More than one-quarter of Russians consider police misconduct as a common practice.
MOSCOW, November 25, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey describing how Russians assess the level of police misconduct.
As a quarter of a century ago, about one-quarter of Russians think that illegal actions taken by police are common nowadays (27% in 1990; 29% in 2015). There has been a substantial increase in the share of those who distrust police officers (47% out of 46% of sample mean) as well as the number of non-parliamentary parties’ supporters (44%).
Four out of ten (40% in 1990 and 41% in 2015) admit that police misconduct may occur but they do not think it is a common thing. Those who think so more often than the sample mean are young Russians (50% of those aged 18-24 and people with high income (50%). Seven percent of Russians deny that similar practices exist today on Russian police (2% in 1990).
At the same time, one-quarter of Russians (25%) regard the performance of the Russian police as “good” or “very good”; over the recent ten years this share has doubled - from 13% in 2005 (the share of those who trust police is even bigger: 48%); about half of Russians (46%) evaluate the Russian police performance as “average”.
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted October 31 – November 1, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
In your opinion, how often does the Russian police take illegal actions? ** (close-ended question, one answer, %) | ||
| 1990 * | 2015 |
Quite often | 27 | 29 |
Rarely, not often | 40 | 41 |
It is nothing but speculation, not more | 2 | 7 |
Don’ t know | 31 | 23 |
*in 1990, the survey included representative sample involving Russian urban and rural populations aged 16 and over; the sample size was 1962 persons.
**In 1990, the question referred to the militia officers.
In your opinion, how often does the Russian police take illegal actions?** (close-ended question, one answer, %) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60 and over |
Quite often | 29 | 31 | 30 | 30 | 31 | 23 |
Rarely, not often | 41 | 50 | 45 | 41 | 42 | 30 |
It is nothing but speculation, not more | 7 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 6 |
Don’ t know | 23 | 13 | 15 | 20 | 22 | 41 |
In your opinion, how often does the Russian police take illegal actions?** (close-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||
| Total respondents | Elementary (incomplete secondary) education | Secondary education (school, vocational school) | Specialized secondary education (technical school) | Incomplete higher (not less than three years in a higher education institute), higher education |
Quite often | 29 | 25 | 30 | 29 | 28 |
Rarely, not often | 41 | 30 | 39 | 41 | 44 |
It is nothing but speculation, not more | 7 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 |
Don’ t know | 23 | 40 | 24 | 23 | 21 |
Note: Using materials from the site 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!