Forming the perception of criminal behavior motives in social consciousness

Pichugin Vitaly G.

Significant changes are going on in modern social consciousness. They are caused by difficulties of socioeconomical development and great influence of mass media, as well as absence of socially important ideology and legal upbringing of youth. As a result, views on both criminal subculture as a whole and criminal motives of behavior have changed significantly. The criminal behavior itself and the objective side of the crime are justified by depicting the protagonist’s positive motives and their attractive personal characteristics. According to the results of sociopsychological research of views on criminal behavioural motives, taking the citizens’ age demographic into account, views change from positive (characterictic of age demographic younger than 30) to negative (age demographic older than 50). Perception of crime behavior motives also defines the attitude towards the criminal actions themselves, whether it is disapproval of such actions or finding mitigating circumstances and justifying the crime.

Keywords:psychology, legal psychology, motivation, motive, crime, criminal behavior, perception