FBIS3-23986
"jpusr023___94049"
FBIS-USR-94-023
Document Type:JPRS
Document Title:
FBIS Report: Central Eurasia
10 March 1994
RUSSIA
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
Seminar on Criminology Held
1990-1993 Crime Figures, Pessimistic Prognosis for Future
944E0470B Moscow DELOVOY MIR in Russian No 14, 24-30 Jan 94
p 20
944E0470B
Moscow DELOVOY MIR
Language: Russian
Article Type:CSO
[Unattributed report: "The Forecast Is For Foul Weather
(From the Theses Prepared for the Criminology Association
Seminar)"]
[Text] The past few years have been characterized by an
unprecedented growth in crime, changes in its characteristics,
and for all practical purposes the loss of state and public
control over the crime situation.
During 1990-1992 the absolute increase in the number of
recorded crimes more than doubled annually: In 1990 it increased
by 14 percent; in 1991--by 34 percent; and in 1992--by 17
percent. This trend continued in 1993. Of special notice is the
increase in aggravated crime (34 percent).
There has been a sharp increase in the number of crimes
committed with firearms and in drug-related crimes.
Crime has acquired new qualitative characteristics: It is
now
better armed, and its organized nature and criminal
professionalism have increased. According to MVD [Ministry of
Internal Affairs] operational data, 4,352 organized criminal
groups were identified in 1992 (5.5 times more than in 1990), 15
percent of which had corrupt and 23 percent interregional
connections. More than 800 organized crime groups were watched
by units for combating contraband and corruption of the Russian
Ministry of Security. More than 40 international smuggling crime
groups have been identified. More than 130 "Russian" stores
selling Russian antiques have been found abroad.
Organized crime families operate in the sphere of
privatization, conversion to joint-stock holding, financial and
credit relations, and exchange activities. The drug business is
actively developing in Russia. Officials--including those with
responsibility for developing the state's political and economic
ties and implementing long-term programs of international
cooperation--working in Russian organizations abroad are being
actively drawn into smuggling and other criminal activities.
Criminological research shows that official crime data
reflect less and less the real criminal situation in Russia.
Even grave crimes endangering life and health are reported
increasingly less to law enforcement bodies--both by victims and
medical facilities.
A decline in economic crime also is associated to a
considerable degree with less information flowing to law
enforcement organs. In the past they received a considerable
amount of material from the system of people's control, the
construction bank, trade inspection, and other control organs
which now have either been liquidated or substantially
reorganized. In addition, a considerable number of criminal
actions in the economic sphere involves the private sector,
which prefers not to let state organs meddle in it. As a result,
there has been a steady decrease in recorded abuse of position,
economic operations, and other crimes in the economic sphere:
150,972 in 1991, 141,271 in 1991, and 127,085 in 1992.
Increasingly crimes remain unsolved. As compared to 1989 the
number increased by 37 percent in 1990, by 74 percent in 1991,
and by 101 percent in 1992. This indicates that the law
enforcement system is working at the limit of its capacity. Many
crimes will never be solved. The growing remainder of unsolved
crimes as of 1 January 1993 amounted to more than 3 million.
Over the period 1989-1992 the number of staff members of
internal affairs organs charged with crimes increased by a
factor of 2.2, including those charged with abuse of official
position and crimes against the law system--by a factor of 3.7.
There were 3.4 times more crimes unmasked involving
bribe-taking. In 1992, 1,641 members of internal affairs organs
were charged with commission of general crimes (murder, theft,
robbery, and so on), which is almost twice as many as in 1989.
Many criminals, even when identified, practically do not
incur the penalty envisaged by law. With respect to identified
thieves who have committed crimes through embezzlement,
misappropriation of funds, or abuse of official position,
charges have been brought against only about 30 percent; 5-6
percent were sentenced to prison terms, and with respect to the
overwhelming majority of bribe-takers the sentence that is
handed down is below the lowest minimum. Such impunity
contributes to a blossoming of corruption.
Many crimes and criminals end up out of bounds for law
enforcement also because of the lower social-legal activism of
the population, intimidation or bribery of victims and
witnesses, unclear policy with respect to crime (for a long time
a moratorium was advocated on combating economic crime during
the period of transition to the market), extremely poor
organization of inspection (audit) control, and the fact that
the legal base for combating crime lags behind the changes in
crime itself. Numerous forms of corrupt behavior (acceptance of
invitations to foreign trips, receiving preferential credit,
etc.) are far from always covered by provisions of current
legislation. Criminal liability for organizing and running an
organized crime family still has not been put in effect; there
is no proper legal treatment for professional crime carried out
in the form of unlicensed enterprise, and a number of other
socially dangerous forms of behavior--financial transgressions,
brokerage machinations of exchange dealers, setting up false
enterprises, false bankruptcy, improper use of targeted credits,
and other actions.
The real state of affairs with respect to crime and other no
less socially dangerous phenomena is in reality worse by several
orders of magnitude than that recorded by crime statistics. With
the loss of control over crime, the state itself practically
becomes criminal. It permits further enrichment of the criminal
world. According to calculations of the Analytical Center of the
Russian Academy of Sciences, 55 percent of capital and 80
percent of voting stock are shifting into the hands of criminal
and foreign capital; in rare cases when charges of embezzlement
of state and public property are prosecuted, only two-thirds of
material damage is reimbursed. A considerable number of state
and municipal employees are corrupt.
In the next few years we may expect a further increase in
crime because of the increasing criminalization of juveniles and
members of social groups of the population that were considered
safe until the end of 1980's--researchers, military servicemen,
and so on.