Juvenile Delinquency in the U.S.S.R.: Some Quantitative and Qualitative Indicators

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency in the U.S.S.R. has received comparatively little scholarly attention either from sociologists interested in deviance or from students of Soviet affairs. Yet, while data, especially of a statistical variety, are severely limited, the volume of discussion delinquency receives in Soviet newspapers and scholarly journals shows that the problem is regarded as a significant one. This paper utilizes much of the available Soviet data and draws upon Western scholarship on the US.S.R. to provide a picture of delinquency in the Soviet Union. Data on age, sex, family backgrounds, education, occupation and other characteristics of delinquents are presented in an attempt to form a tentative picture of the nature and quality of Soviet delinquency. Generally, there are indications that Soviet delinquency is similar in many of its aspects to parallel phenomena in other industrial societies. It appears to be primarily a problem involving urban, lower-class male youth whose educational attainments and chances for upward mobility are low. According to the limited data assembled, property offenses form the single largest category of juvenile offense. On the whole, delinquency does not appear to be protest against the Soviet system, at least not in any conscious way. Care should be exercised, therefore, in any attempt to relate delinquency to larger issues of the stability of the Soviet social system.