The Subject of Soviet Criminology

The question of the subject of Soviet criminology remains in dispute to this day. The authors of the present article, who initially considered criminology a component of criminal law, (1) have now arrived at a different conclusion. Reviews of the textbook Soviet Criminology [Sovetskaia kriminologiia] noted, as one of its shortcomings, a vague solution of the question of the subject of this science. (2) Considering this, as well as the fact that the subject of a science is among the most important questions, we have decided to offer certain of our thoughts on this subject.     

Scientific-Methodological Conference of USSR Supreme Court

The Scientific Consultative Council under the USSR Supreme Court has held a scientific-methodological conference. It was in preparation for a long time. As early as July 1965, the journal Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost' informed its readers of the forthcoming conference and published an article by S. Radzhabov, "Improve the Administration of the Courts" [Sovershenstvovat' sudebnoe upravlenie], and another by S. Komissarov, "The Supervisory Powers of the USSR Supreme Court Need Improving" [Nadzornye polnomochiia Verkhovnogo Suda Soiuza SSR nuzhdaiutsia v sover-shenstvovanii]. In August of last year a report was published of a round-table conference conducted by the editors and devoted to the effectiveness of criminal punishment. Subsequently, the journals Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost', Sovetskaia iustitsiia, and Radians'ke pravo have been publishing, in each of their issues, articles, surveys, and proposals on improving the functioning of the courts and increasing the effectiveness of criminal punishment.     

The Role of Public Opinion in Improving Legislation in the Fight Against Crime

In the decree of the CPSU Central Committee "On improving work in the maintenance of law and order and strengthening the fight against crime," the need for increasing public involvement in the fight against crime and other antisocial behavior is pointed out. (1) The role and functions of public involvement increase significantly under conditions of developed socialism. Its effect as a subjective factor is directly dependent on the qualitative condition, structure, and content of public consciousness and its component parts. Therefore, not only does multi-faceted study of public consciousness as an integrative factor of the social organism as a whole have important theoretical and practical import but so also does clarification of the inner content of public consciousness and of the characteristics of the mechanism of the formation of its separate components, for example, of public opinion, which plays a significant role in the policy of the Soviet state with regard to the eradication of crime. (2)     

Justice and Public Opinion

One of the key questions of justice has become the subject of a discussion that has developed in Izvestia. It can be said that its kernel is the matter of the independence of the judiciary. It is this question that underlies the article by Korenevskii and Sukhodolets, "A Cause of Errors" [Otchego byvaiut oshibki] (Izvestia, No. 61), against which Galkin wrote in his article "The Court and Public Passions" [Sud i obshchestvennye] (Izvestia, No. 91).     

The Influence Of Drunkenness and Alcoholism on Crime and The Struggle Against Them

Drunkenness and crime. One of the consequences most dangerous to society of the use of alcoholic beverages, particularly strong ones, is their stimulation of crime. This is evident, for example, in the high percentage of persons committing crimes of self-interest, of violence, and also of negligence while inebriated. This is why study of the relation between crime and the consumption of alcoholic beverages is of particular importance in developing the system of measures for prevention of crime.     

Population Dynamics and the Law

One of the basic functions of human society is that of assuring the continuation of the human race. "According to the materialist view," wrote Engels, "the production and reproduction of life itself is, in the final analysis, the determining factor in history." (1) At various stages in the development of human society, this function has found realization in differing social forms. (2) At present it is implemented almost everywhere through the contemporary monogamous family. The family is the nucleus of society; through it, the state's population policy is carried out. The other functions of the family (educational, economic) are, as a rule, consequences of its primary function. They supplement it and flow from it.     

The Court Settles the Case!

The discussion of problems of legal defense, begun this year in the pages of LG, has produced a lively exchange of opinions and has touched on important questions of our criminal proceedings.     

Chapter 14: Encephalitis

Encephalitis is infectious inflammation of the brain. The following types may be provisionally distinguished: (a) primary encephalitis with direct infection of the brain, and (b) secondary encephalitis, caused by various general infections.     

Delimitation Of Competence Between USSR Agencies and Republic Agencies in the Field of Economic Guidance

The question of the scientific bases for distribution of powers [polnomochii] between the USSR and its entities [sub'ekty], the union republics, in the field of economic guidance is of political, practical, and theoretical importance.     

Certain Questions in the Further Development of the Theory of Criminal Law

The achievements of Soviet criminal lawyers in elaborating the basic concepts of criminal law (crime, corpus delicti, complicity, stages of a crime, punishment, special and general prevention, etc.), in establishing boundaries between the norms of criminal law and those of morality, between legal and moral responsibility, between criminal law and other branches of law, etc., are doubtless of interest for the development of the theory of criminal law under the conditions of the state of the entire people. These achievements have promoted the strengthening of legality and constitute a solid basis for further improvement of the norms of criminal law. At the same time, certain concepts and institutions of criminal law that have taken root in theory and practice require critical re-examination as a consequence of various circumstances and, primarily, of certain historical events such as the 20th and 22nd congresses of the CPSU and the adoption of the new CPSU Program. The latter attaches particular significance to ideological work, the education of the new man, overcoming the vestiges of capitalism in human consciousness and behavior, and also poses the objective, new to world history, of uprooting crime within a definite and comparatively brief period of time.     

Development of the Soviets and the Tasks of Science

The conditions of development of socialist society require intensification of the ties between science [nauka] and the practice of the building of communism. As L. I. Brezhnev emphasized in the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the Twenty-fourth Party Congress, "theoretical interpretation of the phenomena of social life and its leading trends enables the Party to foresee the course of social processes and to develop the right political course, avoiding errors and subjectivist solutions." The Congress advanced the task of giving even greater attention to the development of theory and achieving an intimate connection of the social sciences with practical work and the solution of current problems in the building of communism.     

Duels,Real and Fancied

The discussion on "The Defense Counsel: Rights and Problems" has produced serious interest in the legal community. Today a prominent jurist, Mikhail Petrovich Maliarov, State Legal Counselor 1st Class, participates in the "LG Discussion Club." Maliarov is the author of many articles and the coauthor and editor of a number of law textbooks. He presently holds a responsible post in the USSR Procuracy.     

The Standing Committees and the Ministries

The 23rd Congress of the CPSU posed the task of enhancing the role of the supreme Soviets and defined the principal directions to be followed in solving this task. The most important of them are the further improvement in the activity of the standing committees [postoiannye komissii], which contribute to the development of socialist democracy, the improvement in the work of the supreme Soviets and the agencies of state administration, and the activization of deputies. At the first session of the seventh Supreme Soviet [sed'mogo sozyva] of the USSR, the report by N. V. Podgorny, Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, "On Organizing the Standing Committees of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities," emphasized the major role of the standing committees in social and economic development and expressed confidence that their functioning would promote the fulfillment of the tasks facing the country. (1) The seventh supreme Soviets of the USSR and of the union republics carried out a number of practical measures to implement the instructions of the party to increase the role of the standing committees.     

The Safeguarding of Socialist Legality By Local Soviets

V. I. Lenin regarded socialist legality as one of the basic principles of the activity of the state, its organs, officials, and citizens, based upon the requirement that the laws be adhered to unswervingly. He persistently emphasized the need "to hold sacred the laws and directives of Soviet power and to make sure that they are carried out by each and all." (1)     

The Standing Committees: Techniques of Monitoring

Note from the editors of Sovety deputatov trudiashchikhsia: Continuing the study of the functioning of Soviets, personnel of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of State and Law looked into the operations of local organs of power in the Latvian SSR. Jointly with practical workers in the field, they prepared a number of scholarly recommendations, including proposals to improve the techniques of monitoring [kontrol'] by the standing committees of district and city Soviets.     

Toward a Methodology for the Science of Administration

1. The need for a "systems approach" to study of the machinery of state administration. It is no longer news to anyone that study and discovery of optimal variants for the organization and functioning of the system of agencies of state administration in the USSR are a pressing, paramount task of the science of administration.     

On the Nature of State Committees in the USSR

The reorganization of the structure of the agencies of state administration in accordance with the decisions of the November, 1962, Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee constituted a further development of the Leninist principle of administration of the economy with allowance for the "vast qualitative changes that had occurred in industry, construction, and agriculture, and with consideration of the gigantic increase in the volume of production." (1)     

The Coverage of American Indians and Alaskan Natives in Criminal Justice and Criminology Introductory Textbooks

This paper examines the coverage of American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) in the most widely read introductory criminal justice and criminology books published between 2004 and 2010. The current research extends upon Young’s (J Crim Justice Educ 1:111–116, 1990) assessment of AI/ANs in criminal justice and criminology introductory textbooks, where he found no mention of AI/ANs. The replication of Young (J Crim Justice Educ 1:111–116, 1990) is especially important because AI/ANs continue to face a wide array of social issues (i.e. substance abuse and poverty), which leads to an overrepresentation of AI/ANs in the criminal justice system. To accomplish this, a content analysis was conducted on thirty-one introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks to determine whether AI/ANs have received more academic coverage in current textbooks. The findings reveal that introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks still under represent AI/ANs despite experiencing crime, victimization, and justice related problems.     

On Improving the Legislation on Territorial and Regional Soviets of Working People's Deputies

The Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Twenty-fifth Party Congress advanced the proposal of adopting laws to define the jurisdiction of territorial [krai], regional [oblast'], and area [okrug] soviets of working people's deputies. This proposal was adopted unanimously by the delegates to the congress. In the course of the work begun to draft these laws, which will define the content and form of activity at the present stage of the building of communism of such an important link in the system of soviets as the regional and territorial soviets, many questions have arisen demanding profound and comprehensive scientific study. In this connection the editors invite legal scholars and practical workers to share in the pages of the journal the results of their research and generalizations from the experience of the work of the soviets and from application of the prevailing legislation, and to express judgments, proposals, and recommendations on the paths to be followed in improving the legislation on territorial, regional, and area soviets.     

A Comparative Criminological Study of Crime in Moscow (1923 and 1968-69)

In the spring of 1923, a criminological study of crime in Moscow was undertaken on the initiative of the Administrative Department of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies by law students of the School of Social Sciences of Moscow University No. 1. A collection of articles, The Criminal World of Moscow [Prestupnyi mir Moskvy], edited by Professor M. Gernet and published in 1924, was based upon it.