Law Journal of the National Academy of Internal Affairs

Such phenomenon as child homelessness results from current Ukrainian social-economic and ethic conditions characterized by increased level of social ill-being reported by families, insecure funding and low remuneration, isolation of troubled children within the school environment, rapid criminalization. Number of homeless children grows due to deepening economic crisis which lasts for decades and affects material conditions of all categories of citizens resulting in alcohol addiction affecting both adults and minors, low morale and total devaluation of traditional concepts and principles. Absence of parental control, their indifference, lack of basic pedagogical skills lead to marginalization of minors and their involvement in criminal activity. Article defines that the organizational foundation of juvenile crime prevention system (committed by minors from fringe groups) in many foreign states is presented by specialized agencies, institutions and organizations (structural units of juvenile justice system). Analysis of foreign experience in juvenile crimes prevention allows to separate the areas of for efficient preventive measures to be taken. Foreign experience proved the effectiveness of adoption of specialized legislative acts with aim to establish legal framework for measures taken to prevent juvenile crimes. Currently there is tendency towards specification of police functions in the area of juvenile crime prevention and its delegation mostly to specialized social and educational establishments whereas law enforcement agencies are left responsible for termination of these crimes. Juvenile crime prevention methodology is based, first and foremost, on educational measures prevailing over the correctional ones. Having accumulated and analyzed best foreign practices, EU recommendations, UN and UNICEF documents, author has proposed an innovative three-level model of prevention of crimes committed by minors from fringe groups to be implemented due to necessity to present efficient system for the abovementioned crime combating and prevention stressing on minimization of punishment for this category of perpetrators.