NCJ Number
106754
Date Published
1985
Length
374 pages
Annotation
This text analyzes problems related to the vagueness of statistics on crime in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and reconstructs Soviet judicial statistics relating to the numbers of civil, arbitration, and criminal cases, sentences, and inmates of labor camps.
Abstract
The analytical text first reconstructs the number of sentences between 1920 and 1980, assessing the reliability of these figures. The impact of the court system, particularly the special courts, on criminal statistics is examined. Other influences discussed include the comrades' courts and Soviet-style decriminalization, whereby a criminal act is turned into an administrative offense. A survey of specific offenses reported in Soviet statistics focuses on crimes against ownership, homoicide, sexual crimes, white-collar crime, traffic offenses, and hooliganism. Statistics also address sentencing policies of Soviet courts and inmates in labor camps. Civil law statistics from 1920 to 1980 are followed by analyses of types of civil cases, such as family law, labor law, administrative law cases, and housing law disputes. The text provide figures for cases of domestic and foreign arbitration agencies of the USSR. The appendix contains detailed data on which the analytical text is based, along with reasons for interpretations of the published figures, corrections of misprints in Soviet sources, and calculations. Tables, footnotes, and index.