Criminal subculture

At the heart of the informal code of conduct are antisocial traditions and customs practices developed by the centuries-old experience of illegal activities. Specific content of traditions consists in reproducing from generation to generation among representatives of subcultural entities the principles of action and ideas about ideals that fix the accumulated antisocial experience. The experience of such a subcultural environment is the inherited habitual way of wrongful behavior of a person in a particular situation, expected and supported by members of a subcultural group. Regulatory function is inherent in other elements of the subculture, but traditions and customs are the most stable forms of behavioral regulation. In today's article, we will consider the topic "Criminal subculture."

They, being a product of subcultural activity, are closely connected first of all with antisocial orientations, habits and way of life of the individual. On the one hand, these phenomena contribute to their formation. Although a person most often considers his will free, he deceives himself. The external world, people, among whom he lives, customs and customs act on him before he understands anything, they impose their own impressions on human views. On the other hand, if individual antisocial habits (for example, lead a parasitic way of life, play cards) under certain conditions develop into mandatory norms of behavior of criminal elements, then they eventually acquire the power of traditions and customs, become the main backbone of the so-called "natural laws" . These phenomena emanate from the community of offenders as a whole and contribute to instilling in their members a sense of duty, resisting individualism, and fixing hierarchical ties in a criminal environment. Persons belonging to such groups have a sense of duty towards the group and have responsibilities based on the requirements of the principles of conduct. The latter define a single group line of behavior. Each member of the subcultural group fulfills its role in it. Asocial group always expects from its representative certain actions in a given situation.
In other words, human behavior in subcultural education largely becomes a group behavior. "Moral laws" of offenders are protected not only by the power of opinion (as in other communities of people), but also by physical, often sophisticated violence against persons who violated them. For representatives of individual subcultural groups, the rituals of "oaths" and "oaths" are characteristic of the criminal community, as well as the ritual of "checking" the newly admitted member of criminal education. Anyone who has entered as an "equal" in the subcultural environment, is not always free to leave it. For example, a person who has received the status of "the authority of the underworld" can not independently leave the criminal community, he can stop subcultural activities ("go into society") only with the consent of the environment. Elements of the subculture, serving the same antisocial goals and ideals, support each other, forming a solid chain of distorted value orientations. Their antisocial essence follows from the content and functions of the criminal system and manifests itself in that it has a dominant influence on the formation of a particular subcultural personality of the offender.

The process of desocialization of a person includes the assimilation of his attitudes, views on life and values existing in the group. His individual criminal experience is supplemented by the experience of his surroundings. The most important feature of such a person is the existence of her antisocial beliefs, a negative attitude towards the existing norms of morality and law. Thus, the criminal subculture is a kind of interpersonal connection of habitual offenders in a relatively closed environment, based on their system of distorted value orientations, which act as regulative principles of joint illegal activity and antisocial behavior. Convicts in prison serve time habits and patterns of behavior, get used to the idea that they are essentially rejected, like the rest of their companions, and the values shared and assimilated by other criminals are important to them. As a result, the neutral perception of the values of the prison subculture is transformed into an enforced solidarity with its bearers, which inevitably leads the majority of those condemned to opposition to the society.

If the keepers of the criminal subculture ("authorities") deny the generally accepted moral values of society, neutral "hard workers" support family and other social values, conscientiously treat work. The values of the community with which the personality identifies are most powerful, ensuring the consistency of behavior. Deviations of the leader in his behavior from corporate norms inevitably lead to the loss of his status. Being active carriers of subcultural values, this type of offenders strictly protects them, and in some cases corrects them. Leaders always have a desire to consolidate their hierarchical success, to protect it by introducing some new principles into the "ethical" structure of the grouping. On the one hand, the inner circle, like any hierarchical level, involuntarily serves to elevate the leader, to assert his authority, and on the other hand, the leading core, as the spokesman of general sentiments and opinions, restrains the leader when he aspires to unlimited power, goes beyond the ordinary Rules of behavior. "Authorities" provide the group with consolidating, defensive and morally supportive functions. Consolidating function is to disseminate and strengthen the norms of behavior aimed at affirming the value of "we" in the subcultural environment, in promoting relations of equality. From the point of view of psychology, "Authorities" convince other members of the group that the most just relations of equality are maintained in their world, and not in society.

In the eyes of members of non-formal education, they, being carriers of justice, are able to resolve complex, often conflict situations in the community. Their decisions are always justified by corporate ethics, so they become mandatory. The informal division of convicts into categories is based on real relations between them, which, in turn, are based on the subculture of the "prison community". "Authorities" do not cover all convicts, but they are the most dangerous offenders who, by their illegal and immoral activities, try to subordinate the bulk of convicts to their influence. Preservation of certain forms of mutual relations in the world of "blatars" allows them to develop a single group line of behavior, conditioned by their value orientations, and the departure from it of any of the members of the group is almost always fraught with grave consequences. When correctional workers lose control threads in the unit, "authorities" assume the functions of "defenders of justice". The rest of the convicts, as it were, delegate this right, as a result of which the "blatari" become the heralds of their feelings and enjoy their support. Such a development of the situation helps them to spread the subcultural rules among the persons serving sentences and demand their steady adherence. Groups of "authorities" of the criminal environment in places of deprivation of liberty have a traditional organizational structure.
They constitute a closed "caste," which differs from all other groups in its totalitarianism, organization, and a single unlawful line of conduct. These qualities are due to the criminal subculture, which the author calls a "counterculture", since it fundamentally resists the moral values that are generally accepted in society. "Authorities" understand that if the administration of correctional institutions takes over the initiative to establish interpersonal relations, their informal role among the convicted will considerably weaken. Every human activity, including antisocial activity, has its own heroes, to whom the followers follow. Every generation of people reproduces the idea of the ideal from the past - this is the tradition of all social groups. In his own life, a person projects himself into the future - as his ideal, as a model of the desired future. Something analogous is happening in a criminal environment, where criminal elements of different generations formed their ideal. A popular hero and model for imitation of criminal faces of the second half of the 20th century. Became a "thief" ("a thief in law"). "The thief" is a person of a crystal soul, unswervingly following the "thieves 'laws" and dedicated his life to "thieves' ideals". Recognize the "thief" can only be based on the decision of the "meeting", "congress." As a rule, the candidate passed a long test, and only after that he was given recommendations by the "authorities" of the criminal environment, confirming that the received "has certain qualities and merits", that "his behavior and aspirations correspond to the norms of thiever ethics."

The persons who recommended the newcomer were responsible to the community for their further behavior. All applicants must ensure that the candidate is able to comply with the "law". The rite for the beginning of the reception included the rituals of "crowning thieves" and vows not to violate the convict's "code of honor." Traitors were faced with harsh reprisals. On examples of such personalities, young people who are serving sentences are brought up. They are attracted by the illusions of the independence of this world, the subordination of others to it. In places of deprivation of liberty, young people learn the strict "ethics of thieves' life". Each member of the group in relations with each other should be honest, fair, should not lie. If you put yourself in a quandary, for example, was detained red-handed at the crime scene, then do not point out the guilt of other accomplices. This also shows your honesty as a prisoner: in respect of your own you should be honest, but in relation to others any deception, any bloody violence is justified. The antisocial essence of the "thieves ethic" is manifested primarily in the fact that it is the anchor and conductor of a certain experience of previous generations of criminals, supporting the original orientation of habitual offenders for conducting a parasitic way of life. Each generation of "authorities" of the criminal environment with a need borrows a number of stable antisocial attitudes, distorted values from the past. In a sense, they choose not only their future, but also the past: this is the commission of crimes, and instead of a normal life - an antisocial way of life. If other categories of persons serving sentences are only subordinated to "thieves' ethics" in order to ensure their normal coexistence in the environment or to earn the respect of "thieves", then "authorities" consider worshiping traditions as their duty. Traditions form the inner world of the habitual criminal, customs, in turn, guide him in real life, imposing a taboo on one and permitting another. Only by forming and reviving good traditions, proven by centuries, can create a powerful barrier to the spread of "thieves' ethics". "The offender will be corrected only on the basis of positive value orientations created for him".

At present, "authority", multiplied by big money, has turned the head to new "thieves" who openly started to commit extortion and reprisals. Getting into the ITU, not knowing the peculiarities of the relations that existed there, they allowed deviations from the "thieves ethic" - engaged in overt fights, harassment of convicts, which led to discontent of the bulk and to the loss of the purchased "authority". Traditional "thieves" did not recognize their subcultural "ranks," and condemned those of their comrades who took part in the "coronation" of extortionists. Thus, in a criminal world, on the basis of "ethical" disagreements, conflict situations arose. Russia has come to the structure of criminality inherent in all countries with market economies. Subcultural authority is now supported not so much by the community's commitment to criminal traditions and customs as by the size of the "shadow capital" available to it. It would be a mistake to talk about leveling out the system of distorted value orientations among habitual offenders. "Separate norms, traditions, customs and interpersonal relationships have changed, but their functions have been preserved."