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IN BRIEF

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!

Read the article in Russian