Investigating crimes committed against minors has been one of main priorities of the Russia’s Investigative Committee since the moment it was formed. Chairman of the Committee Alexander Bastrykin tasked his subordinates to respond quickly to, check and investigate all facts of the children’s rights violation in the most careful way.
Following the order of the Chairman, the Committee’s best investigators and criminalists have joined the investigation into kidnapping from a kindergarten and murder of a 3-year-old girl in Tomsk while Alexander Bastrykin set off for the crime scene. Former director of Raznochinovka nursing home for mentally retarded children in Astrakhan Region Valentina Urazaliyeva, who had hid the fact that one of the inmates had been raped, was jailed. In Voronezh CEO of Fishka water park was charged with providing unsafe services that entailed death of a 4-year-old boy, who could not swim. In Krasnoyarsk Territory, there is a number of ongoing investigations in scolding two newborn babies in a hospital, including in negligence of officials. In Irkutsk Region, investigation is underway against an official’s negligence that entailed death of a child (a girl was given back to a problem family in which the 16-year-old mother was an alcohol addict and left the daughter outside without warm clothes).
Unfortunately the number of underage victim reaches over 14 thousand each year. In 2014, the number of victims aged under 10 was over 3,600. 677 criminal investigations were opened in murders of children. Over 8 thousand criminal cases over crimes committed against minors were sent to court. Over 4 thousand crimes committed against minors (88 murders, 344 rapes, 1,101 acts of sexual abuse) were investigated between January and March 2015, 4,185 children were recognized victims. Most of the crimes were sexual ones. 2,679 such crimes were investigated in the first quarter of 2015 alone.
It should be noted that the Investigative Committee does not limit itself to prosecuting just people who commit those crimes. Special attention is paid to protecting rights of the underage victims and their moral and psychological rehabilitation. The number of minors suffered from crimes committed by their relatives increased by 52.7% in the first quarter of 2015 and equaled to 597 (against 391 in 2014). Therefore there is work underway with problem families and if necessary the citizens that abuse their children are denied custody.
The Investigative Committee has joined in the improvement of legislation to create more efficient mechanism of fighting off such crimes. A number of legislative measures were taken with the support of the Investigative Committee. Chemical castration of pedophiles was adopted in 2012. An opportunity of suspending sentences for individuals who have committed sexual crimes against minors aged under 14, has been cancelled. There is a bill aimed at consolidating guarantees of underage victims’ rights which is now pending approval.
In addition, the Investigative Committee is taking active measures to prevent crimes committee both against minors and by minors. Namely, the Committee is actively reviving cadetship in Russia. The agency patronizes cadet classes in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Murmansk, in Stavropol Territory, in Khimki and other regions. These educational facilities allow children of law-enforcement officials killed in the line of duty, orphans and children left without parental care, children of single parents and children of poor families of those that have many children, develop thoroughly and in a balanced manner. Vanya Voronov, badly wounded during the shelling of Donbass will soon join cadets.
At the same time the Investigative Committee patronizes 186 facilities educating over 13 thousand children. The personnel of the Investigative Committee help repair medical facilities that treat children from poor or socially vulnerable families, raise money for children suffering from cancer and victims of crimes. Help is provided to families with many children.
The Investigative Committee also thanks journalists, who attract our attention to the problems of minors. Further on the Investigative Committee intends to continue improving mechanisms for protection of minors against crimes and be engaged in prevention of crimes.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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