Organised Crime & Crime Prevention - what works? - Scandinavian ...

NSfK’s 40. forskerseminar, Espoo, Finland 1998
by the theory of criminal law, and motivated by a resistance to change, Russian law enforcement
has succeeded in implementing exceptional measures, and in producing more crime.
This is reflected in legal reforms and their implementation, presidential decrees, and the
establishment of new law enforcement agencies which reveal considerable growth in the
production of crime. In comparison to the European Union, for instance, the Russian
Federation has been highly effective in defining the phenomena described as “organized
crime” as the principal enemy of state and society, and also in the context of producing
“organized crime”.
The Russian moral codes that condemn private enterprise and profiteering are also
contributing to the inflation of crime. As business and profit-making was criminalized
speculation, and punished as such, during the eight decades of Soviet rule, it is hardly
surprising that the majority of the people have negative attitudes towards private business and
its players, condemning them as criminal. Profit-making is causing social tension because of
the drastically increasing social inequality. This is naturally considered a threat to state
interests, and in effect criminal. Ironically, the crime-orientated interpretations of Russian
capitalism that are being offered to the world consciousness draw their inspiration from the
dregs of Soviet moral codes. The vulgar leftist background of some Western social scientists,
especially in Scandinavia, works to bolster such interpretations.
One of the factors promoting the inflation of crime is the emergence of private security
policing in Russia. Such activities are often seen as a form of criminal extortion, but more
critical evaluation of such sentiments speak for the inflation of crime. Private security
companies are the principal cause of the collapse of monolithic state control, thus constituting
the principal threat to the state agencies. Producing an image of criminal threats in the
emerging markets is ultimately in the best interests of the private security businesses themselves,
as such images increase the demand for security services. This also works to promote
the inflation of crime.
The concept of corruption has also fallen victim to inflation. The newly established relations
between private businesses and state officials have become an object of inflated discussion, as
the old moral codes condemn the dabblings of state officials in commercial affairs as
criminal. In Finland such revelations are a part of everyday life. In addition, corruption
scandals are extensively utilized in the solving of political conflicts of interest.
Even prostitution has become inflated. Several of my informants said that prostitution is
proliferating in Russia at an alarming rate, but when asked what they meant by prostitution,
they included in the concept all immoral practices made possible by the market economy,
such as the housewife institution or cohabiting adolescents. Of course there are huge numbers
of actual prostitutes as well, but categorising all housewifes in the same group does seem
inflated.
The word “mafia” is also used very liberally by many Russians. Mafia often refers to all
possible aspects of contemporary society which contradict the past.
The ultimate result of the inflation of crime is, that as the legistlators and enforcers react to
such public concerns, the autocratic model of policing becomes predominant.
Ladies and gentlemen.
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