Social Censure

in Soviet law, a type of criminal punishment and also a corrective measure used by commissions for minors’ affairs, comrades’ courts, and people’s control agencies. As criminal punishment, social censure consists in the public censure of a guilty person by a court and, where necessary, in bringing this to public attention through the press or by other means. Social censure can only be assigned by the court as a basic punishment. By its nature social censure is an educative and preventive measure, although the person censured by the court is considered to have a criminal record.

The commission for minors’ affairs may censure parents or guardians if they have an incorrect attitude toward children, if they fail to perform their duties in rearing children, or if their minor children have committed legal offenses. The comrades’ court censures persons guilty of violations or other infractions falling within the jurisdiction of comrades’ courts. People’s control groups and units may censure persons who have committed violations of state or production discipline.