Defining the Juvenile Criminal in Nineteenth-Century Russia

This paper uses Russia as a case study of the role played by the law in defining the transition from minor to adult. During the second quarter of the nineteenth century, Russian lawmakers frequently revisited the definition of the juvenile criminal and the appropriate penalties to be imposed on them. Recognizing that individuals developed their mental capacities at different rates, they nevertheless defined separate stages in the period before adulthood. In the wake of the Great Reforms, Russian jurists argued in favor of raising both the minimum age at which an individual could be held responsible as an adult for criminal acts and the minimum age at which minors could be prosecuted at all. Their arguments made explicit their unease with the state of development in Russia vis-à-vis the West. A modern conception of adolescence did not emerge in Russia until later, but the law played a crucial role in setting the stage for that development.