Девиантность, преступность, социальный контроль в обществе постмодерна

The interrelation between the police and the population is old («eternal») and is a complicated problem. The centuries old experience shows that these relations between the police and the public a not friendly and ideal. The increase of crimes after the World War II, «fear of crime» and «moral panic» activate the search for effective methods and means of social control over crime. One of the strategies developed is community policing (Kury, 1997; Lab, Das, 2003; Skogan, Hartnett, 1997). The notion of community policing is not very easy. It has many definitions (Lab, Das, 2003: 4-9). The main idea of «community policing» is the partnership and, cooperation between the police and the community (population, citizens) for better crime prevention. The police render service to citizens (tax-payers). It is a pity, that the partnership between the Russian «Militia» and the community is an illusion in contemporary Russia.

The real strategy of criminal policy is absent in Russia. There are some de jure programs, but there are not really operational without the financing, mechanism for realization. Unfortunately, de facto crime control is still dominated by repressive approaches in contemporary Russia.

The current punishment system in Russia stipulates the following types of criminal punishment: the death penalty (Art. 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, 1996 – CC RF); life imprisonment (Art. 57); deprivation of freedom (Art. 56); limitation of freedom (up to 5 years, Art. 53); arrest (up to 6 months, Art. 54); corrective labor (up to 2 years, Art. 50); compulsory labor (up to 240 hours, Art. 49); fines (Art. 46); deprivation of the right to hold a certain position or to conduct certain activities (up to 5 years, Art. 47); confiscation of property (Art. 52); and the deprivation of military or special titles (Art. 48). In addition, military personnel may be sentenced to serve in special disciplinary units (up to 2 years, Art. 55) and there are various compulsory measures of education and supervision for minors (14-17 years, Art. 90).

The last Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (CC RF) from 1996 contains very severe kinds of punishment: death penalty, life imprisonment, and deprivation of freedom for 20 years. In no other previous Criminal Codes of Russia, including during Stalin's period, were there any sanctions like life imprisonment, up to 30 years. Moreover, some kinds of probation and parole (deprivation of freedom with suspended sentence) have been excluded from the new CC RF. In fact, the last amendments to the Criminal Code (December, 2003) were steps toward liberalization, but a very timid step.

There is a moratorium of the death penalty from 1997, but the Russian Parliament («Duma») does not ratify this.

We see tendency toward cutting down the severity of punishment without the deprivation of freedom in the penal and sentencing practice (table 9) – the quota of corrective labor without deprivation of freedom has decreased (from 26.4 % in 1988 to 5.2 % in 2001) while the quota of fine has decreased (from 16.8 % in 1987 to 6.3 % in 2001).

Table 9. Punishment in Russia (1986-2001)

Source: Crime and Delinquency. Statistical Review. Annual. Moscow: MVD RF, MJ RF.

Prison

There are 750 penitentiary institutions (labour settlements), 61 pedagogical colonies (for juvenile offenders), 13 prisons, and 174 jails in 1997 (Zubkov, Kalinin, Sysoev, 1998: 81).