The Concept of Researching the Development of Destructive Personality Traits in Convicts

Abstract

The priority tasks of modern Russian penitentiary policy include the development of an effective system of enforcing criminal punishments and other criminal law measures. The implementation of this multi-faceted task is impossible without taking into consideration the personal traits of convicts sentenced to incarceration. When prisoners spend time in a correctional institution and are forced to enter its specific environment, they acquire social and personal attitudes that, unfortunately, are more often negative than positive. In the current article the authors examine problems connected with identifying the traits that characterize the personality of a convict as a specific criminological category. They attempt to present their own concept of researching the signs (primarily, penitentiary ones) of the formation of destructive personality traits in convicts. The realization of this task includes studying those features and characteristics of a convicts personality that possess the meaning and content highlighting the value and systemic essence of this personality. The authors believe that a multi-level criminological concept would be most suitable for such research, this concept should make it possible to study the whole structure of a convicts personality in a comprehensive way, and it is the motivation of a convicts behavior. A convict, just like any person, possesses a complex of leading motives that comprise the essence of his personality and determine his behavior. When researching the motivation of criminal behavior, it is possible to trace the interconnection of internal and external factors, study the methods and conditions of a specific crime, the personality of a criminal. At present, the researchers in the penitentiary field and the employees of the penitentiary institutions agree that it is necessary to conduct special research of the formation of an integrated system of specific factors that influence the motivation of convicts and cause the destruction of personality traits, which is typical of places of confinement. The authors believe that a characteristic feature of the socio-psychological element of a convicts personality is the disruption in the development of his sphere of motivation and senses as one of the factors of its formation.