Legal Mechanisms for Countering Disinformation in the Fight against the Promotion of a Criminal Lifestyle as a Subculture
Gosudarev T.L. Legal mechanisms for countering disinformation in the fight against the promotion of a criminal lifestyle as a subculture. Penitentiary Science, 2025, vol. 19, no. 1 (69), pp. 82–90. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2025.69.1.010
The article is devoted to the analysis of legal mechanisms for countering disinformation in the framework of combating propaganda of a criminal lifestyle as a separate subculture. Purpose: based on the generalization of theoretical, legal, organizational and preventive methods of countering disinformation aimed at spreading destructive subcultures, including those promoting a criminal lifestyle as an acceptable social phenomenon, to identify promising areas for the formation of a sustainable anti-criminal worldview. Methods: historical, comparative legal, empirical methods of description, interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; private scientific methods: interdisciplinary, systemic, comparative legal, statistical, systemstructural, sociological. Results: the concept of a criminal lifestyle, its public danger and impact on young people and the role of legal norms in preventing the spread of disinformation that supports such views are considered. The article analyses current legislative initiatives, law enforcement issues, and proposals to improve legal regulation in the context of combating criminal propaganda. In addition, some socio-economic factors contributing to the spread of the destructive ideology, primarily among young people, are identified. Conclusion: the fight against disinformation should be based on an integrated approach that takes into account both legislative and educational measures. To reduce the demand of certain social strata for information of this kind, solving socio-economic problems is an important element of the system of measures to counter the spread of a destructive ideology of the criminal subculture. Measures aimed at forming an anti-criminal worldview should be implemented not only by law enforcement agencies, but also by prevention agencies with the involvement of public organizations.
Keywords: Criminal lifestyle; subculture; disinformation; legal mechanisms; propaganda; the youth; law-making
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