Kremlin Reveals Details on Rising Crime Rate : Figures, First Since 1933, May ‘Shock’ People, Izvestia Says

In disclosures that may “shock many people,” the Soviet Union on Tuesday reported that crime climbed sharply last year, with assaults, robberies and thefts increasing from 1987 by between 25% and 44% while murders rose by 14% and rapes by 5%.

Soviet authorities had disclosed earlier that the country’s overall crime rate had risen 17.8% last year compared to 1987. But the full statistics--the first published in more than half a century--showed even greater increases in violent crimes, in street crimes and in thefts.

‘It Is Better to Know’

“Perhaps the data will shock many people,” the government newspaper Izvestia said in commenting on the statistics released by the Interior Ministry of a country that has traditionally taken pride in a low level of crime. “But it is better to know the reality of things because then our level of security will be clearer as well as the tasks and the problems that our militia (police) face.

“Only through combined efforts can we oppose these crimes, which are simply a reflection of our many deep-rooted problems.”

Soviet authorities had earlier said that criminals were preying on newly formed cooperative businesses, extorting money from them with attacks and threats on entrepreneurs, their businesses and their families. They also said that street fighting among rival gangs of youths had reached “murderous levels” in some parts of the country.

But critics of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s political, economic and social reforms, which have relaxed many once-strict state controls, are contending that this broad liberalization is to blame for what conservatives are calling “a grave new crime wave.”

Maj. Gen. Anatoly Smirnov, chief of the Interior Ministry’s main information center, said that the number of reported crimes had increased in 59 of the country’s reporting regions, compared with only three regions in 1987.

With nearly 1.9 million crimes reported last year, the country’s overall crime rate had risen 17.8%, to an average of 657 crimes per 100,000 population, according to the report.

Even with such a large increase, however, the overall Soviet crime rate remains a fraction of that in the United States--5,550 crimes per 100,000 people in 1987, according to the FBI’s latest annual Uniform Crime Report.

Aggravated assaults increased 32%, armed robberies and assaults with the intent to rob rose 43% and thefts of state, public and private property from 25% to 44%, the ministry said.

Rise in Street Crime

Much of the increase last year was due to a dramatic rise in street crime, according to Interior Ministry officials. Street murders increased 36%, muggings by 61%, aggravated assaults 67%, rapes 17% and armed robberies 49%, according to the government statistics.

“We did not know the statistics, but we knew it was becoming less and less safe on the streets,” a Muscovite commented after reading the Izvestia report. “That’s how you would measure crime--is it safe to venture out? I still give a cautious yes.”

Providing figures for the first time on the actual number of crimes, not just the rates of increase, the ministry said there were 16,710 murders and attempted murders last year, 37,191 cases of aggravated assault, 17,658 rapes and attempted rapes, 12,916 violent robberies, 67,114 holdups and burglaries, 165,283 other thefts of state or public property and 548,524 thefts of private property.

According to the FBI, in the United States in 1987 there were 20,100 murders and non-negligent manslaughters, 855,090 cases of aggravated assault, 91,110 rapes and more than 12 million cases of property crime, defined as burglary, larceny and motor-vehicle theft.

Estimates for 1988 show the Soviet Union has a population of 287,015,000, the United States, 244,600,000. The Soviet Interior Ministry did report 9.8% reductions in both the number of fraud cases (21,543 last year) and the number of cases of corruption, embezzlement or misuse of state funds and other economic crimes (87,450). Speculation and black-marketeering (45,235 cases) rose 4%.

Classified Since 1933

Smirnov said that the crime statistics, which had been classified as state secrets since 1933, will now be published regularly to give the country a true picture of both crime and the underlying social problems and to encourage support for the police.

The largest increases were reported in Moldavia, a small Soviet republic bordering Romania, where the number of crimes reported rose by 56%, in the Central Asian republic of Kirgizia (32%) and in the Tuva region on the border with Mongolia (24%).

Moldavia and the Baltic republics of Latvia and Estonia have some of the country’s highest rates--865 crimes per 100,000 population in Latvia, 775 in Estonia, 768 in Moldavia.

The Soviet figures, even with the very large increases recorded last year, probably understate the number of actual crimes and the overall crime rate. Interior Ministry officials acknowledged earlier this month that local police not infrequently refuse to accept the reports of some crimes, particularly thefts, when they have no hope of catching those responsible or recovering the property that was stolen.

Until recently, Soviet officials had regularly reported drops in the country’s crime rate and attributed them to “the superiority of the socialist system.” At the end of 1987, for example, the Interior Ministry said that crime had declined by “a further 8%” that year, though it provided almost no further details.

Smirnov said that 32% of those convicted of crimes by Soviet courts last year were sentenced to prison, compared to the 70% that was normal four years ago when the Soviet prisons had their largest criminal population. This proportion is likely to drop to about 24% under proposed legislation, which will place further emphasis on probation as a means of rehabilitation.

About a third of those now serving prison sentences are recidivists, or repeat offenders, who have been convicted three or more times, he said, and about a sixth of the reported crimes were committed by recidivists.

SOVIET CRIME, 1988 Murder and Attempts: 16,710

Aggravated Assault: 37,191

Rape and Attempts: 17,658

Violent Robbery: 12,916

Theft of Public Property: 165,283

Theft of Private Property: 548,424

Source: Soviet Foreign Ministry