On selected problems of coercive measures of educational influence application to minors in cases of exemption from criminal responsibility

According to Paragraph 2 of Article 87 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, "either punishment or coercive measures of educational influence may be applied to juveniles who have committed crimes". However, it has not always been so. It was at the end of 2003 that legislators made coercive measures of educational influence a priority, and it was not random. Back in 2000, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Decree No. 7 of February 14 "On Juvenile Crimes" (inoperative) drew attention of the lower courts to the need of elaborating the choice of retaliation for juvenile offenders with preference to coercive measures of educational influence, other things being equal. There is a similar guideline in the currently effective Decree No. 1 of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated February 1, 2011 "On the judicial practice of application of law regulating the specifics of criminal responsibility and punishment of minors". By lawmakers it is these coercive measures of educational influence that should become a real alternative to criminal responsibility and punishment of juveniles. This, in turn, corresponds to the international obligations Russia has undertaken and is an expression of the trend of a consistent humanization of criminal legislation and practice of the treatment of juvenile offenders. Still, the official crime statistics shows that for the past ten years the practice of coercive measures of educational influence has not changed. The share of minors exempted from criminal responsibility in connection with the application of these measures is averagely in the range of 2-5 % of the total number of juvenile offenders in Russia. This state of affairs is hardly satisfactory. Therefore, addressing the problems of application of these measures is urgent.

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