TO THE QUESTION BY ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL-PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES WITH MINORS FOR PREVENTION OF NEGLECT AND OFFENSES

 

Zheinis A. Zh., master student by specialty «Social Pedagogic and Self-cognition»,

Department of Pedagogic and Management of Education,

Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science,

Al-Farabi KazNU, Almaty, the Republic of Kazakhstan

 

Scientific adviser: Kassen G.A., associate Professor

 

В статье описывается социально-педагогическая и профилактическая деятельность по предупреждению безнадзорности и правонарушения несовершеннолетних в Республике Казахстан. Основной идеей статьи является выявление основных причин роста правонарушений среди подростков и раскрытие вопроса эффективной организации социально-педагогической деятельности с несовершеннолетними по профилактике безнадзорности и правонарушений. 

Ключевые слова: социально-педагогическая деятельность, профилактика, беспризорные, безнадзорные несовершеннолетние подростки.

 

The article discusses social pedagogical and preventive measures on prevention of juvenile vagrancy and crime in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In particular, the article aims to identify the main reasons behind the increase in crime among teenagers and cover the issue of effective management of social pedagogical activities with under-age children to prevent vagrancy and offenses. 

Key words: social pedagogical activities, prevention, vagrancy, vagrant minors. 

 

One of the most urgent and socially significant challenges our society faces today is a search for ways to decrease juvenile crime and increase the effectiveness of its prevention. The necessity to address this issue stems not only from the persistence of the criminal situation in the country, but also due to the steady increase in the involvement of under-age children in criminal groups organized by youth. Crime is becoming younger and taking on a steady recurrent character. Moreover, such criminalization deprives the society of the perspectives of social well-being and harmony in the near future. 

The main role in addressing this acute problem belongs to social pedagogic, yet it can be solved only collectively with the engagement of a full-fledged social movement. Still, integrated community efforts can be accomplished only in the framework of scientifically established and technologically advanced social pedagogical system of re-educating under-age children through consistent pedagogical and educative preventive measures, which can provide for the personality formation with right life attitudes. 

The process of re-education as well as general crime prevention acts as the process of the inclusion of an individual in intellectual and moral culture, on the one hand, and the process of individual growth and correcting the behavior of an individual, on the other. The technological revolution and its consequences on the social life have led to the emergence of more effective tools to manage the process of re-education of individuals. These opportunities are achieved: 

- first of all, through qualitative changes of the re-educating subjects, as not only pedagogues and social work specialists,  but also community efforts, work groups, culture institutions, press, radio, television and cinematography take part in educative preventive activities.  

- second, through enhancing and extending educative and preventive tasks, as social production and socio-cultural and political life actively facilitate effective organization of the whole crime prevention system specifically among under-age children, taking into account changing conditions and specificities of various age groups and their occupation.

Most costs and shortcomings in education result from the absence of proper system with individual approach, implementation of the educative preventive process with specific offenders. It is important to overcome limited understanding of the individual approach itself, which often comes down to accounting for individual characteristics of boys and girls with behavioral difficulties. 

Individual prevention of crime includes corrective effects as one of its elements, but not exclusively. This is a focused process of re-education of an individual, which is designed to ensure that offenders formulate right views and beliefs under the influence of educators and community, master skills and habits of positive social behaviors and develop their emotions and will, changing hereby their interests, aspirations and inclinations. On the other hand, individual prevention is aimed to eliminating unfavorable impacts of environment on specific individual. In order to manage this process effectively, it is necessary to choose preventive methods, which provide:

- development of moral conscience,

- formulation of skills and habits of positive behavior,

- strengthening willpower, which will help to confront antisocial forces,

- social rehabilitation of microenvironment.

Nevertheless, it should be taken into account that re-education of an under-age offender and formulation of positive skills, habits and willpower are related to various, special spheres of psychological activities and based on particular physiological factors, which cannot be ruled out while choosing preventive methods. 

Negative impact of microenvironment and life confusions on a young man often lasts for a long time, changing his personality and placing him on an antisocial path. Social educator’s timely intervention in this process can prevent these negative effects on a boy or a girl, alter their views and beliefs and channel their energy towards a socially useful direction. 

When subjective understanding, purposes and intentions of a juvenile offender are identified and motives, beliefs, personal values are assessed, it can be proceeded to a comprehensive formulation of a program on educative preventive effect on the offender.

Preventive effects become optimal, if it takes into account specificities and tendencies of personal development and concurs with its internal motivations. In that case, the process of external preventive impacts merges with the process of self-education and self-development. Naturally, the results of such concurrence are maximized. This effect of crime prevention very often depends not only on external factors, but also on the ability to bring the external forces in line with the specificities of a personality [1]. 

According to the data provided by the Committee on the Legal Statistics and Special Accounts of the State Office of Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Kazakhstan, approximately eight thousand juvenile offenders are detained annually, and almost half of them become subject to criminal prosecution. Over the last eight years, more than 70,000 minors have been placed in the Centers of Temporary Isolation, Adaptation and Rehabilitation of Minors because of neglect and homelessness, and 10,796 of them have been officially registered in children’s homes and residential schools [2]. 

Male offenders predominate among juvenile offenders. Particularly, this can be attributed to the difference in social relationships with the environment, in which an individual develops, and in conditions of moral forms, and to difference in personality and in relationships between typical conflict situations. Predominance of male among juvenile offenders is related to psychological and mental characteristics of the gender, differences in historically established behavior patterns and upbringing between boys and girls, high adventuresomeness and other common male characteristics. 

According to the statistics, male offenders comprise 90% and female comprise about 9% of all juvenile offenders. However, in past years, the increase in the numbers of crimes committed by female juveniles can be widely observed. It is no coincidence that the numbers of female juveniles involved in prostitution, alcoholism and an immoral lifestyle have also been on the rise, as it consequently leads to criminal behavior [3]. 

Studying juvenile offenders according to their place of residence demonstrates that 75% of them come from urban areas and 25% from rural areas. This difference might depend on socio-economic factors as well as traditions and customs, historically established in cities and countryside [4]. 

Judicial literature often points to the correlation between an offender’s personality and his or her education level [5]. Hereby, potential abilities of a juvenile offender’s personality can be judged according to his performance of social functions that, to a certain extent, are contingent on the level of his interests and culture. Speaking of the education level of juvenile offenders, it should be noted that it is as a rule lower than their peers’ are. Many of them have been held back a year, dropped out from schools, vocational training colleges or auxiliary schools. 

More than 30% of juvenile offenders have neither ever studied nor worked; moreover, there has been a rising trend of the numbers of unemployed and uneducated participants of criminal offenses. 

The problem of unemployment among minors remains to be serious in the country, and the prognosis on this issue looks bleak. In this regard, the numbers of unemployed and not studying juvenile offenders will continue to rise. 

Main elements of the system of preventive effects are a thorough study of predisposed minor offenders; identification of principal measures and activities, through which objectives could be achieved; design of rational methods of organization and control, and determination of the impacts of individual preventive effects [6]. 

It should be noted that educative activities of administrative authorities on juvenile offenders are reaching governmental proportions, which can be attributed to the fact that one of the collateral successes of building a democratic state and civil society in the Republic of Kazakhstan is upbringing the youth as a guarantee of the future statehood. The lack of special legislation with objective regulations of all necessary conditions hinders preventive measures on juvenile vagrancy and the enhancement of effectiveness of state activities in this direction [7]. 

Thereby, child vagrancy remains to be one of the highly acute problems that the state and society face today. The issue requires implementation of more preventive activities, the results of which could help to monitor families in high-risk categories. And minors and their parents should be sent to social rehabilitation, where experts will assist them to overcome difficult life situations, which consequently can lower the risk of juvenile vagrancy. It is significant to ensure that a child in adolescence, when he or she can still be corrected, has an opportunity to communicate with an expert, who can listen to him or her and help to solve difficulties encountered. 

Main reasons of child vagrancy:

1) increase in social deprivation of families, decrease in their moral level;

2) distancing children with difficulties from schools;

3) criminalization of an environment, rise in crime among adults;

4) increase in the number of citizens deprived of parental rights, which predetermines widespread abandonment of children and juvenile vagrancy;

5) mass violations of children rights.

The combination of these factors generates dangerous tendencies among minors and youth, which suggests the need to improve the state system of juvenile vagrancy and crime prevention and protection of their rights. 

Timely practice of preventive activities is built on the principles of security concepts and includes an extensive network of various sectoral agencies offering social legal, psychological, medical and pedagogical help to children families in high-risk categories.

It is necessary not only to improve the work of law enforcement agencies on the protection of children and minors from physical, psychological and sexual assaults and from involvement in criminal and antisocial activities, but also to enhance socio-pedagogical and preventive measures of schoolteachers, social pedagogues and school psychologists on averting juvenile vagrancy and crime.

 

 

 References:

1.      Galaguzova M.A., Galaguzova Y.N., Shtinova G.N., Tischenko E.Y, D’akonov B.P. Social Pedagogic: Course of Lectures: Training Manual for Students. 2001

2.      Online source: http://online.zakon.kz 

3.      Online source:  http://newzz.kz, mvd.kz.

4.      Igoshev K.E. Psychology of Juvenile Crime. 2000, p.238

5.      Domova A.I. Socio-psychological Aspects of Juvenile Crime. Judicial Literature, 2000. p.160

6.      Melnikova E.B. How to Protect a Teenager from Conflict with Law. Bek, 1998. p.211

7.      Online source: http://group-global.org