Circumstances to be considered when sentencing juvenile offenders in the history of domestic criminal law

Nowadays, juvenile delinquency is a significant problem for the government and the society. Although some statistics shows a certain reduction of juvenile delinquency, the share of serious violent crimes as well as drug-related crimes in the total number of juvenile delinquency cases is growing. The number of crimes committed by juvenile offenders who have already been subject to criminal proceedings remains persistently high. The purpose of this paper is to identify the legal provisions aimed at taking into consideration the personality of juvenile offenders, their living and educational conditions for sentencing in the Russian criminal law of the pre-revolutionary and Soviet period as well as to analyze the evolution of such provisions. The study is based on the dialectical method of cognition. The content of the legal provisions was studied on the basis of the formal logical methods. The historical method was used for studying the historical development of the laws concerning the circumstances to be taken into consideration for sentencing juvenile offenders. As shown in the paper, the criminal legal science of the pre-revolutionary period differentiated the concepts "responsibility" and "intelligence". With the adoption of the Law dated June 02, 1897 ''On the Changes in Forms and Rules of Legal Proceedings for Criminal Acts of Minors and Juveniles, as well as Legal Provisions Regarding their Punishability" a special legal mechanism was introduced into the law and practice for investigating and taking into account circumstances that encourage juvenile delinquency, level of mental and moral development, and other personal qualities of juvenile offenders. The legal provisions of the Russian pre-revolutionary criminal law concerning the personality, living and educational conditions of juvenile offenders to be taken into consideration for sentencing are found to be reflected in the Soviet regulations in the first years of the Soviet Union. However, in the course of the further development of the criminal legislation, these provisions were neglected. Since the early 1970s, the Supreme Court of the USSR / RSFSR began to pay attention to this problem. Nevertheless, the legal provisions concerning the personality, living and educational conditions of juvenile offenders to be taken into consideration for sentencing have not been adopted.

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