Homicide in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union: Continuity or Change?

• NCJ Number: 211581
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2005 Pages: 647-670
• Author(s): Andrew Stickley; Ilkka Henrik Makinen
• Date Published: September 2005
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study built on several recent studies of homicide in Russia by extending both its time-frame and geographical coverage to encompass the end of the czarist (1910) and Communist (1989) periods, so as to map the changes in the geographic distribution of homicide rates in "European Russia" across the Soviet years, when homicide data were "taboo."

Abstract

The principal source of homicide and population data for 1910 was the Report on the State of Public Health for 1910. For 1989, the study area encompassed Czarist European Russia and was divided between eight Soviet Republics and one people's democracy. Regional homicide and population data for these areas were obtained from the statistical yearbooks and other published sources for 1989 and 1990. The analysis of the changing nature of homicide across time and space used both statistical and cartographic techniques. Although little change was observed in homicide rates in the total geographic area of European Russia, there was a distinct change in the geographical distribution of homicide rates between 1910 and 1989. A central layer of low homicide rates running from the west contrasted with a much more violent center, with low homicide rates confined mostly to the non-Russian western areas. In both 1910 and 1989, homicide rates were high in the north and east. At both points in time a complex interaction of social-structural and cultural factors probably was operating to influence the level of homicide rates. It is also possible that the effects of specific cultural influences became more pronounced over the period. A constant across both points in time, albeit in different guises, was the role of the state, which was driving social and structural change while reinforcing beliefs and behavioral predispositions. 1 table, 2 maps, 2 figures, 85 references, and appended listing of statistical data sources