Correction of criminal infection of adolescents with delinquent behavior

The problem of criminal infection of teenagers and youth is actualized in connection with their delinquent behavior. Domestic and foreign approaches to the explanation of criminal infection are considered, its features are characterized and the relationship with the criminal subculture is determined. The principles of countering its spread among minors serving sentences in correctional institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia are substantiated. It is assumed that the correction of criminal infection can be carried out by the method of psychological training through the formation of universal human values in adolescents, increasing the meaning of life and developing a critical attitude towards the criminal subculture. 
In the framework of empirical research, this assumption is tested. The sample of the study is 99 adolescents serving sentences for committing acquisitive and acquisitive-violent crimes, all of them are male, cf. age 17.26 years, SD - 0.94 years. The assessment of the level of infection is carried out by a questionnaire on the criminal infection of minors. Correction is carried out by the method of role-playing psychological training in a subsample of adolescents with a high rate of criminal infection. A significant decrease in the criminal infection of the experiment participants was established in terms of the emotional and behavioral components of the criminal infection (U-crit, p ≤ 0.05). 
The results indicate the possibility of influencing the level of criminal infection of minors by the method of psychological training, which develops meaningful life orientations, time perspective and devalues the attractive aspects of the criminal subculture. Based on the results obtained, the ways and prospects of psychological correction of criminal infection are discussed.