Programme of Psychological Correction of Personal Characteristics of Minors with Defects of Legal Socialization

The relevance. The relevance of this research is driven by society’s need to understand the mechanisms behind the development of legal socialization defects and the potential for their correction to reduce the number of juvenile offenders, who currently represent up to 4% of total crime in Russia. Legal socialization defects contribute to both the tendency to commit offenses and the development of victimization among minors, which is also a significant issue in the psychology of crime. The proposed psychological correction program for minors with legal socialization defects serves as an effective tool for addressing this issue. This program is a continuation of the author’s empirical research.

The purpose is to develop and test a psychological correction program aimed at changing the attitudes of juvenile offenders toward the law and promoting compliance with legal norms. The conducted research confirmed the effectiveness of the developed program, ensuring its potential for dissemination within the scientific community.

Materials and methods of research. The identification of personal and behavioral characteristics of minors was carried out using psychodiagnostic techniques: subtests “Awareness” 1 and 2, the methodology “Attitude to law” by S.P. Beznosov, the multifactorial personality questionnaire by R. Kettell (adolescent version), the methodology for diagnosing Rogers-Diamond socio–psychological adaptation, the questionnaire “Strategies for overcoming stressful situations” by S. Hobfall (in the adaptation by N.V. Vodopyanova, E.A. Starchenkova), the questionnaire “Diagnostics of value orientations of adolescents” by V.F. Sopova, L.V. Karpushina. Additionally, a psychological correction program for minors with legal socialization defects was developed and implemented to achieve the research objective.

Results. The implementation of the psychological correction program for legal socialization defects in minors provided evidence of changes in attitudes toward the law, development of emotional and volitional stability, formation of communication skills, improvement of adaptive coping strategies, and the growth of legal consciousness among participants. A significant outcome was the development of legal realism, indicating the minors’ readiness to act in accordance with legal requirements due to a critical understanding of legal norms and the recognition of the legal consequences of their behavior.

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