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Uvarov I.A. [The functioning of informal norms of behavior in a penitentiary society] Political Science and Technology, 2024, Vol. 4, Iss. 1 Available at: https://politicjournal.ru/PDF/06PK124.pdf (in Russian).

The functioning of informal norms of behavior in a penitentiary society

Uvarov Igor Alekseevich
Russian State Social University, Moscow, Russia
Nevinnomyssk State Humanitarian and Technical Institute, Nevinnomyssk, Russia
E-mail: uvarov.igor@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2678-7505
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=456707

Abstract. The article examines the functioning of informal norms of behavior of convicts in the penitentiary society. The interest in this problem is due to the existence in the domestic penal enforcement system of informal relations between convicts serving sentences in the form of imprisonment. As a basis for the implementation of such informal norms, the features of the hierarchical system of organization and management of the entire penitentiary society are defined. Informal norms function in specific conditions of peculiar competition between the requirements of the current penal enforcement legislation, declaring the equality of all convicts before the law, and informal norms of the penitentiary society, which can significantly affect the level of acceptable forms of behavior of the convict, depending on his informal status. The author shows that this kind of uneven distribution of material benefits, depending on the status of a particular convict, creates insoluble contradictions in the system of informal regulation of the life of the penitentiary society. Most clearly, this can be illustrated by the presence in the penitentiary society of the «social bottom» of an informal hierarchy called the category of «rejected». The presence of this category of convicts can serve as a kind of demonstration of the consequences that a convict who has committed a violation of informal norms will have to put up with. The main tool in the implementation of rigid informal imperatives is violence. It is his result that is the transfer of the convict from one social group to another — a «lower step» of the informal hierarchy. The presence of such polarization in the relations between convicts creates the idea that informal norms are determined by a kind of consensus of all those serving sentences. In fact, its main regulators are representatives of the penitentiary community. They have the opportunity to use informal relationships to their advantage.

Keywords: informal norms of behavior; penitentiary society; penal community; penitentiary prevention; informal relationships; «rejected»; «social bottom»

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