Deviant Behaviour of the Population as a Reflection of Maladaptive Processes in Russian Society (Based on State Statistics)

Abstract

The article focuses on studying changes in the destructive behaviour of various population groups in Russia over a period of more than 40 years (1980-2022). The article examines the role of state social statistics in studying various forms of deviance, discussing its possibilities, functions, and limitations. Based on the analysis of statistical data (Rosstat, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc.), the dynamics of criminological indicators of crime, sales of alcoholic beverages, alcohol consumption, prevalence of alcoholism, alcohol-induced psychoses, drug addiction, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), and others are considered. Special attention is paid to analysing destructive manifestations in the adolescent-youth environment, as the most vulnerable category that responds acutely to processes of social transformation and modernisation. The review of scientific sources and analysis of statistical data allowed to identify stages in the development of destructive processes in Russia: 1) the early post-war period of increased deviant problems - 1945-1947; 2) a period of relative stabilisation - 1959-1965; 3) a latent period of growing deviant problems - the late 1960s to the 1980s; 4) a sharp surge in all forms of deviations in all population groups - the 1990s to the mid-2000s; 5) a period of relative stabilisation with a moderate trend towards a gradual but fluctuating decline in some types of deviance - 2006-2019; 6) the formation of conditions for a new surge in some forms of destructive behaviour - from 2020 onwards. It has been revealed that the period of a sharp surge in deviantological and criminological problems in the 1990s was preceded by a fairly long 'latent' period of escalating destructive processes, hidden behind relatively positive statistical figures. The work demonstrates that studying and analysing various indicators of state statistics reflecting destructive processes in society is an important stage in the sociological analysis of the entire cause-and-effect complex of deviant behaviour in the population. This is necessary both for assessing the state of the system for preventing negative social phenomena and for developing adequate measures to impact deviant individuals. At the same time, during the analysis, a number of limitations in using official statistical records have been identified, related to: 1) the high dynamics of the social situation in the country, leading to the 'lag' of statistical data from real social conditions; 2) the high level of latency of most destructive phenomena; 3) the absence of a unified system for recording deviant manifestations; 4) the lack of data on many manifestations of deviance.