Safety, Security, and Crime Prevention in Rural Areas of Krasnodarskyi Krai and the Republic of Adygea
Anton Petrovskiy
Purpose:
The purpose of the article is to study crime and crime prevention in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea to make suggestions for how to enhance the public security system.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The following methods were applied to assess crime in the rural areas of the two Russian Southern regions for the period between 2015 and 2019: a statistical observation, and calculation of a crimes index analysis of law enforcement reports.
Findings:
In order to ensure public security of the population in rural areas it is necessary to decentralise the crime prevention system in Russia by transferring law enforcement powers to the municipal bodies, by creating municipal police and a system for the re-socialisation of former criminals.
Research Limitations/Implications:
Crime in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea depends on the impact of local factors. As a result, the reasons and conditions of similar crimes in the rural areas of Central Russia might differ.
Practical Implications:
The results could be used by the local authorities in planning crime prevention measures and enhancing crime prevention in the rural areas of the regions under study.
Originality / Value:
The article is the first study of the criminological characteristics of crime in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea since 2014, suggesting measures to boost crime prevention with regard to the contemporary socio-economic situation.
Keywords: public security, crime prevention, rural area, efficiency of police activity
UDC: 351.78(470.620)
VARSTVOSLOVJE, Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, year 22 no. 3
pp. 312-328
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Varnost in preprečevanje kriminalitete na ruralnih območjih Krasnodarskega kraja in Republike Adigeje
Namen prispevka:
Namen članka je preučiti kriminaliteto in preprečevanje kriminalitete na ruralnih območjih Krasnodarskega kraja in Republike Adigeje ter podati predloge za izboljšanje sistema javne varnosti.
Metode:
Za proučevanje kriminalitete na ruralnih območjih dveh ruskih južnih regij v obdobju med letoma 2015 in 2019 sta bili uporabljeni naslednji metodi: statistično opazovanje in analiza indeksa kriminalitete na podlagi poročil organov pregona.
Ugotovitve:
Za zagotavljanje javne varnosti prebivalstva na ruralnih območjih bi bilo treba decentralizirati ruski državni sistem preprečevanja kriminalitete s prenosom pristojnosti na občinske organe, z ustanovitvijo občinskega redarstva in sistema za resocializacijo obsojencev.
Omejitve/uporabnost raziskave:
Kriminaliteta na ruralnih območjih Krasnodarskega kraja in Republike Adigeje je odvisna od vpliva lokalnih dejavnikov. Razlogi in pogoji za podobna kazniva dejanja na ruralnih območjih osrednje Rusije se lahko razlikujejo od naših ugotovitev.
Praktična uporabnost:
Ugotovitve bi lahko lokalne oblasti uporabile pri načrtovanju in izboljšanju ukrepov za preprečevanje kriminalitete na ruralnih območjih v preučevanih regijah.
Izvirnost/pomembnost prispevka:
Prispevek predstavlja prvo študijo o kriminoloških značilnostih kriminalitete na ruralnih območjih Krasnodarskega kraja in Republike Adigeje od leta 2014 naprej, s predlogi za preprečevanje kriminalitete glede na aktualne socialnoekonomske razmere.
Ključne besede: javna varnost, preprečevanje kriminalitete, ruralna območja, učinkovitost policijskega dela
UDK: 351.78(470.620)
1 INTRODUCTION
Compared to urban criminality, criminologists pay little attention to the problem of crime prevention and the efficiency of the measures undertaken by the police for enforcing public security in rural areas. Despite some studies on the rural criminality and its characteristics (Zabryanskyi, 1983, 1990), the area of research at issue has remained the exclusive domain of academics from regional and higher education institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Kabanov,
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2017; Sibiryakov, 2005; Tcheprasov, 2007). There is a general lack of in-depth studies on the successes/failures of law enforcement in rural crime prevention. The last paper in this area of research was submitted in 2014 (Shuklina, 2014).
Unlike Russia, foreign countries have paid more attention to the criminological problems of crime in rural areas. European scientists have experimentally tested the verity of classical criminological theories in relation to rural areas (Donnermeyer & DeKeseredy, 2013) and considered the prospects of using the cohesion of rural communities, formal and informal measures of social control, to ensure security (Harkness, 2017; Meško, 2020).
Foreign criminologists have studied in detail the reasons for the rural population's tolerance of several criminal manifestations (such as domestic violence, illegal behaviour while under the influence of alcohol) (Ceccato, 2016; Smith, 2010), as well as social patterns caused by the level of crime and fear of crime in rural areas (Adams & Serpe, 2000; Meško et al., 2012).
Serious attention has been paid to the study of preventive tactics and methods of law enforcement structures in rural areas with respect to the social, cultural and geographic characteristics (Mawby, 2004; Mawby & Yarwood, 2016), the duties and authority of police officers to protect citizens in rural areas (Meško et al., 2013), issues of the integration and coordination of the police with the local population, the social responsibility of police officers in response to appeals of citizens (Lobnikar et al., 2016; Mouhanna, 2016).
The originality of the topic is justified by the fact that the Russian countryside at the end of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first century was subjected to serious reforms that created social, economic, demographic and cultural difficulties for the population, leading to growth in criminality. Russia's change at the start of the 1990s over to the capitalist path of development triggered the destruction of the Soviet agricultural system, depopulation, the marginalisation of towns and rural areas, while raising the motivation for crime among the people living in rural areas. State regulations on the volume of necessary agricultural products, administratively planned interference in the work of the agro-industrial complex, and the centralised distribution of products during the Soviet period turned rural residents into mere implementors of the executive's will and led to the loss of commercial abilities and eliminated private initiative. The abolition of sovkhozes (state farms) and kolkhozes (collective farms), the lack of orders for agricultural products and also of state support, the seizure of domestic markets by foreign agricultural producers, the shortage of skills among villagers to conduct their own activities in the new capitalistic conditions produced the complete collapse of social life in the rural areas of Russia (Konovalov, 2000). The destruction of the Soviet agricultural sector excluded a great mass of people from the economic exchange, depriving them of a fixed income and impacting pensions. This huge mass of people that was forced to find money for their living had no aversion to committing crimes and violating the law. The predatory privatisation and further transfer of the agricultural lands into private property influenced the labour market and salary level. The redistribution of lands and production means changed the people's mental attitude to ownership as an institution. The fast transfer of ownership from the state to private persons created a legal nihilism
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that formed the basis for justifying the theft and acquisition of other persons' property (Zhuravleva & Khakimova, 2016). Social and economic changes of the last decades have influenced the two biggest agricultural regions of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Adugea and Krasnodarskyi krai. These are two regions of the Russian Federation situated in the south-east of the North Caucasus with a population of 5,648,000 people in Krasnodarskyi krai and 454,000 people in Adygea (Official website of the administration office of the Federal Agency of State Statistics for Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, 2020). The rural population of Krasnodarskyi krai totals 2,531,000 people (45.8%) and in the Republic of Adygea 240,000 people (52.9%). The urban population is concentrated in the major cities of these two regions: Krasnodar - 1,007,000, Sochi - 524,000, Novorossiysk - 338,000, Armavir - 208,000, Maykop - 163,000 people. The ethnic diversity is as follows: 1) Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians) represent 79.1% of the whole population; 2) Adygeans (adygean-circassian) 13.1% and; 3) Armenians 4.9% (Office of the Federal State Statistics Service for Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, 2020).
Criminality in rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea is subject to the impact of local peculiarities reflecting ethnic, cultural and religious specific traits (Tishkov, 2004). These ethnic, religious, cultural traits arise from the fact that the representatives of the Slavic ethnic groups profess Orthodoxy, and the second-largest people - the Adyghe - are autochthonous and Sunni Muslims. The Slavs are also not homogenous as they consist of citizens who identify themselves with the socio-ethnic community of the Cossacks (7%-10% of the Slavic population) and consider themselves indigenous on a par with the Adyghe (Official publication of the results of Russian Census, 2010).
The Adyghe people have managed to preserve their informal inter-social norms of communication, based on national traditions and obligatory for representatives of this ethnic group. The Cossacks were able to fragmentarily preserve traditions and informal norms of behaviour. At the same time, the regional authorities show a strong interest in preserving the culture, traditions, and way of life of the Cossacks and create special educational programmes that promote the population's identification with the Cossacks. All of this creates a local ethno-cultural environment in which citizens, moving from other regions of Russia to the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, experience difficulties with their adaptation and socialisation (Lubsky et al., 2016). The state of crime in the rural areas is different from urban crime and its relative share in the crime of the two regions is 28%. It is necessary to underline that a significant part of the crimes in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea is not captured by the formal statistical data and the respective police reactions. Rural areas' criminality is characterised by a high level of latency that is three times higher than the general level of the registered crimes (Olkov, 2019). This argument is confirmed by crime surveys that show 70.3% of the rural population does not seek the police for help, and a considerable share of conflicts that could qualify as a crime are left outside the criminal law system's impact (Khomenko, 2005).
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Crime is a serious threat to the rights, interests and freedoms of citizens who live in rural areas. The rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea are understood as municipal areas in which the population lives only in rural settlements and where the basis for the economy is agro-industrial business. Criminality consists of a multitude of crimes whose study enables one to draw conclusions about the features and patterns, and to develop proposals for the creation of an effective system that ensures public security in rural settlements. Conceptually, this work will only consider crimes committed in rural areas and the police's ability to suppress or prevent such crimes. The Criminal Code of Russia provides a comprehensive list of crimes and in accordance with the law the police is obliged to prevent crime, i.e. to eliminate its causes and conditions, to exert an educational influence on the citizens in order to prevent them from violating the criminal law under Federal Law of 07.02.2011 No. 3-FZ (2011). The purpose of this research is to examine the ability of the police, the key subject of law enforcement in Russia, to ensure public order, protect the personal rights and property rights of the population, and organise crime prevention in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea. Public order is ensured by the activities of law enforcement structures, the implementation of social relations which guarantees the observance of personal and public safety, conflict-free communication of citizens with each other, the protection and defence of the life, health, honour, dignity, property of citizens and the effective functioning of public authorities (Voronov, 2014). Public security in Russia is determined by law, and it is the condition of an individual, society and state being protected from criminal threats that ensures the implementation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of Russian citizens, a decent quality and standard of living, and the country's sustainable socio-economic development (Decree of the President of The Russian Federation of 31. 12. 2015 No 683, 2015; Nesterov, 2013).
2 Methodological Framework
In the course of the research, the study relied on the analysis and generalisation of statistics and information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the General Prosecution Office of the Russian Federation characterising the state of criminality in the Republic of Adygea, Krasnodarskyi krai, the Russian Federation, General Prosecution Office materials reflecting the crime prevention practice in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, police bodies' reports in the rural areas of the said regions.
For convenience, the data on criminality are provided in the form of indices of criminality, homicide and relative proportion. The indices calculation was conducted by taking into account the number of annually registered criminal cases with the induction under Articles 30 and Article 105 (attempted homicide), Article 105 (homicide), Article 106 (homicide by the mother of a new-born child), Article 107 (murder conducted under affect), Article 111 part 4 (intentional causing of grave harm to health that led to death from negligence) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with respect to 100,000 of population. The relative proportion of persons who have already committed a crime and committed a
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crime in a state of alcoholic or drug intoxication was calculated as a percentage share of the criminals in a respective category relative to the overall number of identified criminals.
3 RESULTS
3.1 Basic Indices of Criminality in the Rural Areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea
Before proceeding to analyse the characteristics of criminality in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, let us familiarise ourselves with the crime rates and murder rates presented in Table 1. Data analysis allows us to conclude that the rates in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea are generally lower than the average crime rate for the Russian Federation.
Table 1: Criminality and homicide indices in Krasnodarskyi krai, the Republic of Adygea and the Russian Federation
As mentioned, in rural areas criminality is denoted by a high level of unreported crime as shown by the fact that the number of crimes against human life and health is 1.5 times higher than the registered criminality rate whereas with regard to theft and fraud it is 3.7 times higher (Sorokin, 2005).
There are fewer homicides, rape and transport thefts in the countryside of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea compared to the urban areas. In fact, extortion, economic crimes and crimes of public officials, terrorist acts, and crimes committed with the use of firearms are absent. As pointed out, rural areas are municipal areas in which the population lives only in rural settlements and where the basis of the economy is the agricultural business. In Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, these are mainly steppe regions where cereals, legumes and vegetables are grown
A study of the official statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and analytical information of the General Prosecution Office (General Prosecution Office of the Russian Federation, 2020) allows us to detect four groups of crimes committed in the rural areas of the Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea while taking the percentage share in the structure of registered criminal activity into account: 1) crimes against ownership: theft, fraud, unlawful taking possession of transport, robbery (59.7%); 2) crimes against the person: homicide, intentional causing of harm to health of different severity, rape, forcible actions of a sexual character, threat of homicide and causing of severe harm to health (18.2%); 3) crimes against public security: illegal keeping, carriage, manufacture of drugs,
Year	Republic of Adygea		Krasnodarskyi krai		Russian Federation	
	Crime index	Homicide index	Crime index	Homicide index	Crime index	Homicide index
2015	1104	8.0	1376	8.6	1633	12.2
2016	1028	5.9	1297	7.6	1474	10.9
2017	885	4.6	1214	7.1	1402	9.8
2018	906	5.9	1216	6.8	1356	8.8
2019	1036	5.4	1267	5,9	1379	8.2
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hooliganism, vandalism, violation of traffic regulations and transport exploitation rules (15.7%); and 4) other crimes: economic, crimes of public officials (6.4%).
The number of crimes against life, health, sexual freedom and inviolability in the rural areas is significantly lower than in the cities. The share of attempted homicides, homicides, causing severe harm to health that led to death from negligence is on average 0.4% in the rural area in the region's criminality structure, and 1.5% on average in the city, intentional causing of harm to health of different severity 3.9% and 5.4% in the city, rape - 0.2% and 0.5%. For the last 5 years, there were no cases of assassination in the structure of rural areas' criminality. The vast number of home crimes can be highlighted as an aspect of rural criminality contrary to urban criminality, with 88.3% of homicides and 84.4% of the intentional causing of harm to health in the structure of the identified crimes being committed as part of household relations.
In cases of crimes against life and health, the prevailing tools are kitchen knives, screwdrivers in 62% of cases, kitchen utensils (pots, pans, buckets) in 19%, and sticks in 15% of cases. Firearms were used by criminals in rural areas in 4% of crimes against life and health.
A feature of crimes against life and health is the high share of acquaintances between offender and victim (92.5%), which is significantly higher than in urban environments (37.4%). In rural areas, women dominate among victims of violent crimes (72.4%); besides them, relatives, cohabitants and neighbours (85.3%) most often become victims of violence.
In the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, there is a high level of group crimes which is due to the peculiarity of stolen items (grain crops, fuels and lubricants, animals, poultry), as well as the need to transport what is stolen. Also, unlike urban criminal groups in rural areas, this group consists mainly of relatives (brothers, nephews, children, sometimes wives and other relatives).
Unlike urban crime, in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea a significantly smaller number of robberies and assaults with intent to steal is recorded, which can be explained by the cultural characteristics, mentality, general knowledge of all residents of the area, and the presence of informal social control.
Thefts are largely committed impulsively, without prior planning. In rural areas, no incidents of pickpocketing were revealed and, when detained with stolen property, detainees rarely explain the fact that they discovered someone else's property by acquiring it from unknown persons. Minor theft, i.e. the theft of property whose value does not exceed RUB 2,499 (EUR 32.50) prevails in police reporting (89.5%).
In the rural area agricultural enterprises: warehouses, farms, garages and other storage places are the most frequent places of theft (40.5%), summer paddocks for cattle, pastures, orchards, fields and household plots of citizens (29.4%). The theft of crops from fields and gardens during harvesting, as well as from vehicles engaged in cargo transportation, is common. The stolen vegetables and fruits are mainly used for personal consumption and for providing for the needs of the family (85%), and only in 15% of cases are they sold at markets in
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cities or mini markets along highways. Small-scale theft of fruit and vegetables is committed by both villagers and citizens, but hay, corn silage, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, grapes, and wheat grain are generally the subject of thefts by rural residents. The abducted cattle are chiefly cows, goats (31.4%), poultry - geese, ducks, hens, turkeys (52.6%), spare parts from agricultural machinery make up 4.6%, and various household items, agricultural products, food products 12.4%. Time of theft - late evening and night (81.3%); if committed during the day, crime normally takes place on weekends and holidays, and in most cases breaking into the territory of a protected estate (warehouse, storage) is carried out by free access (84.5%); breaking through holes in the roof and in the wall of the warehouse (room) amounts to 14.6%.
Thefts from villagers' households represent just 14.5% and are recorded mainly in the summer and spring months. These thefts are typically committed with free access (71.4%), by local women and men addicted to alcoholic drinks as well as narcotic drugs. The number of crimes committed primarily by men over 30 years old or minors.
Thefts by breaking the front door or entering through a window are mainly carried out by persons who have previously committed crimes - 65.2% of cases, generally by men over 30 or minors. Women in fact do not commit theft in rural areas by breaking the front door or by entering through a window; in 2019, only five of such crimes were revealed, and three in 2018. The subjects of theft from rural households are mainly clothing, alcohol, household utensils, food, gas cans, milk cans, metal containers for liquids, chainsaws, power tools and construction tools, less often gold jewellery and in just 15% of cases, along with various items, money was stolen (Krasovsky, 2010).
The specifics of the property stolen in rural areas can be explained by the fact that, first, rural residents do not possess expensive material items (money, jewellery, antiques) and, second, the bulk of rural residents are poor and criminals choose the stolen property based on their utility and ability to sell in rural conditions or for personal use.
After thefts, second place is taken by crimes related to drug trafficking. The high crime rate associated with drug trafficking in rural areas is explained by the peculiarity of the flora of the Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea. In these regions, there is a lot of wild hemp out of which a drug is made, marijuana, that is consumed by residents of rural regions in 96.4% of established cases.
Law enforcement authorities revealed a small amount of drug trafficking by organised groups in rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea in 2019 (3 incidents in rural areas and 119 in cities). In rural areas, one finds practically no cases of the use of such drugs like heroin, cocaine or amphetamine.
Although the density of traffic flows is not high in rural areas, crimes related to the violation of the traffic regulations and the exploitation of vehicles, resulting in death from negligence or causing serious harm to health, most of which (66.8%) are committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, are widespread.
The last group of crimes is also typical only for rural areas, but their share in the structure of recorded crime is relatively small. These crimes include: 1) illegal extraction of aquatic biological resources (Article 256 of the Criminal Code of the
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Russian Federation), fishing, crayfish with nets, special devices, electric fishing rods, jails; illegal hunting (Article 258), hunting using traps, loops, as well as hunting not at the permitted time; illegal cutting of forest stands (Article 260). While fish, crayfish, wild bird are obtained for personal needs, a particularly problematic situation is with illegal fishing because the entire western part of the Krasnodarskyi krai is occupied by the lower reaches and coast of the Azov Sea. Several generations of the population living there have been fishing in the Azov Sea and its estuaries, hence, the prohibition or restriction of fishing is perceived by residents as illegal. Forest grows in the south-eastern part of Krasnodarskyi krai and almost throughout the Republic of Adygea. The forest is cut down generally for personal needs such as for the construction of fences, sheds and other utility places (Dzikonskaya, 2011; Zabryanskyi, 2011).
Table 2: Criminological characteristics of persons committing crimes in Krasnodarskyi krai, the Republic of Adygea and the Russian Federation
Year	Republic of Adygea		Krasnodarskyi krai		Russian Federation	
	Persons that have previously committed a crime, %	Persons committing a crime in a state of alcoholic or narcotic intoxication, %	Persons that have previously committed a crime, %	Persons committing a crime in a state of alcoholic or narcotic intoxication, %	Persons that have previously committed a crime, %	Persons committing a crime in a state of alcoholic or narcotic intoxication, %
2015	44.5	30.5	51.9	23.6	51.7	35.7
2016	50.6	39.4	51.3	24.6	53.9	41.4
2017	52.6	32.5	53.6	22.6	55.9	38.6
2018	51.4	30.3	51.4	21.8	56.4	36.3
2019	53.2	27.7	50.5	20.6	57.0	34.6
It is noteworthy that a specific feature of the identity of a rural criminal is that in 94.7% of cases they are local residents. Rural crime in Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea has a pronounced marginal character, with the information given in Table 2 showing that 50% of crimes are committed by persons who have already committed crimes with a high level of alcoholic intoxication, on average 31.7%, and these persons also possess a low educational level, with only 32.6% of detained criminals have an incomplete secondary education, a low average value of the stolen items (RUB 4,200, or approximately EUR 58), the absence of permanent work.
The 'marginal character' argument is confirmed by the main mens rea of the thefts identified while investigating the criminal cases that was "to get alcohol or food". Contrary to urban areas, in rural areas there is a clear trend of an increase in the number of people committing crime while intoxicated.
A negative qualitative criterion for rural crime in Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea is rise in the number of repetitive offenders, who commit 49.3% of crimes against life and health (homicide, causing harm to health of various severity); 57.3% of thefts and robberies. The criminal activity of repetitive offenders is characterised by recurrence, stable distribution channels of the stolen _items, and the ability to involve minors in criminal activities.
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Figure 1: Age of persons who committed crimes in Krasnodarskyi krai, the Republic of Adygea and the Russian Federation
Some features of the age structure of persons who committed crimes in rural areas are alarming. Based on the data shown in Figure 1, one can see that in the age structure the proportion of people in the age groups 30-49 years and older than 50 years is higher than for urban crime. In this structure, the proportion of people aged 30-49 years and older than 50 years is higher than for urban crime. This high level of criminal activity is explained by the lack of work or its seasonality. The reasons that people aged 30-49 years and older than 50 prevail among the identified criminals are: 1) administrative policy involving sending persons who have served sentences related to imprisonment to live in rural areas in order to minimise their number in large cities; 2) the massive internal migration of the inhabitants of Siberia and the Far East to the south to Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea led to an increase in the rural population, however, the lack of jobs and considerable free time force individual citizens to seek a break in alcohol, which further leads to the commission of crime.
The small share of minors who committed crimes (3.2%) is explained by the fact that people aged 16-25 try to leave for the city to study or work while, in addition, the traditional parental authority in the countryside and social control are effective tools for monitoring the behaviour of young people.
Persona without regular source of income
Pupils and students Public officials Entrepreneurs Engineers and technical stuff Employed workers
4,60°/ 3,30% 3,20/
0,20/ 0,30/ 0,90/
0,90/ 0,40/ 0,80/
2,90/ 2,70/ 3,90/
19.90/ 14,70/ ,30/
II Russia
s Krasnodarskyi krai ii Adygea
Figure 2: Data on the social diversity of persons who committed crimes in Krasnodarskyi krai, the Republic of Adygea and the Russian Federation
Another confirmation of the marginality of rural criminality are the official regional statistics, depicted in Figure 2, which show that 70.8% of persons who
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committed crimes in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai identified by the police do not have a regular income source and in the Republic of Adygea such citizens comprise 69.2% of the total number of detained criminals. This figure is generally higher than the average for Russia (63.7%).
3.2 Problems of Crime Prevention and Providing Public Security in Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea
The strategy to neutralise or eliminate the causes and conditions of crime in rural areas by the police authorities of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea included implementation of the following measures: 1) impact on the possibility of committing offences by persons aged 14-18 years in public places; 2) tight control over sales points and public catering in order to reduce the volume of alcohol sales to the rural population; 3) anti-drug propaganda and testing of pupils, students of secondary specialised institutions for drug use; 4) police supervision of persons released from correctional institutions; 5) effective work of the police in crime prevention; and 6) involvement of the population in protection of the public order through various forms of financial incentives and social support (Drozdov, 2014; Resolution No. 1039, 2015).
It is necessary to outline the programme's initial success: 1) through organised interactions between the police, educational institutions and parents it was possible to create a system for monitoring the behaviour of minors in public places, reducing the possibility of committing minor offences and crimes, which brought Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea on to the list of regions with the lowest juvenile crime rates; regular inspection of trade and public facilities, anti-alcohol and anti-drug propaganda have led to a decrease in the number of persons who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol or drugs (Table 2), compared to the period 2012-2015; 2) regular inspection of sales points and public catering, anti-alcohol and anti-drug propaganda led to a 3% drop in the number of persons who committed crimes while intoxicated compared to 2015 (see Table 2).
However, difficulties arose in implementing the remaining crime prevention measures in the rural areas. The biggest reason for these difficulties was the fact that for decades the real subjects of preventive activity in Russia were the authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whereas local self-government bodies, public organisations were deprived of real powers to prevent crime. The current situation is easy to explain. While the right of local self-government bodies to protect public order is enshrined in part 1 of Article 132 of the Russian Constitution, authority to carry out the prevention of crimes and offences is not prescribed for the local self-government bodies by Federal Law of 06.10.2003 No. 131-FZ (2003). The only thing allowed to rural municipalities is their participation in the prevention of terrorism as well as in minimising and/or eliminating the consequences of manifestations of terrorism and extremism within the boundaries of the settlement (clause 7.14.1, Article 14 of Chapter 3). Municipal rural settlements are also allowed to organise the maintenance of public order in the municipal district by the municipal police (clause 8.2.1. Article 15), although
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the absence of legislation on municipal police excludes this possibility. The situation is similar in the case of the participation of public organisations in the prevention of crimes and offences. That kind of activity is purely declarative and not implemented in practice in the sense public organisations are not included on the list of entities entitled to prevent crime, i.e. they are not legally entitled to participate in it (Federal Law of 23. 6. 2016 No. 182-FZ, 2016). The insufficiency of local self-government's participation in preventing violations was manifested first in a steady rise in the number of crimes committed in public places - on the streets, in parks, squares, in rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea and, second, in the absence of the effective re-socialisation of persons released from prison.
The historically developed system of the crime prevention verified by the managerial and cultural experience of rural areas was destroyed in the 1990s and nothing has been built instead of it since then. Measures to prevent the theft of other people's property, especially agricultural products, face the antagonism of the population that believes these illegal actions do not deserve criminal punishment, only public condemnation measures. In addition, difficulties have arisen in the administrations of rural settlements with the provision of assistance to persons released from detention.
They are connected with the fact that in rural areas there is no post-prison support system for persons released from places of detention and there are no state-guaranteed jobs for this category of citizens. In addition to the problem of a lack of jobs, there is an attitude of the rural population - prejudice against the criminal - as expressed in employers' reluctance to hire previously convicted persons. The situation with domestic re-socialisation of those who have served their sentences and returned to their place of permanent residence has turned out to be difficult to resolve. As a result of the death of the parents or termination of relations with relatives, or the breakdown of social ties, the house where the criminal had previously lived proved to be in a condition unsuitable for living, apart from that the building was most often disconnected from the electricity, water and gas supply. Often a person released from places of deprivation of liberty had incurred a debt to the supplying organisations, was in need of an amount of money to be paid to reconnect to the supply networks. Municipal self-government bodies are incapable of providing support to these people due to the absence of an expenses budget and a lack of authority. This leads to the marginalisation of persons released from places of detention, in turn forcing them on to a path of vagrancy and minor theft.
Unemployment is another important aspect of crime prevention in the rural areas of Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea as well as the lack of demand for rural residents, and the seasonal nature of their work. In rural areas, the bulk of the population was and is engaged in heavy and unskilled labour, owners of agricultural enterprises often violate labour laws: they hire workers only during the seasonal harvest, without proper the formalisation of labour relations; appoint them for an irregular working day; officially pay the minimum salary wage and transfer the rest of the payment separately, thereby affecting the workers' pension plan.
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The majority of rural citizens is unaware of their basic rights (labour rights, social rights etc.) and remain less protected than the inhabitants of cities. The remoteness of rural settlements from each other and the concentration of all authorities, cultural and leisure institutions, and religious institutions in regional centres may be added to the existing situation. Several rural settlements lack educational and medical facilities. All of this is confronted with the acute problem of the home-made production of strong alcoholic beverages, which is becoming widespread and again poses the threat of alcoholisation of the rural population (see Table 2), which in turn can lead to a rise in domestic violence.
Krasnodar krai and the Republic of Adygea have vast rural territories that are difficult for the local police to observe, given their staffing is two to three times lower than in urban units. The work of the police is complicated by a feature of the Russian procedural law which requires the implementation of most procedural actions in relation to the offender only in the district department. Resolution of the situation is possible through a proportional distribution of police staffing and changes in legislation that have long been necessary.
The destruction of the system of keeping material and technical values in rural areas after the transition from socialism to capitalism opened the way for theft during the transition of state property to private property. The technical protection and protection of livestock and crop production facilities are poorly developed, unlike in the urban environment. No proper conditions have been created for the storage and processing of fruit and vegetables, which creates a twofold situation; on one hand, it is forbidden to take other people's property, on the other, because of problems with storage and processing, this agricultural product rots or is buried in the ground. Sales points and warehouses are placed in premises unsuitable for storing material assets, which facilitates criminals' access to them.
The following disadvantages hinder effective police preventive activities (Zhurbin, 2016):
1)	a low level of trust in the police by the population, which has transformed into a belief among rural residents that the police not only inefficiently performs its functions, but also acts as a violator of rights;
2)	the lack of effective interaction with persons who have served their sentences on behalf of local authorities and regional institutions of social assistance;
3)	poor activity of the police in rural areas, which is due to the poor technical equipment of employees, overload of unusual duties; and
4)	the lack of interaction between the police and private security agencies does not allow the use of the resources of commercial organisations to ensure public order.
4 CONCLUSION
A general social preventive measure that will help overcome the economic causes and conditions that determine the main rural crimes - thefts - should be state support for small agricultural enterprises, including financial support, providing the rural population with cheap equipment, organising centralised purchases of products made by peasants and state support for its implementation.
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In order to create an effective system of ensuring public safety in the rural settlements of the Krasnodarskyi krai and the Republic of Adygea, it is necessary to introduce the position of deputy head of the administration of the municipality for crime prevention. Given the high level of domestic violence in rural areas, it is necessary to create municipal institutions of special social assistance and protection for women and retired persons who are victims of domestic violence. These institutions should be assigned the responsibility of providing special psychological assistance to victims of crime and of the implementation of special compulsory psychological programmes in relation to family brawlers, people with an increased tendency to aggressive behaviour. Rural municipal medical institutions should be given the right to treat and rehabilitate people with alcoholism and drug addiction, for the moment only the regional medical institutions located in Krasnodar, Maykop, Sochi, Novorossiysk are entitled to provide such assistance.
It is necessary to adopt a Federal Law "On Municipal Formations of Law Enforcement Orientation", setting out the procedure for interaction between the population and the police, providing for the establishment of a municipal police, determining the rights, powers and responsibilities of citizens willing to participate in ensuring security and order in the territory. It is necessary to decentralise the crime prevention system with the transfer of appropriate powers to regional and local authorities (Kovalev, 2011; Miftina, 2007). In addition, there is a need to create a coordination centre for crime prevention on the municipal level, which will generalise experience and improve forms and methods of crime prevention. Its tasks might include advising the employees of municipalities and the population on the organisation of the crime prevention system, providing them with the necessary legal assistance to develop comprehensive crime prevention programmes on their territory, charters of police units, and other documents with similar content. The coordination centre for crime prevention would engage in anti-criminal propaganda, legal education of the population, the creation of centres of victimology prevention, which in the initial stage should publish various printed materials (in the form of leaflets) containing information about the methods of committing crimes: computer fraud, insurance fraud, theft of personal property. Should local authorities have the opportunity, it is of the utmost importance to create social institutions in which victims of domestic violence can find short-term shelter and receive legal and financial assistance. These coordination centres of rural settlements should be able to provide a round-the-clock operating telephone line through which residents of rural areas can receive free psychological help and free legal assistance.
It is necessary to adopt the federal law "On social assistance to persons who have served their sentences of imprisonment and control over their behaviour" and similar laws. The law would allow the creating of a system of assistance for former criminals in rural areas, to provide them with financial support, and to determine the form of tax benefits for entrepreneurs who are ready to employ previously convicted persons. The basic Russian problem of preventing previously convicted persons from committing new crimes is that, in line with the current legislation, those released from prison should be supervised. In Russia,
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this supervision is only carried out by the police. In rural areas, a police officer is obliged to check the place of residence, conduct a conversation and compile materials on a daily basis in relation to 10 former convicts. To date, there is no special service in the Russian police dealing only with the prevention of crime. The inspector who carries out this supervision has several other duties as well, for instance: performing interrogation, patrolling the territory, receiving citizens, inspecting the storage of firearms. To make their duty easier, the police inspector, more often than not, simply summons the people they are supervising, instead of bothering with long trips and checks across the countryside.
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About the Author
Anton Petrovskiy, Candidate of Juridical Science and assistant professor
at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Kuban State University,
Krasnodar, Russia. E-mail: anton-petrovski@yandex.ru
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