Compulsory Educational Measures

in the USSR, measures applied to minors in place of criminal punishment for crimes that do not present great social danger, for socially dangerous actions committed at an age that precludes criminal liability, for antisocial acts, such as minor hooliganism, and for other such offenses. Adolescents who have committed crimes are subject to compulsory educational measures by decision of the court that tries the criminal case (Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, art. 402) or by a commission on juvenile affairs if the court or investigator, with the consent of the procurator, terminates the criminal case and directs the case to such a commission. In the remaining instances, compulsory educational measures are applied only by the commission on juvenile affairs.

The measures applied by the court and the commissions are almost exactly the same: delivering an admonition, that is, a public censure of the adolescent’s actions with a warning of criminal responsibility if the actions are repeated; requiring a public or other type of apology to the victims; requiring that damages up to 20 rubles be paid, a requirement that can be imposed on an adolescent who has reached the age of 15 at the time of the trial; placing the adolescent under strict supervision by parents or guardians, or under the observation of a collective of working people, a public organization, or an individual, with the consent or at the request of the collective or citizen; placing him in a special medical-educational or educational institution —boarding school, children’s home, and the like—or in a hospital, if treatment is required; or placing him in a special general educational or vocational-technical school. Along with applying the compulsory educational measures, the conditions that promoted the offenses must be identified and eliminated and necessary steps taken to influence the persons guilty of creating these conditions

Unlike criminal punishment, compulsory educational measures do not give rise to a criminal record.