Criminal
law and criminology
T.K.
Akimzhanov
Doctor
of Legal Sciences, Professor
Vice-rector on scientific work and international cooperation
of Almaty Humanitarian-Technical University
On some problems of combating of crime
in the Republic of Kazakhstan at the present stage
It is not a secret that the quantitative and qualitative changes in
crime always need to find new approaches to fighting and combating of crime,
not only law enforcement but also the entire society, every law-abiding citizen.
Events occurred in Aktobe, Taraz,
Zhanaozen forcing a fresh look at the problem of combating crime. Because punishment
established by criminal law of the Republic of Kazakhstan determines the
content of criminal policy of the state, it is necessary to define the limits
of acceptability, and sanctions to ensure the principle of humanism.
President of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev
spoke about this very conclusively and convincingly in his message to the
people of Kazakhstan on January 29, 2010, noting that in our system of
punishment the fines forms less than 5%, correctional work - 0.4%, community
service - 0%. The main punishment is imprisonment, no one involved in the
rehabilitation of people released from prison. As a result, they add to
the number of criminals [1].
In addition to the words of head
of the state, we note that the current Criminal Code of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, adopted July 16, 1997, and enforced on January 1, 1998, is a
document of transition period. If you recall the beginning of "wicked"
of the nineties, when there was a rampant crime, chaos in the economy, serious
problems with financing, with material support, and many other difficulties, it
is possible to explain the punitive nature of our criminal law. Under
present conditions there have been many positive changes in the economy of our
country, in the minds of citizens, in general, the whole situation in the
country has changed in a positive way. Therefore, situation when society
should reconsider its attitude to the general problems of sentencing has objectively
appeared.
An analysis of court statistics
in recent years on the appointment of penalties provided for in Article 39 of
the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, shows that the most commonly
encountered in forensic practice is kind of punishment as imprisonment (51.8%),
followed by a fine (4.7 %), restriction of freedom (2.2%), correctional
labor (0.4%), delay of punishment (0.3%). Probation, according to Article
63 of the General Part of the Criminal Code, was used in 40.6% of cases.
In our opinion, it should be
brought into compliance with applicable penalties provided for in Article 39 of
the Criminal Code of RK, in view of danger of crimes committed to society and the
identity of the perpetrator. If to examine this statistics in relation to the
number condemned to prison, then, since 2004, annually the courts apply a form
of punishment as imprisonment for 17-18,5 thousands of people who come to the
correctional institution [2].
For the effective operation of the
criminal law of the Republic of Kazakhstan it is necessary to ensure the
principle of humanism.
The need to humanize the measures
under criminal law follows from the content of the state's criminal
policy. So, first, in subsection 2.8 of section 2, approved by Decree of
the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev, August 24, 2009
¹ 858 "Concept of Legal Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the
period from 2010 to 2020," it is noted the need to expand the scope of
criminal sanctions not involving deprivation of liberty, including the
exclusion of individual sanctions, penalties of imprisonment or reduction
in maximum terms of imprisonment.
In this way, the state had taken
concrete steps to further improve the legal and judicial systems, which are
essential parts of the reforms in Kazakhstan.
Costs of our justice system is that
the information obtained is generally about crime and about some of its species
mainly collected and not subjected to in-depth analysis.
The absence of scientific support
for the practical work of the internal affairs led to the fact that in the Interior
Ministry, MIAD-DIA of regions, DIA on transport there is an absence of
analytical work, deep factor analysis of crime and prognostic direction. As
a result the work of internal affairs is almost blind and reduced to a
primitive quantitative analysis of crime, which is held only for the current
and past years, and all the basic statistics of crime, its characteristics are
not analyzed and the dead weight fall annually in the reports of IABs. The most
important thing there is no such an important direction in the fight against
crime as a forecasting.
Methods of crime analysis of MIA have
not yet developed; scientific methods (mathematical, social, etc.) of analysis
of IAB activity in the fight against crime are not applied.
Police does not receive scientific
advices, implementation of which would significantly improve the performance of
operational and investigative units in the first place, as well as other
services.
The consequence of this situation
is that there is no feedback of information and law enforcement, that is,
information is collected by itself, and preventive services and combating of
crime are not related to the collected information.
It is safe to point out that
Kazakhstan currently all the conditions for an effective fight against crime is
not created.
Until now, scientists and
criminologists of the republic do not defined conceptual approaches to organization
of fighting crime, based on research results, opinions of experts, scholars and
practitioners.
In addition, there is no sufficient legal base regulating the fight
against crime. The existing legislation only creates the conditions for
the struggle and the struggle itself as such is not conducted.
Inefficient use of criminal
sanctions, among other circumstances, not only does not contribute to the fight
against crime, but even can weaken this process, causing a negative change in
the structure and dynamics of crime, especially some of its species,
representing an increased social danger for the state. At the same time to
avoid the liberal attitude towards dangerous criminals, we believe, it is not
preferable to "carried away" one-sided experiences of foreign
countries.
The use of such experience in the organization of penitentiary
prevention as means of achievement of punishment goals may be used only on the
basis of "local" (national) conditions of execution and enduring the
punishment.
Some institutional measures to
improve law enforcement is also needed.
Adoption of Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the law enforcement
service" on January 6, 2011 marked the beginning of bringing the system to
law enforcement services. However, this process needs further development.
Thus, in order to eliminate the duplication
in the activities of law enforcement agencies it is better to change the names
of individual agencies, which would be laid for meaning and purpose of each
body. For example, by analogy with the Committee of national security of
the RK to rename the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RK to the Ministry of national
security, and to rename the Agency for
fighting economic and corruption criminality (financial police) of the
RK as the Agency the economic and financial security of the RK.
These renaming are needed for
adjustment mentioned work of law enforcement agencies. Moreover, Agency
may have new challenges that go beyond the two types of crime - economic and
corruption, or specified types of crime can change, then the name of the agency
will not match the content of its activity. The main task of MIA is the public order and public security in the
country, rather than internal affairs.
Taking into account these circumstances
it can be stated as follows. Proposed approach to rethink certain aspects
of criminal law and law enforcement activity will help to take many challenges
which is faced by law enforcement agencies at the ongoing changes in the
operational situation in the country.
REFERENCES: