The legal awareness of various social groups is traditionally considered as one of the most important elements of sociological knowledge. Of particular interest in this regard is the study of those features of the formation of the legal consciousness of convicts, which is formed in a closed (penitentiary) society. The article develops methodological tools for studying the legal consciousness of various social groups of convicts (formed on formal or informal principles of organization). Its verification is carried out by identifying the content of the universality of legal representations (forms and types of behavior). Qualitative assessments and expectations are stratified on various grounds (formal and informal) of convicts and their groups. The author's main idea is that closed social education (penitentiary society) is characterized by relative unity in assessing the legal order and legal expectations regarding the functioning of socio-legal institutions. The author shows that in conditions of isolation of convicts from society, the stability of modified collective (group) representations in the field of law of all formal and informal social categories serving sentences in the form of imprisonment is manifested. This is determined by the historical and cultural context of defining the basic social values of convicts as a special social group. Accordingly, the effectiveness of legal regulation depends on the direct nature (positive or negative) of integrated collective or group ideas about law as a regulator of certain social relations. All this allows the author to state the increased responsiveness of legal relations formed in conditions of closed social education. The author notes the existence of objective obstacles in obtaining verified empirical data in a closed penitentiary society.
Ирина Анатольевна Петрулевич (Mon,) studied this question.