Crime and Crime Control Policy in Modern Russia

1
Crime and Crime Control Policy in Modern Russia

• Anna Smorgunova
• Russian State Pedagogical University of Herzen
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• anna_smorgunova_at_yahoo.com

2
What is Crime?

• Article 14 Criminal Code of Russian Federation
• Crime is a socially dangerous illegal act
  prohibited by this code under a threat of
  punishment
• Criminologists disagree with such a narrow
  definition
• Are these crimes? Is there an agreement in
  society that they should be punished?
• Homicide? (Capital punishment?)
• Theft of 100 euros? (max 5 years in prison)
• Theft committed by a son?
• Human beings traffic and use of slaves labor
  (max 5 years in prison)
• Regular beating? (max 3 years in prison)
• Rape by a stranger? (max 6 years in prison)
• Rape by a husband?

3

• No objective criteria social harm? social
  agreement? status of the offender
  (dangerousness)?
• Crime is a social construct
• Definitions vary in different times, cultures,
  social settings
• It can be a product of social agreement
  (consensus) or a result of a conflict when those
  who gain power define what acts should be
  prohibited and punished
• Fear of crime produced by mass media affects our
  perception of crime
• Specific type of crime becomes a social problem
  when in fact it is not

4
Implications

• How can we measure crime if we dont know what it
  is?
• Latent crime and crime that is registered but is
  not really a crime
• Crime statistics is socially constructed
• How can we explore causes of crime, make
  judgements about typical criminals and victims?
• How can we find solutions for crime control? What
  are we trying to control?

5
Crime in Russia

• Is measured by ministry of internal affairs
• Only official militsia statistics is used
• No official victims surveys
• No self-reports of the offenders
• Experts claim that real crime is 4-5 times higher
  (it is 1,17 times higher for homicide 4,21 for
  thefts 70 for the use of coercion to get
  testimony from the offender 107 times for
  illegal arrest)

6
Crime in Russia 1961-2006
7
Crime rate per 100 000 (1961-2005)
8
Crime in Russia
9
Crime in Russia last 5 years tendencies
10
Crime in 2 major cities
11
Registered crimes - 2006
12
Offenders (gender and age)
13
Offenders (employment)
14
Offenders distribution(gender, age, employment)
15
In total number of registered crimes Russia is 6
in the world, Finland is 19 with 530 270
registered crimes a year
16
When we measure crime per capita Rusiia is
31, Finland is 3
17
Tendencies of crime in Russia

• Crime is growing (as almost everywhere in the
  world)
• The largest growth is in 1989-1993
• Decline in the middle of 90ies probably due to
  latent crime (unofficial policy of the Ministry
  of Internal Affairs not to register crimes)
• Significant growth in registration of property
  crimes in the last 2 years (theft 2003 -1150800
  2004 1276880 2005 1572996)

18
Structure of crime
Note The rate of homicide in Russia is over 20
per 100000. It is twice higher than in the
world (9,8 on average). Homicide rate in
Finland is 2 per 100000.
19
Offenders convicted by the court ()
20
Distribution across types of punishment (12 types
of punishment in Russian Criminal Code)
21
Prisons in Russia

• 871,2 thousand people are imprisoned (59,2
  females)
• There are 765 prisons for convicted criminals
• 368 detention centers
• 62 prisons for juvenile delinquents (13,3
  thousand prisoners)
• 572 thousand people are on parole and probation
• 350 thousand people are employees of these
  institutions

22
Prisoners (1999-2006)
http//www.fsin.su/main.phtml?cid6
23
Detention center Matrosskaja tishina (Moscow) few
years ago 140 people (36 beds)
24
Number of prisoners per 100 000 in different
parts of the world
                                               
                       
www.prison.org
25
Number of prisoners at the beginning of the 20th
and 21st centuries
www.prison.org
26
Rates of prisoners with tuberculosis and HIV (per
1000 prisoners)
www.prison.org
27
www.prison.org
28
Criminal Justice Agencies

• According to public opinion polls (Demos center)
  60 of people have negative attitude towards
  police
• According to Levada center 69 do not trust
  police 84 believe that the problem of
  arbitrariness is very serious 56 do not believe
  that there is a legal way to protect their
  rights
• According to Center of Research of Public Opinion
  (?????) 65 do not believe that government is
  capable of protection of its citizens from
  terrorism
• The biggest issue is tortures by police and
  administration of penitentiary institutions in
  the middle of November UN Committee against
  Torture gives recommendations to Russia

29
Tendencies in Crime Control Policy

• Slight decline in the use of imprisonment as
  punishment
• No real alternatives
• Restorative justice initiatives but is not
  widely implemented
• Juvenile justice initiatives
• Lack of legal regulations (no laws on domestic
  violence prevention, anti-corruption, restorative
  justice etc.)