Legal Questions of Deformation of Legal Consciousness: Historical and Legal Analysis

Problem setting. At the present stage of development there is a profound reformation of society's life. The world view of a large part of the population of the country goes to a new level. And the basis of a new worldview is always the universal values, rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the individual. The main task of the state is gradually becoming the protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. However, for the realization of these aspirations, it is necessary to form a positive-minded legal consciousness among citizens of the state. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Analysis of recent researches and publications. Some issues of legal consequences were considered in the works of such domestic and foreign scholar lawyers as V. K. Babaev, V. M. Baranov, K. T. Belskiy, A.B. Venherov, M. M. Voplenko, V. I. Kaminskiy, V. N. Kartashov, N. V. Krylenko, V. N. Kudriavcev, Ye. V. Kuznetcov, D.V. Luk'yanov, N. I. Matuzov, O. V. Petrishin, I. F. Pokrovskiy, V. A. Plastuniv, I. P. Razumovskiy, А.R. Ratinov, V. P. Salnikov, N. Ya. Sokolov and others. Unfortunately, the numerous problems of the deformation of the legal consciousness of citizens are still uncovered. Target of research. The aim of the article is the selection of positive and negative factors that influenced the legal consciousness of citizens and finding ways to overcoming deformations of the consciousness. Article's main body. Consciousness is a kind of social consciousness, which reflects the existing legal reality in legal sensory-rational forms, the legal phenomena that existed in the past, and the desirable legal phenomena, carries out a regulatory and regulatory action on the social activity of people. Signs of legal consciousness: first, it is a form (kind) of social consciousness; and secondly, the subjects (carriers) of legal consciousness are various subjects of law; thirdly, the object of legal consciousness is the relation of a person to legal phenomena, the expression of individual and social assessments of justice or injustice of laws, the activity of judicial and law enforcement agencies, and others like that; Fourth, it is an active element of the legal regulation system, the basis for the development of law and legal thinking; fifth, justice is seen as a specific means of self-regulation of people's behavior, influencing their legitimate choice and deciding whether to comply or violate legal norms. The study of philosophers and lawyers of the problem of deformation of legal consciousness is divided into three main stages: 1) the first stage – this is the end of the XIX century to 1920; 2) the second stage – 1920–1960; 3) the third stage of the 1960s – and to date. We consider it expedient to distinguish the following actual types of deformations of legal consciousness namely legal infantilism, legal idealism, legal nihilism, legal radicalism, legal egocentrism and the most severe form of deformation – the degeneration of legal consciousness into a criminal form. Conclusions and prospects for the development. Each of our considered defects of justice alone or in a heap can lead and leads to the most severe form of deformation - the degeneration of legal consciousness into a criminal form. The reincarnation of legal consciousness is a form of deformation in which the legal consciousness is transformed into its antagonistic form, that is, into a criminal consciousness and is characterized by ideological readiness for decisively unlawful actions. The distortion of the motivational and cognitive spheres of the person reaches such a high level, which decomposes the legal consciousness and fills it with negative content.