Crime: The Cause and Effect Relationship with Russian Society Criminal situation that is forming in modern Russian society today, continues to remain a complex issue. After the collapse of Soviet Union and the governing structure, Russia fell into political, economic and cultural crisis that would have a devastating effect on crime level. Russia began making a slow transition toward market economy that would mean extremely high prices on food, shelter and other necessities, despite the fact that the salary of employed people remained unchanged. Many people were laid off that triggered more robbery, extortion and bribery.

Referring to Botchkovar Charles’ of Criminology: “…there have been a steady upward shift in crime rate of 2. 4% per year. The bribery showed a total increase of 87% over the ten year span”. Majority of corrupted people escape the justice system that proved to be useless against bribery that is still showing no signs of quitting. Battle with corruption became more difficult and as Transparency International agency suggests, Russia fell from 82nd to 146th place in global rating. During the Soviet Union times, the culture was highly protected with censorship that filtered out negative and unwanted content on radio, literature and television.

After the Soviet collapse, the market began showing signs of low quality movies, music and literature. Due to the low media barriers, the audience began witnessing more violence and other sexual content on television, reading bad literature filled with detailed description of brutality and listening to junk pop music. These new and exciting contents captured the people’s interest at the beginning but eventually led to the cultural misleading perceptions about living standards and moral values.

In “Morality in Today’s Russia”, Alexander Iurevich reports that ”deficiencies in ideology and spiritual life of population gave rise to criminal socio-psychotic problems that included: low level of solidarity with criminal legislation; loss of trust toward government; ethnical, and religious intolerance; alcoholism, prostitution, and narcosis”. Despite the government intervention against the illegal use of drugs, it still remains the biggest threat for the Russian demographic situation and national gene pool.

As Russian president Dmitri Medvedev reports “…the heroine has [affected] about two million Russians of which seventy percent are people under the age of thirty” This alarming evidence suggests that people who engage in extensive use of drugs are incapable of working due to inability to focus and think. In this state of mind, the person is very determined commit any violent act in order to get money in exchange for drugs which can cause a dramatic increase in crime level. As Alexander Iurevich notes in Sociological Research “…there have been more that two hundred thousand crime cases related to the [heavy use] of drugs in Russia”.

This problem still continues to effect more and more people in Russian society today. Another important political and economic factor to consider is the trade between countries. Russia is rich in natural resources such as oil, natural gas, and lumber enabling it to create trading relationship between its closest neighbor- China. In return, China exports general merchandise such as clothes, household utilities, and electronics to Russia. In “Morality in Today’s Russia”, Ushakov Dmitriy reports that “it has been previously [noted] by customs agency that the import and export between Russia and China [escaped] paying taxes and tariffs. This might explain why the country is suffering from multi million dollar loss to its national treasury and overall country’s critical economic situation. As Russian society struggles to deal with corruption, illegal use of drugs and economy losses associated with import and export, crime level continues to grow. It is important to consider the after effects of all these problems and deal with them effectively so that they will not occur in the future.

This can be achieved through creation of more voluntary rehabilitation centers for previously convicted people; alcohol and drug dependent users. It is also important to emphasize healthy lifestyle by creating propaganda and building a variety of sport centers and clubs. More job positions will also benefit by making people feel more socially included and useful for the society. Finally, using propaganda with family lifestyle emphasis will impede the society from committing crime and create sense of moral responsibility among the nation. .