Legal infantilism (experience of theoretical and legal analysis of socio-legal phenomenon)

Introduction. Anincreasing trend of illegal acts including grave and especially grave crimes, violent crime, a growing number of participants involved in criminal activity, the growth of criminal damage have become sustainable characteristics of criminological situation of modern Russia. The identification of the causes of the current situation affected the importance of the factors of choosing the model of legal behavior by the individual. The important feature of legal behavior is the developed legal consciousness of the individual and the existence of legal consciousness deformations, characterized by legal nihilism, legal idealism and legal infantilism. The phenomenon of “legal infantilism” has not been thoroughly examined in law despite the worksof legal scholars V. R. Petrov, P. P. Baranov, D. E. Marchenko, and A. M. Tsaliev. Manifestations of legal infantilism, the degree of its influence on the current criminological situation makes it necessary to search for and implement means of counteracting its formation. Methods. The main methodological principles of the research were the breadth of learning of legal processes and phenomena, the unity of theory and practice. System and value methodological approaches were the basic methods of research. The method of integrity allowed to determine the characteristics of legal infantilism, forms of its manifestation and prerequisites for its emergence identified by scientists during the historiographical analysis. Results. The research revealed that legal infantilism as a phenomenon has not received legal systematic examination so far.The article characterizes approaches to the analysis of the phenomena “infantilism” and “legal infantilism”. The paper revealed the significant influence on the ideas concerning legal infantilism by the achievements of medicine and the absence of a comprehensive study of legal infantilism in modern jurisprudence.Different types of infantilism (personal, psychological, social) are characterized; legal infantilism is considered to be a type of social infantilism, a specific form of manifestation of deaxiological legal consciousness. The reasons for the formation and forms of manifestation of legal infantilism were determined. The article makes the conclusion about the usefulness of developing a strategy to counteract the formation of legal infantilism in the legal consciousness of Russian citizens, the structural elements of which should be scientific and legal, legislative and law enforcement components.