Personality of a minor in criminal proceedings: aspects of maladaptation

Introduction. In Russian society, a decrease in the number of offences committed by minors, as well as crimes against minors, has been stated. At the same time, the relevance of the problem of maladaptation of minors having been involved in criminal events, either as participants, victims or witnesses, remains important and significant both in theoretical and practical terms. The problem of maladaptation of minors as parties in criminal proceedings is observed in all forms of subjectivity: suspect/ defendant, victim, witness. The phenomenon of maladaptation, its types and levels, as well as its intensity depend on the ratio and coherence of the external actor and internal readiness for maladaptive processes. In psychological terms, maladaptation affects regulatory processes. The criminal event is an actor of maladaptation of a victim and witness. The maladaptation affects the understanding and realisation of the guilt for the criminal act committed, the content and consequences of the criminal event. Purpose of the research. The research is aimed at: determining the correlation of self-regulation processes with age and individual readiness to understand the guilt as an event and consequence; identifying the signs of manifestation, content and methods of diagnosing the social defect of a minor as a consequence of his participation in a criminal event; developing the requirements for methods and techniques of forensic psychological examination of minors; developing a model of a psychologist’s activity as a specialist in criminal proceedings to support the rights and interests of a minor; determining the status, content and means of an expert-psychologist’s activity to assess the reliability of the testimony of minor participants involved in criminal proceedings. Research methods. The research was based on information analysis and empirical examination. Results. A number of conclusions were drawn and a few promising research tasks were formulated on the basis of the research findings.