Circumstances characterizing the conditions of life and upbringing ofjuvenile offenders taken into account when punishment is imposed

Nowadays, juvenile crimes present a great problem for both the state and civil society. Despite statistics on some decline of juvenile crimes the share of grievous violent crimes and narco-trafficking crimes is growing. The number of repeated crimes committed by juveniles is constantly high. The purpose of this article is to reveal the circumstances characterizing the conditions of life and upbringing of juvenile offenders taken into account when punishment is imposed on them. In the course of research the author used a dialectical method of cognition. The analysis of some legislative provisions was done with the help of a formal logical method. The method of legal modelling was used to study the possibility of development of circumstances when punishment is imposed on juveniles. According to Article 89 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation while punishing a juvenile it’s necessary to take into account both the circumstances provided in Article 60 and the conditions of his life and upbringing, the level of mental development, some personal traits and the influence on him of those who are older. The following questions arise in this connection: What circumstances characterizing the conditions of life and upbringing of juveniles are considered to be important for imposing a criminal punishment on them? What are the characteristics of life conditions and upbringing of juveniles based on? The circumstances characterizing the conditions of life and upbringing to be taken into account while punishing juveniles are substantiated in the article and their legal significance has been revealed. The argumentation for the necessity of taking into account the above circumstances results from the fact that it’s up to the institutions of socialization: family, school and a group of coevals to characterize juveniles. The possibility of changing the conditions of life and upbringing is a key circumstance when punishment is imposed. In other words, if it has been established that the conditions of life and upbringing influence a juvenile in a wrong way and finally encourage him to commit crimes but they cannot be changed for the better it’s more appropriate ( and humane) to imprison him. If there is any chance to ^ange his dnditions of life and upbringing in the family and s^ool for the better, the durt should be guided by opposite opinions.

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