Criminological Prevention as a Priority Task of Juvenile Justice

Abstract

The author examines the establishment of juvenile justice in Russia in connection with the unsolved problem of crimes committed by or against minors. The paper contains the analysis of the concepts «crime prevention», «criminological prevention», «early prevention» and presents the authors definitions of them. The author also studies the work of specially authorized bodies involved in early prevention, analyses the terms «juvenile justice», «juvenile technologies», offers their classification and describes juvenile technologies. It is argued that the actual implementation of juvenile justice in the Russian Federation considerably depends on the legislative basis that is yet to be created. The author presents the principles of juvenile justice (socialization of a minor, competence in the process of prevention, an individual approach to work with minors, support for the families, scientific validity, transparency, accountability of specially authorized agencies for their actions) used for the purposes of criminological prevention. It is necessary to deal with the following challenges in order to reform the preventative work of social protection and other agencies: 1) personnel, material and financial support; 2) systematization of normative legal acts on the preventative measures for juvenile crime and the protection of the rights of minors; 3) the development of modern methods for the actual reduction of juvenile crime, etc. This research allowed the author to showcase the pre-requisites for the establishment of a punitive system of juvenile justice in Russia. In order to change this situation and to develop the potential of juvenile justice in Russia, it is necessary to overcome the existing confrontation of the state and the society, to eliminate the stereotype of the punitive orientation of social workers activities, to cooperate with the community. The author stresses that it is important to use scientific tools to change the orientation of the work of specially authorized agencies from a dominantly punitive attitude to an understanding one, which agrees with the trends in criminological prevention.