Age as an element of the social portrait of the juvenile participant in the criminal process

Social-demographic characteristics of the individual and social groups are studied by many natural, social sciences and humanities. One of the most important characteristics is age which reflects the degree of physiological, psychological and social maturity; therefore, it is considered by sociological and legal sciences which rely on its statistical estimates in sociological, criminological and forensic research. Age characteristics are important for legislative and law enforcement activities, in the prevention of social deviations. Age characteristics, for example, of persons who broke the law, are used in the social portrait of crime, which reflects the social-group stratification and emphasizes the most significant features of the social group consisting of persons with deviant consciousness and behavior, i.e. allows to classify criminals. The study of juvenile delinquency helps to identify the features, conditions and trends of such crimes, i.e., to assess the reproduction of crime due to its youth part. Such studies have a pronounced victimological orientation and describe not only the personality type of the juvenile criminal, but also the personality type of the victim of a criminal assault, which has not only cognitive, but also practical significance - for developing measures for combating and preventing crimes. The article focuses on the age characteristics of juveniles participating in the criminal process in the status of accused, victims and witnesses. The authors emphasize that the investigation of such crimes faces difficulties due to the age characteristics of this social-demographic group; therefore, the knowledge of the typology of juveniles (their agerelated psycho-physiological and socio-moral characteristics) is the key to establishing contact with them and, accordingly, to choosing the best methods for obtaining the most complete and truthful information. This conclusion is confirmed not only by the publications of other authors, but also by the data of criminal cases and sociological surveys of investigators, experts, judges and juveniles participating in the investigation of crimes.