Crime in Moscow?

October 12, 2007 6:38 AM

I'm trying to find current information on crime in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The figures I've found thus far are from 2000, and I'd like up-to-date numbers. The official Russian government office lists current crime levels for the entirety of Russia - which is nice, but it doesn't quite meet my needs.

Information on homicide, theft, car theft, muggings, narcotics and petty crime in particular would be great.

For the record, I don't speak Russian, so I'd prefer a site in English (or German). I can, however, have someone translate for me if need be.

posted by kjars to Law & Government (2 answers total)

Best answer: The actual statistics are gathered by various disparate entities--most with words like "Ministry" or "University" in the titles--from the public records of hundreds of field offices. Tens of thousands for whole-country surveys, which unfortunately is what you tend to find when someone's spending the money to do the counting.

If you're looking for specific sources, I'd take a look at the original CIA World Factbook bibliography entry for Russia (Nikiforov, Ilya V. World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems -- Russia. 1993.) Scroll to the bottom and notice the discouraging "ALL SOURCES IN RUSSIAN" warning.

If you just want general stats, there's always the Overseas Security Advisory Council's 2006 Crime and Safety Report (US Dept. of State).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:03 AM on October 12, 2007

(That's the safety report for Moscow in particular. Here's the 2007 report for St. Petersburg, for example. You can find more by searching.)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:05 AM on October 12, 2007