NCJ Number
207793
Date Published
2004
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the growth of organized crime and corruption in the Ukraine since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Abstract
Criminological consequences were expected from the collapse of the USSR and manifested in the penetration of crime and organized crime into the economy, politics, and culture, and embracing all layers of society. Total criminalization threatened to transform the post-communist society into a criminal society. With this, organized crime is viewed as the most vivid example of criminal practice having all the features of professional activity. In this paper, an examination is conducted of the growth of organized crime in the Ukraine in order to understand criminal practice as a type of social experience and clarify the issue of crime reproduction. The paper presents statistics on crime in the Ukraine from 1973 to 2000 presenting general trends of crime rates. In order to provide an analysis, the time period above is divided into three phases: 1973 to 1981, 1982 to 1990, and 1991 to 2000. In the reproduction of crime or the growth in crime, corruption plays a very large role with the level of corruption so high that foreign experts place it among the most corrupt states in the world. In addition, the interrelationship between organized crime and corruption has become synonymous with an assessment that the current corruption situation has lead to corruption being identified as an integral part of Ukrainian society. Presently, Ukraine does not have a comprehensive public policy for combating organized crime on different levels. To resist crime, the government will need to elaborate and implement sound state policy.