The Category of Immaturity in a Legal Context

We presented psychological and legal approaches to the concept of immaturity, and the definition of the perpetrator. We analyzed the differences of age aspects of the subject of crime in different countries, the criteria for establishing a minimum age of criminal responsibility. We discuss the problem of the possibility of lowering the age of criminal responsibility in the Russian Federation from the point of view of psychological science. We considered the legal category of "mental retardation not associated with mental illness" and its psychological equivalent - "personal immaturity". We describe the main problems arising in the course of the complex judicial, psychological and psychiatric examination for the presence of a mental retardation not associated with mental illness in minor. We presented psychological approaches to the concept of "personal immaturity", described the concept of "mature personality".

1. Artemenko N.V. Aktual'nye problemy vmenyaemosti (nevmenyaemosti) i vozrasta ugolovnoi otvetstvennosti: Sravnitel'nyi istoriko-pravovoi analiz ugolovnogo zakonodatel'stva RF i Frantsii. Avtoref. diss. kand. jur. nauk. [Actual problems of responsibility (insanity) and the age of criminal responsibility: Comparative historical and legal analysis of the criminal laws of the Russian Federation and France. Ph. D. (Law) Thesis]. Rostov-na-Donu, 1999. 32 p.
2. Baibarin A.A. Ugolovno-pravovaya differentsiatsiya vozrasta: monografiya [Criminal legal age differentiation: monograph]. Moscow: Vysshaya shkola, 2009. 252 p.
3. Vygotskii L.S. Pedologiya podrostka [Pedology teenager]. Sobr. soch.: V 6 t. Moscow: Pedagogika, 1984. T. 4. 432 p.
4. Vygotskii L.S. Biogeneticheskii podkhod v psikhologii i pedagogike [Biogenetic approach in psychology and pedagogy]. In Kabanova O.A. (eds.) Khrestomatiya po vozrastnoi psikhologii [Readings on the psychology]. Moscow, 1999. 358 p.
5. Dozortseva E.G., Fedonkina A.A. Psikhologicheskie osobennosti nesovershennoletnikh pravonarushitelei s lichnostnoi nezrelost'yu [Psychological characteristics of juvenile offenders with personal immaturity] [Elektronnyi resurs] Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie PSYEDU.ru [Psychological science and education psyedu.ru], 2013, no. 3. Available at http://psyedu.ru/journal/2013/3/3428.phtml (data obrashcheniya: 07.04.2014)
6. Dushkina E.O. Isklyuchenie ugolovnoi otvetstvennosti nesovershennoletnikh vsledstvie otstavaniya v psikhicheskom razvitii Avtoref. diss. kand. jur. nauk. [Exclusion of juvenile criminal responsibility due to mental retardation. Ph. D. (Law) Thesis]. Moscow, 2005. 200 p.
7. Leont'ev D.A. Ocherk psikhologii lichnosti [Essay of personality psychology]. Moscow: Smysl, 1993. 43 p.
8. Leont'ev D.A. Psikhologiya smysla. Priroda, stroenie i dinamika smyslovoi real'nosti [Psychology of sense. Nature, structure and dynamics of semantic reality]. Moscow: Smysl, 2003. 487 p.
9. Makushkin E.V., Badmaeva V.D., Dozortseva E.G., Oshevskii D.S., Chibisova I.A. Kompleksnaya psikhologo-psikhiatricheskaya ekspertiza nesovershennoletnikh obvinyaemykh v ugolovnom protsesse: rukovodstvo dlya vrachei [Comprehensive psychological and psychiatric expertise of juvenile offenders in criminal proceedings]. Moscow; St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya, 2014. 124 p.
10. Meditsinskaya i sudebnaya psikhologiya: Kurs lektsii [Medical and forensic psychology: Lectures]. In. Dmitrieva T.B. (eds.). Moscow: Genezis, 2009. 606 p.
11. Mel'nikova E.B. Yuvenal'naya yustitsiya: problemy ugolovnogo prava, ugolovnogo protsessa i kriminologii [Juvenile justice: problems of criminal law, criminal procedure and criminology]. Moscow: Delo, 2001. 272 p.
12. Pavlov V. G. Sub"ekt prestupleniya [Crime committer]. St. Petersburg.: Publ. “Yuridicheskii tsentr Press”, 2001. 318 p.
13. Portnova A.G. Lichnostnaya zrelost': podkhody k opredeleniyu [Personal maturity: approaches to defining ]. Sibirskii psikhologicheskii zhurnal [Siberian psychological journal], 2008, no. 27, pp. 37–41.
14. Sitkovskaya O.D. Ugolovnyi kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii. Psikhologicheskii kommentarii [The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Psychological commentary]. Moscow: Kontrakt, Vol'ers Kluver, 2009. 192 p.
15. Kozochkina I.D. (ed.) Ugolovnoe pravo zarubezhnykh gosudarstv. Obshchaya chast': Uchebnoe posobie [Criminal Law of foreign countries. Overview: Tutorial]. Moscow: Omega-L, Institut mezhdunarodnogo prava i ekonomiki im. A.S. Griboedova, 2003. 576 p.
16. Ugolovnyi kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii [The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation]. Moscow: Eksmo, 2014. 256 p.
17. E. Cauffman, L. Steinberg Immaturity of judgment in adolescents: why adolescents may be less culpable than adults. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 2000, no. 18, pp. 741–760.
18. K. Heilbrun. Juvenile Justice: Evaluations of Competence and Transfer. Reverse Transfer. The American Academy of Forensic Psychology Intensive Review Workshop (Advanced) Albuquerque NM, 2011. 22 p.