In order to address the limited literature on crime in Russia, this article examines trends in violent crime in Russia during the period 1990-1996. The data makes it possible to trace trends and patterns in crime in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union to the middle 1990s. The article provides comparisons for a wide variety of crime types, in contrast to more limited studies. To place the data in a comparative framework, data was examined on reported violent crime in the United States during this period. There were several notable findings: (1) the United States has much higher violent crime rates than Russia; (2) in the United States there was a general pattern of decline in the rates of each of the offenses studied; (3) there was a persistence of dramatically higher police clearance rates for violent crimes in Russia during this period; (4) an examination of the characteristics of arrested persons revealed that in both societies, the vast majority of arrests involved men; (5) a major finding is that with the exception of homicide, American women made up a greater percentage of those arrested than Russian women; (6) several differences related to age were also noted, including the higher average age for those arrested for homicide and aggravated assault in Russia, and the substantially higher age of those arrested for rape in the United States; and (7) finally, data presented highlighted the prevalence of alcohol use among offenders arrested for each of these offenses in Russia. The study was unable to make direct comparisons between the United States and Russia with reference to alcohol-related crimes. The limited data suggests substantial similarities in the nature and circumstances of violent crimes in the United States and Russia during this period. Notes and references