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.