NCJ Number
161777
Date Published
1995
Length
254 pages
Annotation
This book examines the dynamics and characteristics of "legal socialization" prior to and after the collapse of the Soviet Union and relates this to deviant behavior among Russian youth.
Abstract
The sources for this book include the author's personal observations, discussions, and interviews during seven visits to the former Soviet Union between 1985 and 1992; other sources are discussions with Russian emigres and persons who used to define themselves as Sovietologists, the American and Russian media, and both popular and scholarly literature. The first chapter makes the case for the importance of legal environment in shaping the process known as "legal socialization." This refers to how youth learn about rules, norms, and laws; how they develop attitudes about such matters; and how they decide that certain rules, norms, and laws are legitimate regulators of their behavior. Three chapters develop the various components of the legal context that existed in Soviet Russia. The components analyzed and described include the history of law and its enforcement; crime and delinquency; and the special problems of corruption, organized crime, and the domination of the Soviet legal system by a "partocracy" of the Communist Party. The remaining chapters review the evolution and execution of both phases of the legal socialization research project, present and interpret the study data, and draw conclusions and implications that are practical as well as theoretical. 30 tables and 2 figures