Teenagers rarely receive real sentences. Only serious crimes bring mature children to the dock. But even this in rare cases ends in actual imprisonment. There is a known case where a juvenile criminal ended up in a juvenile correctional facility only based on the results of the 11th trial!
Usually, the most lenient punishments are applied to minors - fines, compulsory and correctional labor, and so on. A very common measure of influence is placement in a closed educational institution, that is, a special school or special vocational school.
Criminal liability of children
According to Russian legislation, criminal liability for most crimes begins at the age of 16. From this age, for a serious or especially serious crime, as well as a repeated crime of a minor degree of gravity, a minor can be placed in a penal colony.
Minors are not punished with imprisonment for first-time crimes of moderate severity.
In rare cases, teenagers over 14 years of age are punished with imprisonment. They are sent to a correctional colony to serve their sentences and only for particularly serious crimes :
- intentional infliction of harm to health;
- murder;
- theft (especially committed by a group and repeatedly);
- robbery;
- extortion;
- rape;
- certain drug trafficking crimes;
- vandalism;
- car theft;
- terrorist attack;
- kidnapping and hostage taking;
- aggravated disorderly conduct;
- operations with explosives.
Moreover, in accordance with Article 88 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a teenager 14-16 years old cannot be given a sentence of more than 6 years, and a 16-18-year-old young man cannot be given a sentence of more than 10 years. And this is regardless of the severity of the article and the number of crimes. The minimum sentence imposed in such cases for adults is reduced by half.
