, parents, peers. An important factor in juvenile delinquency is the negative processes in the family"^[6].

Older adolescence and adolescence are characterized by incompleteness of formation of their own moral attitudes, lack of life experience, increased emotionality, suggestibility. Along with this, in modern times, the cult of violence, rudeness, cruelty, drugs, prostitution, etc. actively penetrates into adolescent and youth subcultures through the media, through the Internet as role models.

This problem was voiced by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation A. I. Bastrykin in an interview with a Russian newspaper, in particular, he noted that "in recent years, destructive media and Internet content has also had a negative impact on the growth of juvenile delinquency, which carries many risks of desocialization, deviant and illegal behavior of children, including the commission of actions by them who pose a threat to their own lives"^[7].

It is also worth noting that, according to official statistics, qualitative changes are taking place in juvenile delinquency, i.e. the proportion of serious and especially serious acts in the structure of juvenile delinquency is increasing. For example, in 2022, the number of serious and especially serious crimes committed by teenagers in the Republic of Tyva increased by +5.9%, from 85 to 90. According to some reports, minors account for up to 2% of the total number of murders committed, up to 2.5-3% of intentional infliction of serious harm to health.

However, in comparison with adult crime, the structure of juvenile delinquency in the Republic of Tyva differs in the lowest proportion of serious violent crimes, the most common are crimes against property. So, in 2022, according to statistics from the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, 1,421 minors were convicted, most often tried for crimes of a property nature. A similar picture is observed in the Republic of Tyva - the number of convicted minors was 147 in total, of which about 70% were convicted of crimes related to theft, almost half of the cases for theft, theft and robbery^[8].

An analysis of the categorical structure of crime in the Republic of Tyva indicates that in 2022 over 70% of minors or 104 persons were convicted of committing serious crimes, the number of juveniles sentenced to probation increased – 93, in 2021 – 89. And it is understandable that a minor, due to his age, in accordance with Russian criminal law, is judged more leniently: only 15% of all convicts in this category were sentenced to real imprisonment. The rest, in addition to probation, were sentenced to compulsory labor — 4.8%, to a fine — 1.3%. The number of minors released from punishment in connection with the use of compulsory educational measures has increased from 1 to 10.

Typical for juvenile delinquency are thefts, robberies, robberies, rapes, carjackings without the purpose of theft, which together account for about 80% of all illegal acts committed by minors. At the same time, the share of crimes related to drug trafficking, in particular the sale of narcotic drugs, committed by minors in the Republic of Tyva decreased from 36 to 20 (-45%).

Approximately 2-2.5 times more often, compared with adults, crimes are committed by minors as part of a group of persons, a group of persons by prior agreement, which is typical behavior for this category of persons. Thus, in the republic in 2022, 47.4% more (from 57 to 84) crimes committed in the group were registered. One fourth of the crimes under consideration were committed jointly with adults. Thus, about 60% of the total number of all juvenile delinquency was committed by group crimes.

The recidivism of juvenile crimes is low, it is about 7%. It is typical for teenagers to commit multi-episode thefts, robberies and robberies. Up to 48% of convicted minors have already committed several crimes at the time of criminal prosecution.

Crime statistics of recent years show that of the total number of identified minors, persons aged 16-17 years make up 72.2% (205 out of 284), the remaining 27.8% or 79 persons aged 14-15 years. The average minor violator of the law in the republic is a student, mainly based on the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tyva, they are brought up in a single-parent family, where one of the parents is insufficiently engaged with their child. Most often, 98% of all those in the dock are boys. The reasons for the commission of crimes by teenagers are different, however, in most cases they determine the overall picture of the problem.

The current situation requires a systematic approach to solving the issue of reducing juvenile delinquency. In our opinion, this can be achieved only through the interaction of various subjects of prevention in the field under consideration. It is necessary to establish a constant exchange of information of interest to these bodies-subjects of prevention with the introduction of high technologies into the activities of the latter, which can ensure a constant and immediate flow of information.

One of the subjects of juvenile delinquency prevention is the internal affairs bodies. Their preventive activities are carried out on the basis of Federal Law No. 120-FZ dated 06/24/1999 "On the basics of the system for the prevention of neglect and juvenile Delinquency", Order No. 845 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia dated 10/15/2013 "On Approval of Instructions on the Organization of activities of juvenile Affairs units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation". 36 inspectors of juvenile affairs units carry out activities to prevent neglect and offenses among 123469 minors in the territory of the Republic.

As of 01.01.2023, 481 teenagers (432, +12% in the previous year) are on the preventive records of the juvenile affairs units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tyva, 43 of them were convicted of measures not related to isolation from society (48, -11% last year), 33 were conditionally convicted (for In 2021, 32), 94 suspects and accused of committing crimes (77 over the past year), in addition, 541 dysfunctional families with 1,366 children are on preventive registration.

Also, it is worth noting that according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tyva, 25 groups of antisocial minors are under preventive supervision, which consist of 67 participants.

In 2022, it follows from the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tyva that extensive work was carried out to prevent and identify administrative offenses in the field of prevention of neglect and offenses among minors. So, during the specified year, 5,556 citizens were brought to administrative responsibility, including 4,968 parents negligently related to the fulfillment of their responsibilities for the upbringing of minor children, 331 minors, 257 guardians, trustees and other persons responsible for the upbringing of a minor.

During the preventive measures carried out by police officers, in order to protect life and health, as well as on suspicion of committing crimes, administrative offenses and antisocial actions, 4,239 minors were taken to the internal affairs bodies, including 1,519 teenagers for being in a public place at night.

Of the children taken to the internal affairs bodies, 1,090 minors were subsequently transferred to the institutions of the prevention system, of which 429 children who were in conditions threatening their life and health were transferred to the children's departments of hospitals, 595 persons to the centers for social assistance to families and children, to the Temporary Detention Center for Juvenile Offenders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs 66 teenagers were placed in the Republic of Tyva, the rest were transferred to their parents and guardians. Based on this, it can be judged about the high level of probability of criminalization of minors in the Republic of Tyva, since the fact that out of 123469 minors of the Republic of Tyva, 4239 persons were taken to the internal affairs bodies on various grounds, this is almost 4% of the total number of children of the republic who are in conditions under which they they may be involved in a criminal environment. Thus, we believe that if timely measures are not taken to reduce the level of neglect, homelessness and juvenile delinquency, then in the future the Republic of Tyva will be among the leaders with a criminalized population and this trend will only increase in the future.

Based on the opinion of some of the interviewed competent persons of the internal affairs bodies, we believe that in the Republic of Tyva, one of the factors of increasing juvenile delinquency is the social policy of the state, in particular, support for families with children that have appeared in recent years. Some people who are prone to drinking alcoholic beverages have stopped engaging in active work, relying only on social benefits for children. This category of parents does not feel any responsibility for their young child, and children are born in such families, not because of the parents' desire to raise and educate their descendants, but in order to receive social benefits for them. Thus, in many dysfunctional families, young children are in conditions that threaten their life and health. To solve this problem, we consider it necessary to create modern shelters and boarding schools for children left without parental care, persons deprived of parental rights. Since, according to the interviewed employees of the juvenile affairs units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tyva, often staying with alcoholic parents, minors are involved in antisocial activities, and then fall into a criminal environment, as a result, they grow up to be citizens with low social responsibility and history repeats itself. In order to get out of the "vicious circle", we consider it necessary to act together with all subjects of the prevention of neglect and homelessness of minors, to provide weighty evidence to the court exposing the true intentions of parents, as well as about the living conditions of children with their parents, to deprive them of parental rights, in order to protect minors from the negative impact of parents and their environment.

In addition, preventive measures of the subjects of this activity are not excluded, since individual preventive work involving a minor in various circles and sections is one of the main directions of juvenile delinquency prevention. As the main method of individual prevention, it is customary to call the method of persuasion, the essence of which lies primarily in a personal conversation with the supervised person. An employee of the juvenile affairs unit, a social teacher, a class teacher, a curator, etc. in personal communication, directs him to a legal lifestyle, explaining the consequences of antisocial behavior. By the method of persuasion, the subject of prevention contributes to the formation of a worldview, personal principles and ideas, and a person's conviction of the benefits of a legal lifestyle.

Thus, in conclusion, it is worth noting that the analysis of juvenile delinquency in the Republic of Tyva allowed us to draw a number of conclusions and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of preventive measures taken by the subjects of this activity. In particular, individual preventive work with minors is an effective means of preventing juvenile delinquency, since during the course of individual preventive measures with minors, a police officer applies the full range of forms and methods of prevention. By the method of persuasion, a police officer contributes to the formation of a worldview, personal principles and ideas, and a person's conviction of the benefits of a legal lifestyle.

In addition, in the policy of the state aimed at increasing the demography in the country and the social well-being of the population, it is necessary to take into account that material and financial support for families with children can also be used by persons with destructive behavior who do not have good intentions and specific measures should be taken against their children to protect their life and health.

In order to increase the effectiveness of the activities of the subjects of juvenile delinquency prevention, there is a need to introduce into their practice a unified document management system for the timely exchange of information, which would allow an adequate response to all challenges and threats in activities to protect the life, health, rights and freedoms of minors.