Introduction. The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, at an extended meeting of the board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, held on April 2, 2024, focused attention on reducing the level of teenage crime and the correctness of the chosen direction of its prevention. This indicates the systematic and comprehensive nature of the measures taken by all subjects of prevention. The central link of the prevention system is the state’s criminal legal policy, which determines the main directions of this struggle through the formation of effective criminal and criminal procedural legislation. The existing system of measures for the criminal legal protection of minors (Chapter 20 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) primarily consists of elements of crime that provide for liability for the criminalization of the teenage environment by involving minors in committing a crime or antisocial actions. Despite the fact that the indicators of these crimes are not so high, they have a high degree of social danger since they encroach on the moral education and development of the personality of a minor, his formation in society. In addition, the formation in a minor of a desire to commit a crime, which often develops into a stable criminal motivation, is a prerequisite for an increase in crime among minors. Therefore, the identification, disclosure, investigation of crimes and the application of criminal legal measures to the perpetrators are necessary elements of the criminal legal response to the crime in question. The effectiveness of an investigator’s activities in investigating crimes largely depends on the timeliness of making a procedural decision to initiate a criminal case. The initiation of a criminal case, as the initial stage of criminal proceedings, consists not only in the issuance of an appropriate procedural document, but is primarily an activity to establish the reasons and grounds for making an appropriate decision. This article discusses some of the features of initiating a criminal case when identifying signs of involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime. Materials and methods. The basis of the study is the Constitution of the Russian Federation, criminal procedural legislation, decisions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The methodological basis of the study was the general dialectical method of scientific knowledge, as well as cognitive methods of generalization, description, methods of observation, comparison and analysis. The results of the study. Signs of involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime are identified that are sufficient to initiate a criminal case. Findings and conclusions. The timely identification of signs of the crime in question and the initiation of criminal proceedings will help improve the quality of the investigation into the involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime and facilitate the process of proving guilt. And the achieved main goals of criminal proceedings - protecting the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations who have suffered from crimes and imposing fair punishment on the perpetrators - will contribute to the prevention of crime among minors.
initiation of a criminal case, reasons for initiating a criminal case, grounds for initiating a criminal case, signs of a crime, sufficiency, minor, juvenile delinquency, involvement in the commission of a crime, investigation of crimes, evidence.
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