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Ingrida Montvydienė

Abstract

After Lithuania joined the European Union and took over the criminology theories of Western authors, the works of Russian authors have rested forgotten. We know that Russian authors in the fifties and sixties of the previous century had a very big interest in the personality of a criminal. The interest was one-sided, emphasizing the negative single-mindedness of the personality of a criminal and analysing all features of a criminal personality. It is interesting to find out whether the conception of a criminal personality has changed or is in the process of changing in the criminology concepts of Russian criminologists, and what the differences are compared to Western criminology theories. The aim of the investigation is to discover the concept of a criminal personality in the context of the criminology concepts of Russian criminology authors.
The Russian criminologists who investigate the personality of a criminal traditionally investigate the criminal personality as a whole, looking at all features typical of it – starting with the attributes of social status (age, sex, family status, education, social group, and social and daily activity) and finishing with moral and psychological characteristics (attitude towards family, work, laws, and cultural values, personal needs, motivation, and state of mind). The key characteristic of the criminal personality is identified as antisocial singlemindedness.
The aforementioned features have not been seen as natural all the time. Even in Soviet times, there were daring scientists (J. Bluvshtein, A. M. Jakovlev, I. I. Karpec, G. M. Reznik), who did not follow the ideology of criminology and rejected the concept of a criminal personality. The crime subject concept was fully sufficient for them.
A new generation of criminologists, who do not recognize the concept of the criminal personality and investigate the criminal from a narrow point of view, is currently emerging. J. I. Gilinskij investigates the criminal and the crime from the angle of social construct, paying great attention to socioeconomic circumstances and their impact on criminality. D. A. Shestakov investigates the criminal and criminality via individual institutes of socialisation and functional systems. V. V. Guldan investigates the criminal and criminality via the angle of social expanse and addictive behaviour. These authors recognize Western theories of criminology and reject the concept of criminal personality.
A human being is a biological, psychological, social being. The use by Russian criminologists of an integrated method in the investigation of the personality of a criminal is therefore useful and leads to very explicit knowledge in the field of the personality of a criminal, and such knowledge might be useful in the development of preventive measures. Therefore Lithuania and the new generation of Russian criminology representatives should not completely reject the integrated attitude towards the personality of a criminal, but make use of it when developing crime prevention programs.

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