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Despite many structural differences between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. there has been a growing similarity between the social problems of the two societies, among them juvenile delinquency. Significantly Soviet juvenile delinquency became widespread not during but after the most disruptive stages of industrialisation. While the scarcity of Soviet statistical data prevents quantitative comparisons, scattered studies and abundant press reports permit the comparison of some features of Soviet and American delinquency. Two major similarities emerge in regard to the genesis of the phenomenon: boredom and the gap between aspirations and opportunities. Soviet delinquency, among other things, differs from the American in being less violent, less organised and less differentiated. Soviet theories of juvenile delinquency also differ from the American ones in that they attempt to locate the sources of delinquency outside their own society: in the past (survivals) and in foreign influences (contamination). A third Soviet approach stresses the responsibility of the individual in a wholesome and non-crimogenic environment. Correspondingly Soviet penal policies are harsher and more punitive. At the same time there is a striking similarity, on the empirical level, between factors associated with delinquency, i.e., broken homes, drinking parents, retarded intellectual development, truancy, low socioeconomic status, misuse of free time, etc. |
