Peculiarities of criminal radicalism determination among prisoners sentenced to imprisonment

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the criminal radicalism determination among convicts. It has been established and substantiated that this criminal phenomenon is linked to groups of cultural, psychological, organizational and managerial factors. It has been described and explained the content and role of elements of criminal subculture in the reproduction of criminal radicalism among convicts. Attention has been focused on the imperative of a negative attitude towards voluntary cooperation with representatives of the administration of penal institutions. The corresponding communication ban is based on the attitude of opposition to the state in general and law enforcement agencies in particular, on the internal consolidation of the criminal environment and direct or indirect opposition and personal opposition to law enforcement practices, including resocialization in penitentiary institutions.

It has been proved that the stratification and normative elements of criminal and prison subculture determine both the system of social and status hierarchy in the criminal environment in general and among convicts in particular, and the mechanisms of forced identification and inclusion in this system. Both variants (inclusive-adaptive and inclusive-disadaptive) of prisonization provide for mandatory stratification infiltration of the convicted person into social structures of a criminal-subcultural type. In the case of conflict-free inclusion, if the convict has a predicate prison experience, personal perception and external recognition of the relevant status, the radicalization of a person occurs according to the analytical scheme of an inclusive radical. Criminal opposition is carried out either against rival criminal groups or against the administration and staff of the penitentiary institution. Otherwise, criminal radicalism is directed at the environment of convicts.

It has been characterized the influence of reification factors, depersonalization of convicts' personalities, professional deformation of penitentiary staff, low quality of social and psychological work with convicts, shortcomings in the personnel policy of the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine, insufficient efficiency of management in the field of accommodation of convicts, formalism and low quality of diagnosis and distribution of convicts upon their admission to correctional colonies, and errors in the formation of groups of convicts.