Criminal Homicide, U.S.S.R./U.S.A.: Reflections on Soviet Data in a Comparative Framework

Abstract

The general paucity of data on Soviet social conditions (in comparison to the data available from many other developed countries, including some of those in Eastern Europe) renders the exploration of sociological issues relating to the USSR rather difficult. This problem of information is especially evident when one's attention is drawn to phenomena such as and delinquency. Despite the growing volume of Soviet writing on these problems, hard data are mainly notable for their absence, and the statistics Soviet writers publish are most frequently percentage distributions of unknown integers. While lack of such data presents a formidable obstacle to research, it has not entirely discouraged Western scholars from attempts to clarify one or another segment of the total picture of crime, alcoholism and allied forms of deviant behavior in the USSR.' The present study represents a tentative attempt at extending these inquiries in two ways: first, by focusing on criminal homicide, a particular type of deviant behavior with a defined quality that the categories crime and delinquency lack; and second, by placing the admittedly extremely sketchy Soviet data available into a loose comparative framework with parallel data from American studies of homicide. Patterns of Soviet and American homicide with respect to sex of victims and offenders, victimoffen er relationships, location of offense, weapons employed, and other aspects will be explored. Based on these and other data, some general obse vations about Soviet homicide will be made. There are many important questions about homi ide in the USSR that of necessity remain unanswered here. These include the basic questions of how many? How much year-to-year variation? How much inter-regional variation in pattern? It is hoped, however, that the data and observations herein may be of some value, both in suggesting similarities in the social contexts that provoke homicide in the USA and the USSR, and in raising questions for further thought and investigation.