Influence of ecological situation on crime in the countries of the world and in subjects of the Russian Federation

One of the directions of environmental criminology is the study of the influence of ecological situation on the dynamics of crime. In foreign publications the results of researches which have been carried out on the example of separate cities or even the blocks of a city are presented. The best known approaches are the theory of broken windows and the concept of crime prevention through environmental design. The article makes an attempt to study the differences in the state of crime in the countries of the world and regions of the Russian Federation depending on the environmental situation on the basis of the analysis of statistical data. Statistical data of international and Russian environmental and criminological indices are used. It is revealed that countries with a good ecology have a lower level of homicides, but more thefts. In Russian regions no serious statistical connection between ecological indices and rates of homicide, juvenile delinquency, corruption, traffic accidents, poverty, incidence of HIV-infection, and neoplasms was revealed. Crime is explained to a greater extent by the quality of public administration. Thus, we cannot say that statistically valid trends exist in the influence of good environmental conditions on crime reduction.