Crime and Punishment in the Soviet Union and the United States: 1986-1990

• NCJ Number: 175783
• Journal: International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 22 Issue: 1-2 Dated: Spring-Fall 1998 Pages: 71-90
• Author(s): J L Williams; D G Rodeheaver
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data on police and court disposition of cases involving violent crimes in the Soviet Union during 1986-90 were compared with data from recent studies of criminal case dispositions in the United States during the same period.

Abstract

The research focused on homicide, rape, and aggravated assault. The data from the Soviet Union came from a statistical publication released in 1991 by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. The United States data came from the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Judicial Reporting Program. Results revealed that both countries experienced substantial declines in arrest and conviction percentages for homicide for most of the period, but the conviction rates for homicide remained substantially higher in the Soviet Union. More than 90 percent of offenders convicted of homicide in each country received prison sentences. Reported rape rates and rape arrest rates were far higher in the United States; conviction percentages were substantially higher in the Soviet Union. The rates of reported offenses and arrest rates for aggravated assaults were much higher in the United States each year. However, while rates increased by about 33 percent in the United States, they increased by about 100 percent in the Soviet Union. Arrest rates for this offense increased substantially in both countries over the study period. Defendants in the Soviet Union were far more likely than those in the United States to be convicted of aggravated assault and to receive prison sentences. The use of alternative sentences for rape and aggravated assault increased substantially in the United States. Further research is recommended to extend the comparisons to the present, examine changes in case disposition after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and study the criminal justice impacts of that country's transition to a market-based economy. Tables, notes, and 42 references