To the Question of Building an Ideological Basis of the Legal Policy for the Criminal Sphere of Russian Society

Abstract

The article examines the ideological basis of the legal policy for the criminal sphere of Russian society. The author notes that, in spite of optimistic criminological indices found in official statistics, it is too early to conclude that the criminal situation in the country is stable. It is stressed that the situation with law and order in modern Russia is far from ideal due to, largely, a lack of a sound criminal policy. The author assesses the contemporary condition of Russian criminal policy as a crisis and stresses that this crisis is, primarily, an ideological one. The paper states that in today’s Russia the question of developing any policy, including criminal policy, is very sensitive due to the polarization of opinions as to whether this process should rely on a radical modernization of its ideological basis or it should use national foundations while taking into account the existing traditions. Within this context, the author notes that the Russian state was historically based on a system of obligations placed on a person, and it still uses the idea of obligations and (or) the system of the Gospel’s Commandments. However, today this fundamental basis is eroded by the values of uncontrolled liberalism, which not only dictates permissiveness in all spheres of life, but also imposes this ideology as the only one possible. The author believes that this path is absolutely unacceptable for Russia because, unlike the Western civilization, that has successfully replaced morals with the law, the Orthodox civilization has always given priority to the moral norms. Based on the presented material, the author concludes that, while formulating the clauses of criminal legal policy in contemporary Russia, it is necessary to rely upon its specific national features, and that the ideological basis should not contradict basic values that have been developing in the society for thousands of years. This approach will benefit the lawfulness of citizens and will reduce the level of legal nihilism, which is a serious obstacle for the effective use of law.