This article discusses issues related to the current problems of establishing the age of criminal responsibility in Russian legislation. Using the provisions of the criminal law doctrine for the research, the author considers debatable issues related to the concept, content and goals of the criminal policy of the state as a whole and criminal policy in relation to minors. It is determined that the criminal policy implemented in recent years in relation to minors is characterized by inconsistency, inconsistency and often ignoring the basic principles of social interaction and law. In particular, this is related to the establishment of a lower limit on the age of criminal responsibility. Having analyzed the acts of international law, the provisions of national legislation, the provisions of criminal law and criminological doctrine, the author comes to the conclusion that the approaches to the category considered in the article are ambiguous. Based on the consideration of the provisions of the psychological doctrine, the age characteristics of secondary school or adolescent (11-14 years) and senior school age (15-17 years) are determined. The problem of not fully taking them into account by the legislator and law enforcement officer, in the process of normative consolidation and implementation of criminal responsibility in relation to minors who commit crimes, is identified. The author, using the results of his own research and research of specialists in the field of juvenile delinquency, is critical of the need to reduce the lower threshold for establishing criminal responsibility to 12 years. Since there are no social or economic prerequisites for this, such proposals do not correlate at all with the provisions of the Russian criminological doctrine. The paper also concludes that the main components of the determinative complex of juvenile delinquency remain unchanged and this should be taken into account by the state (represented by its legislative and law enforcement agencies) when solving issues related to the implementation of criminal responsibility against minors.

Suturin Mikhail Aleksandrovich - Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law, Law Institute, Irkutsk State University (1, K. Marx st., Irkutsk, 664003, Russian Federation), e-mail: mialsu@yandex.ru

Suturin M.A. Kategoriya «vozrast» v ugolovnom prave Rossii [The category "age" in the criminal law of Russia]. Sibirskij yuridicheskij vestnik [Siberian Law Herald]. 2020, no 2 (89), pp. 71–76. (in Russian).

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