Punishment of Persons Convicted of Economic (Business) Crimes and Malfeasance in Office, in the Assessment of the Public and Professionals

Abstract

Introduction: the article considers ultra-liberal, ultra-radical and realistic views on the punishment of persons convicted of economic (business) crimes and malfeasance in office. The article analyzes public and professional opinion on this problem using the results of specific sociological studies conducted in 2018–2019 by Tkachevsky Research and Education Center “Problems of Penal Law” under Lomonosov Moscow State University. Research materials and methods: the research is based on the application of the specific sociological research method. The materials for our research include the results of the study of public and professional opinion on the punishment of those convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office, and on the places and conditions of their imprisonment. Empirical research includes surveys of three types of respondents: citizens of the Russian Federation; persons convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office who are serving sentences in correctional institutions; correctional officers. We also investigate proposals on sending the convicts under consideration to correctional institutions located in remote regions of Russia, and the prospects for the construction and opening of so-called private prisons for them. We analyze the practice of keeping persons convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office together with other categories of convicts. Results: we conclude that the public and professionals do not tend to hold extreme positions (ultra-liberal or ultra-radical) in the punishment of persons convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office. The public and professionals assess quite realistically the criminal policy of the state and judicial practice at the present stage of the state's development and allow, within certain limits, the application of punishment in the form of imprisonment to economic and official criminals. We emphasize that both categories of respondents (citizens and convicts) are more inclined to use imprisonment in relation to persons who have committed malfeasance in office than to those who committed economic crimes. We argue that public opinion is dissatisfied with the fact that persons convicted of malfeasance in office and economic crimes are kept together with other categories of convicts. There is no such dissatisfaction in the professional opinion: the majority of interviewed correctional officers do not support the idea of sending those convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office to separate correctional institutions. We put forward a proposal concerning the implementation of the idea that persons convicted of economic crimes and malfeasance in office should be held in separate correctional institutions in the course of modernization provided for by the Concept for development of the penal system of the Russian Federation until 2030, which consists in opening joint correctional institutions.