Rich, powerful people who have connections have more opportunities to evade the law than ordinary Russians.
MOSCOW, June 11, 2016. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey describing the Russian opinions about who tries to evade the law in Russia, and what measures should be applied to combat this practice.
The public reaction to the latest Moscow roads’ dangerous races initiated by the son of one of Lukoil top executives shows that about half of Russians (48%) believe that in Russia dodging responsibilities is a mass phenomenon among certain persons. According to 45%, this happens but quite rarely. And only 1% of respondents are confident that nothing of the kind happens in Russia.
Those who are more judgmental are young respondents aged 18-24 and 25-34: 55% and 54% of them (respectively) say that similar violations are massive; and 40% (for each age group) say that these cases are isolated. On the contrary, older generation representatives (aged 45-59) mainly consider that these cases are less common (52%) and rarely large-scale (43%).
According to Russians, those who evade justice are rich people (38%), state officials and deputies, their children and relatives (38%), gilded youth (6%), businessmen and oligarchs (6%). Twenty-two failed to specify such persons. Three percent mentioned law enforcement and judiciary system officers. Respondents also cited corrupt persons, swindlers, criminal bosses, killers, immoral persons and celebrities (1% for each group).
As to measures that could help prevent similar cases in the future, most of Russians think that certain anti-corruption measures should be taken in the judiciary system and law enforcement bodies (13%), stricter punishment should be introduced for those officials who make legal decisions (11%), the laws should be strengthened (9%), and the principle of the equality before the law should be respected (7%).
The VCIOM opinion polls took place on June 11-12, in 130 settlements, 46 regions and 9 federal districts of Russia. The sample size involved 1600 persons. The survey was conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage; the sample is representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over, according to sex, age, education, type of settlement. The margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%. The survey method is community-based formalized face-to-face interviews. In addition to sampling error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the field work can introduce bias into the survey.
All Russians citizens are equal before the law and the court. But sometimes someone evades justice, remains unpunished or receives too light penalty. In your opinion, is escaping adequate punishment in our country a mass phenomenon or isolated cases? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | ||||||
| Overall | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60+ |
Likely a mass phenomenon | 48 | 55 | 54 | 49 | 43 | 44 |
Likely isolated cases | 45 | 40 | 40 | 42 | 52 | 44 |
There were no such cases | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Don’t know | 6 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 11 |
In your opinion, what kind of people and groups of people try to avoid punishment for their crimes and strive to receive a lighter one? (open-ended question, not more than three answers, % of those who think such cases exist) | |
Rich / influential people who have connections / wealthiest level of society | 38 |
State officials, deputies, governors, high-profile persons / their children, relatives, friends / people who are close to power | 38 |
Golden youth / children of rich families | 6 |
Businessmen / oligarchs | 6 |
MIA, public prosecution: policemen / traffic policemen / investigators, judges, prosecutor’s office employees / law enforcement bodies/ agents | 3 |
Corrupts / bribe-takers | 1 |
Criminals / thieves / swindlers / fraudsters | 1 |
Bandits / old gangsters / criminal underworld | 1 |
Celebrities: actresses / actors / musicians | 1 |
Irresponsible persons / unprincipled / amoral persons | 1 |
Maniacs / rapists / killers | 1 |
Other | 3 |
No such people, or groups of people | 1 |
Don’t know | 22 |
In your opinion, what is the first thing to be done to prevent similar occurrences? (open-ended question, not more than three answers, % of those who think such cases exist) | |
To combat corruption in the judiciary and law enforcement agencies | 13 |
To make civil servants take responsibility for intentional mistakes / stricter punishment / property confiscation | 11 |
To change / review/ improve / strengthen the laws | 9 |
To respect the principle of equality of people before the law | 7 |
Adequate implementation of laws / impartiality, justice | 6 |
To set the order / judiciary system reform | 5 |
Strict control over implementation of the law | 3 |
Change of power / government / judges | 2 |
To educate people / to improve spiritual culture (morality, orderliness, honesty) | 2 |
To introduce supreme measure of punishment (execution, death penalty) | 2 |
To impose stricter control over the judiciary / law enforcement agencies | 2 |
To improve the work of the law enforcement agencies / MIA performance Improvements | 1 |
High skills, responsibility, honor of judges / jurymen | 1 |
Civic participation / vigilance / citizen control | 1 |
Coverage in media / publicity / public punishment | 1 |
Other | 2 |
Nothing can be done | 1 |
Don’t know | 41 |
Note: Using materials from the websites www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory.