On the Conception of the Causes of Crime in Socialist Society

Abstract

The historical decisions of the Twenty-fifth Congress of the CPSU have opened boundless prospects for the further all-round progress of Soviet society. A guarantee of such progress is the fact that we "know better than all our critics … our shortcomings, see the difficulties..., see and know the paths that lead to the further development and improvement of our society." (1) Among the shortcomings and negative phenomena that have to be overcome on the road to communism is that abominable heritage of the past, crime. "The higher our society raises itself in its development, the more intolerable become the deviations from socialist norms of ethics we still find. Moneygrubbing, private-property tendencies, hooliganism, bureaucracy, and indifference to human beings conflict with the very essence of our system." (2)