Formation of Legal Consciousness of Youth as a Condition of

Sustainable Development of Society

L. G. Pochebut

, A. A. Kochin

and D. S. Beznosov

St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Moscow, Russia

St. Petersburg State Institute of Psychology and Social Work, St. Petersburg, Russia

Keywords: Sustainable Development, Legal Consciousness of Modern Youth, Internet Addiction.

Abstract: The pressing issue of modern society is to ensure its sustainable development. One of the conditions is the

formation of the legal consciousness of young people and the prevention of mass protests. In the protesting

crowd, strong emotions and unconscious instincts become the main regulators of behavior, hence the

protesters are unable to resist the impressive influence of the "leader" proposing radical ideas. Research

methods: a comparative psychological analysis of the protesting crowd across the world and Russia, the study

of the case-study of three protest demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The results of the study

suggest that modern youth in the protesting crowd in any country behave in the same way. The main danger

of unauthorized protests is radicalism, when protesters turn from peaceful activities and slogans to clashes

with law enforcement forces. The modern young generation is under the influence of a huge amount of

information received from the media, first of all, social networks. This draws the attention of leaders of radical

organizations in spreading destructive ideology. The establishment of a system of legal education for the

modern young generation, knowledge of the legal standards, and relevant rules of conduct by young people

helps to prevent the illegal behavior of young people and their participation in unauthorized rallies. Due to

the influence of information technology, Internet users are rapidly transforming into protesting crowds. Some

young people are not content with the social and economic conditions of life, which can create protest moods.

Prevention of unauthorized protest actions of young people should be aimed at forming an advanced legal

consciousness among young people. It is necessary to expand legal knowledge scope in the school system of

secondary and higher education

1 INTRODUCTION

The relevance of ensuring sustainable development of

society is determined by the increasing complexity of

modern world processes aimed at globalizing the

political and economic spheres of life. Globalization

trends in the world economy lead to contradictions in

the development of Western and Eastern civilizations,

resistance from local communities. The mounting of

international tension is facilitated by the policy and

practice of holding protest actions and color

revolutions across the world. Globalization is

accompanied by interethnic and confessional

conflicts, the growth of extremism and terrorism. The

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situation is worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic,

there is a production decline, an economic recession,

a sharp increase in morbidity and mortality. We

believe that one of the conditions for ensuring the

sustainability of the development of society is to

strengthen the system of legal education for young

people.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research objective was aimed to search for social

and psychological conditions for ensuring sustainable

development of the country. The research included

602

Pochebut, L., Kochin, A. and Beznosov, D.

Formation of Legal Consciousness of Youth as a Condition of Sustainable Development of Society.

DOI: 10.5220/0010672500003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 602-607

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

the next stages: 1) theoretical analysis of scientific

literature on the psychology of the protesting crowd;

2) study of three case-studies of the behavior of

people in the protesting crowd; 3) consideration of the

social and psychological problems of modern youth

participating in protest actions; 4) justification of the

need to increase the role of legal education of young

people.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

Protest Crowd Psychology. The revolutions in France

forced scientists to seek for reasons of the riots and

aggressiveness of the crowd. G. Le Bon explained the

behavior of people in a crowd by their psychological

characteristics: the loss of a rational explanation of

their actions, a propensity to direct action, infection

with aggressive emotions, resulting in a hypnoidal

state (Le Bon, 1969).

G. At the end of the 19th century, Tard predicted

information globalization, the creation of unified

world networks of information (Tard, 1998). Due to

information technology, bloggers are instilling "new

radical ideas", pliability to calls for protest

demonstrations.

The behavior of the crowd on the streets of

Petrograd during the revolution of 1917 was

described by P.A. Sorokin. He noted the sharply

increased social activity, policy of all-

permissiveness, the creation of short slogans, lack of

subordination and discipline, unstable emotional

states, the emergence of feelings of hatred, contempt

for human life and human suffering, and the cruelty

of a raging crowd (Sorokin. 1992). Foreign scientists

also pay attention to crowd psychology – J. Drury

(Drury, 2020), D. Helbing (Helbing, 2018), J.

Hoggett (Hoggett, 2020), B. Kingshott (Kingshott,

2014), Scoppa (Scoppa., 2020). In Russian

psychology, the study of the crowd was conducted by

A.P. Nazaretyan (Nazaretyan, 2001), D.V.

Ol'shanskij (Ol'shanskij, 2002).

The digitalization of public life leads to the fact

that young people can be filled with certain feelings

and encouraged to protest. On the other hand, the

protests themselves take place not in digital, but in

real space on the squares of different cities. This is not

by accident that the modern leaders of the crowd do

not go out with people on the square, but act through

the Internet, arousing anxious feelings and touching

upon the unrealized expectations of the younger

generation.

Case-study № 1. Content analysis of scientific,

journalistic literature, television reports of mass

protests in Kyiv in 2014, in Paris from 2017-2020, in

Washington in 2021, in Moscow and St. Petersburg

in 2021, showed that the crowd in any country

behaves in the same way. Characteristics of human

behavior in a crowd:

1. Decrease and even ultimate cessation of

interpersonal communication through verbal

communication.

2. The movement of people in a crowd is

characterized by aimlessness, aggressiveness,

psychomotor agitation, chaotic physical activity, low

control and coordination of actions, and a tendency to

the same type of movements increase.

3. High impulsivity, impetuosity in actions.

4. Prompt response to the calls and slogans of the

leaders, imitation of their behavior and movements.

5. Emotional arousal, unfocused gaze, shifty

eyes.

6. Frequent mood swings.

7. High opinionated and judgmental thinking.

8. The need for simple solutions.

9. Inability to act creatively.

10. The possibility of visual, auditory, olfactory

hallucinations, seizures with convulsive disorder in

some members of the crowd (Pochebut, 2017). In a

crowd, a person develops an altered state of

consciousness (ASC), the sensory thresholds are

reduced, the perception of objects is distorted,

emotions are intensified, the cognitive sphere is

disturbed, the attitude of a person to himself, his

body, the perception of time and space changes

(Burgin'on, 2001). A person can fall into a trance state

and act in a way that they would never act in a normal

state.

The psychological phenomena of the crowd

described by scientists found confirmation in modern

events. The main danger of unauthorized protests is

radicalism, when protesters turn from peaceful

activities and slogans to confrontations and clashes

with the police.

Case-study No. 2. Description of the features of

the protest rallies on Bolotnaya Square on May 6,

2012, in Moscow. The action was organized against

the results of the presidential elections. As reported

by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 8

thousand people took part in the action. Crowd

leaders A. Navalny, S. Udaltsov, B. Nemtsov took a

direct part in the protest action and led the way of the

column. There was a clash between protesters and

police officers. The opposition rally authorized by the

authorities degenerated into riots, more than 430

people were detained (Informacionnoe agentstvo

«REKH»). Footage of these clashes was repeatedly

shown on TV.

Formation of Legal Consciousness of Youth as a Condition of Sustainable Development of Society

603

We studied how outrages and collisions took

place. Description of the case-study: three qualified

psychologists watched the video footage of the

clashes between the protesters and the police. We

make it clear that the video was filmed not by law

enforcement officers or journalists, but by the

protesters themselves. This was of special interest

from the point of view of psychological analysis of

the state and behavior of people in this crowd. The

crowd members were extremely aggressive. The

police officers were repeatedly attacked by them. The

protesters were the first to attack the police, trying to

break through their ranks, "crash into the defense",

provoke reflex actions. In fact, unarmed young men

in a state of ecstasy attacked well-trained and armed

police officers.

During the restraint of violations of public order

on Bolotnaya Square, 29 police officers were injured

(Bolotnoe delo).

Protest performances in several cities of Russia

took place from December 04, 2011, to July 18, 2013.

So, for example, according to unofficial data on

December 10, 2012, about 25 thousand people came

out to protest in various regions of the country.

Gradually, the protests in Russia ceased, then spill

over to Ukraine.

In 2021, there is an outbreak of protest movement

in many countries of the world: demonstrations

against the global security law in France, torch-lit

parades in Germany, Denmark, anti-covid protests in

the USA, Great Britain, Norway, Italy, Greece, the

Netherlands, riots in Lebanon.

The growing slowdown in economic growth, the

fall in oil prices, the growing social inequality, and

anti-pandemic measures are the main irritants of the

population. As a result, burned cars on city streets,

destroyed shops, pogroms, and clashes with the

police.

Case-study No. 3. In Russia, on January 23, 2021,

protests were held in 100 cities against the arrest of

A. Navalny. According to media estimates, up to 50

thousand people took part in them in Moscow and

more than 10 thousand people in St. Petersburg and

the region. 3,157 people were detained for violations

of public order, including 214 minors. 45 law

enforcement officers were injured.

Description of the case-study: we interviewed

three police officers who witnessed these events at

Vosstaniya Square in St. Petersburg. They describe

the situation in the following way: "The crowd

gathered in the central district of St. Petersburg and

consisted of 85-90% of young people - schoolchildren

and students. About 8% of the participants in the

protest crowd were middle-aged people. About 2%

were elderly people. The number of men and women

was roughly equal. In the crowd, there were "trouble-

makers" who instigated and called people to

aggressive actions, obscene language, and insults to

the authorities were heard. Protesters used containers

with red paint, bottles, snowballs against police

officers. During the detention of the most aggressive

citizens, knives and traumatic weapons were

confiscated from them, which were not used during

the rally".

According to The Bell, a survey of participants in

an unauthorized rally in Moscow on January 23,

2021, showed that the majority of the protesters were

30-35 years old. Minors were no more than 10%. For

the first time, 42% of the protesters attended a rally.

People went to unauthorized events with a single

agenda and slogans (Izdanie The Bell).

The organizers of the protest intentionally

involved minors in illegal actions. Roskomnadzor has

identified on social media about 2.5 thousand calls for

the participation of teenagers in illegal actions

(Izdanie Rossijskaya Gazet).

According to the official Internet data portal of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "Ministry of

Internal Affairs MEDIA", "90 criminal cases were

initiated on the facts of crimes committed during

unauthorized actions in January - February of this

year" (Izdanie MVD MEDIA).

Socio-Psychological Characteristics of Modern

Youth

The young generation, entering an individual life,

naturally faces many complex social problems.

Young people born in the 21st century (Gen Z,

"digital or networked generation", "millennials") are

actively involved in protests.

A rally under nationalist slogans was held in

Moscow on December 11, 2010. Then a survey was

conducted among young people (1,600 people). It

was revealed that 80% of respondents sympathized

with the participants, not counting this event as

nationalist actions, and with a protest against

corruption in law enforcement agencies (78%) and

"ethnic" crime (58%), noted that modern Russian

society is not organized fairly, expressed

dissatisfaction with social inequality and corruption

(Tishkov and Barash 2014). T.A. Nestik and his

colleagues, studying the fears of young people about

a collective future, believe that young people are at a

"cultural crossroads", fearing both stagnation and

revolution (Nestik, 2019). Young people also have a

sense of the impermanence of what is happening, a

tendency to make decisions quickly (Bezbogova and

Ionceva, 2020.). Most young people experience

psychological distress during the period of

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professional identity (Erpyleva, 2017). Currently,

society is facing a crisis of basic values. The survey

findings of the Russian Public Opinion Research

Center in June 2020 (1,600 respondents aged 18 to

30) showed that Russian youth (60%) consider

material well-being as their most significant life goal

(Izdanie LEVADA-CENTR).

А.V. Bakina and her colleagues identified three

groups of young people, depending on their migration

intentions - patriots, pragmatists, and anti-patriots.

Patriots have interesting jobs, are financially secure,

and lead an active life. Anti-patriots believe that they

have no opportunity to implement their plans, assess

the level of their incomes as low, they are not satisfied

with the economic and social situation. Pragmatists

are satisfied with life, feel safe, but not satisfied with

their income. Both pragmatists and anti-patriots are

about to leave their native town (Bakina, Orlova and

Yaremchuk 2019). The dissatisfaction of some of the

youth with the social, economic, and environmental

conditions of life can create migration or even protest

moods.

Young people of today are under the influence of

a huge amount of information received through the

media. 98% of Russian youth aged 13 to 24 use the

Internet every day (Volkov and Goncharov, 2017).

This is what the leaders of radical organizations are

staking on in spreading destructive ideology

(Sergienko and Ejdel'man, 2017). Teenagers learn

about violence early on through the media or from

movie videos that are full of scenes of violence. But,

in general, the "digital" generation is quite rational.

Young people understand that not all information

posted on the Internet is true. They have developed

the ability to recognize fake news. They are able to

compare facts and analyze information. Young

people are far from being the most protest-minded

group of the population. Generally, they are happy

with their lives, have little interest in politics (Izdanie

Uralweb).

The study of the features of social identification

of young people was carried out by E.P. Belinskaya.

She interviewed senior pupils, students of universities

and technical schools in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and

Krasnoyarsk in 2001 (268 respondents) and 2015

(243 respondents). In a 2001 survey, young people

described a "hero of our time", a model for

identification as a person who "loves Russia, believes

in its future, does not take capital abroad, but invests

in domestic production". A 2015 survey showed that

the civic position of young people cannot be reduced

to patriotism ("loves Russia"), but also "obeys the

law" (Belinskaya, 2017). Consequently, it can be

argued that young people who do not participate in

protest actions are characterized by such qualities as

patriotism and orderliness.

4 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The formation of a developed legal consciousness of

modern youth is, in our opinion, one of the conditions

for the prevention of unauthorized protests and

ensuring sustainable development of society.

Law is the most important spiritual value created

by humanity in the process of historical evolution.

The denial of generally accepted social norms and

values leads to anomie in society. The essential

method of preventing illegal behavior is the formation

of a developed legal consciousness of young people,

the prevention of legal nihilism. Regulatory

requirements fulfill the functions of a regulator of

behavior only if a person has a positive attitude

towards legal norms, which is an indicator of civic

maturity (Kruglov, 1986).

D.S. Beznosov notes that three factors influence

legal realism as a normal type of legal consciousness:

knowledge of legal laws, a system of value

orientations, and personal characteristics (internal

locus of control, low levels of aggressiveness and

anxiety, high achievement motivation). It has been

proven that people who have received legal education

and legal knowledge are more likely to show legal

realism, seeking to pursue their goals by legal means,

taking into account the interests of society and others,

than people who have not received basic legal

knowledge. The study shows that a positive attitude

towards the law, as the main component of developed

legal consciousness, is positively associated with

such personal qualities as organization and

responsibility (Beznosov, 2013).

Nowadays, it is important for young people to

instill a legal culture aimed at achieving law and

order. The law serves as social control and affects

directly the consciousness of people, forming their

legal consciousness. Legal culture should be

considered as part of the culture of the whole society.

This phenomenon is broader and more value-rich than

legal consciousness. Legal culture is the unity of legal

knowledge, assessments, and behavior, the value

content, and the materialization of this knowledge.

The consciousness of participants in unauthorized

protest rallies should be viewed as an immaturity of

legal culture and distortion of legal consciousness,

manifested in the form of legal nihilism or

infantilism. A deformed sense of justice is expressed

in the fact that a person considers the law to be useless

and even a harmful social phenomenon. You can

Formation of Legal Consciousness of Youth as a Condition of Sustainable Development of Society

605

ignore legal rules, participate in unauthorized rallies

and protest actions. On the contrary, with a positive

attitude, a young person recognizes the importance to

comply with legal norms, understands the

significance and value of law as the main regulator of

social behavior.

It has been established that the basis of legal

nihilism is based on the following factors: people's

ignorance of the foundations of legal legislation, poor

awareness of the administrative apparatus of laws and

regulations. Legal nihilism is a sharply critical,

negative attitude towards generally accepted legal

norms, laws, the rule of law, and social values;

massive non-observance and non-performance of

legal regulations. Legal nihilism is a deformation of

legal consciousness, as it emerges under the condition

of ignorance of the laws and a negative attitude

towards them, which is expressed in illegal behavior

and extremely understated estimates of the

importance of legal regulation of social relations.

Legal nihilism forms the basis of the ideology of

extremism and is expressed in calls for a radical

change in all foundations of modern society,

primarily legislative ones.

The essence of unlawful conduct is that it

contradicts existing social relations. Such conduct

harms or is capable of harming the rights and

legitimate interests of citizens, labor collectives, and

organizations. Participation in unauthorized rallies

should be considered as an offense subject to legal

liability.

Young people are more likely to be characterized

not so much by legal nihilism as by legal infantilism

- ignorance of laws and lack of understanding of their

role and significance in society. Therefore, an

extremely important task at the present time is to

create a system of legal education, starting from

secondary school, continuing in technical colleges

and universities. It is the knowledge of legal norms

and regulations that is a solid barrier to the illegal

conduct of young people and their participation in

unauthorized rallies.

5 CONCLUSION

1. A pressing problem is to ensure the sustainability

of the social, political, and economic development of

Russian society. Sustainability gives an

understanding of the prospects for further

development, the achievement of the well-being of

citizens in an evolutionary way, not through

unauthorized protest actions.

2. Internet users under the influence of radical

ideas are able to quickly turn into a protest crowd, in

which there is a transformation of psychical processes

and behavior, expressed in:

 imbalance of emotional states and mutual

infection with aggressive emotions;

 susceptibility to the suggestible influence of the

"leader" proclaiming radical ideas;

 permissiveness of behavior and lack of a sense

of responsibility for their actions.

3. The reasons for the protest actions of some of

the youth are dissatisfaction with the social and

economic conditions of life, the uncertainty of the

future, the pursuit of justice, and the desire to fight

corruption, as well as the susceptibility of some of the

youth to the ideology of radicalism.

4. Schools and universities of our country have to

provide legal education in order to prevent illegal

unauthorized rallies with radical slogans. Only a legal

culture and a developed legal consciousness are able

to offset the influence and appeals of the radical

"leaders" of the protest movement.

The prevention of unauthorized protest actions

should be directed to the formation of patriotism and

mature legal consciousness, the elimination of legal

nihilism in the youth environment.

5. In order to prevent the Internet addiction of

young people, it would make sense to study and use

the experience of creating special services (China)

and counseling centers (Singapore), which are

actively involved in the problems of Internet

addiction and digital addiction of young people.

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