The Goals of Criminal Law Enforcement against Minors: On the Need for Special Legislative Consolidation in the Context of a Comparative Legal Analysis

Abstract

The article examines the problem of the absence in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of a special provision on the goals of criminal liability and punishment for minors. Based on a comparative legal analysis of the legislation of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the necessity of filling this gap is substantiated. It is shown that the application of the general provisions of Article 43 of the Criminal Code leads to the domi-nance of the punitive aim of restoring the social justice, which contradicts the specifics of juvenile liability. It is proposed to supplement Article 87 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with a new part that estab-lishes the priority of correction, resocialization, and prevention of new crimes, with the subordinate position for the social justice restoration. A reasoned response is provided to the critical position of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation regarding the duplication of norms and the sectoral affiliation of resocialization in the context of the question of the need for a special legislative consolidation of these pressure goals.