“Death groups” through the prism of the theory of routine actions

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence of the phenomenon of suicidal communities in the Russian cyberspace from the perspective of the widespread in modern criminology theory of routine actions. The relevance of the selected topic is substantiated by the fact that despite a variety of studies dedicated to “death groups”, the problems associated with encouraging or assisting suicide using the Internet platforms are not fully covered in the view of criminological science. At the same time, there is urgent need for criminological research of this phenomenon due to the qualitative transformation of criminality – use of the Internet platforms for inflicting harm to human life and health without direct physical and psychological abuse is a distinguishing feature of the modern world. The subject of this research is the key concepts of the theory of routine actions (“motivated criminal”, “potential victim”, “no external control”) applicable to the problem under review. The author explores certain psychological and cultural aspects that characterize the modern younger generation (increased engagement in social media, more tolerant perception). It is concluded that criminalization of relationships developing between people in social media naturally increased criminality due to the emergence of new ways of communication in modern world. The author believes that the effective method to minimize the category of such type of crimes consists in promotion of the state policy aimed at improvement of psychological health of the population.