Abstract: MPHASIZING the importance of the family unit, Soviet legal circles are now centering their attention on laws preserving the home. Gone are the years when theoreticians argued that the family was a superannuated form of social organization, and that the child in a socialist society should be maintained and educated in mass institutions. Although political considerations may have called for such a policy in the early period of the Russian revolution due to the need of quickly overcoming the conservative influence of parents long steeped in discarded traditions, no longer does any one broach such a proposition. Today's policy of child protection and the prevention of juvenile crime is directed towards the strengthening of those organizations best fitted for the care of children. Emphasis is being laid upon the family unit, guardianship, the school, and manual labor for those children not fitted to continue in the schoolroom after the early stages. The comparatively few children who do not react to these methods of approach and become delinquents may now be held accountable under the criminal codes which have been recently revised to conform with the policy of today. Statistics studied by the Institute of Criminal Politics in Moscow' have pointed up the situation so that all may see the need for the reforms of 1935 and I936 in the field of family and criminal law. Of the I,OOi juvenile delinquents studied in Leningrad in I934 and I935, 90% spent their leisure time in an unorganized way outside the family, while only 7% of the offenders spent their recreation hours within the family circle. The remaining 3% played in parks and playgrounds in an organized way during their unoccupied moments. The 2,111 cases examined in Moscow during the same period showed a similar situation. Of this group 88% spent their leisure in an unorganized way outside the home, while 7.7% spent their free time with the family. The balance played in an organized way in parks and playgrounds. Of the group which remained in the home during leisure hours, 46% came from families where the mother and father were both employed. Grandmothers, older children or housemaids were left in charge.
Publication Year: 1938
Publication Date: 1938-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 6
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