Criminality as Political Construction: Regime Type, Power, and Punishment
in the United States, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia

Sharvani Shukla

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.026

Title: Criminality as Political Construction: Regime Type, Power, and Punishment in the United States, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia
Authors: Sharvani Shukla
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 7 Publication Date: July 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.026
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Sharvani Shukla Lucknow Public College
MLA 8 Shukla, Sharvani. "Criminality as Political Construction: Regime Type, Power, and Punishment in the United States, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 7, July 2026, pp. 3269-3282, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.026. Accessed July 2026. APA 6 Shukla, S. (2026, July). Criminality as Political Construction: Regime Type, Power, and Punishment in the United States, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(7), 3269-3282. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.026 Chicago Shukla, Sharvani. "Criminality as Political Construction: Regime Type, Power, and Punishment in the United States, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 7 (July 2026), 3269-3282. Accessed July, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i07.026.
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ABSTRACT: This paper examines how different forms of government shape the definition and treatment of criminals. Rather than treating crime as a fixed or universal category, it argues that criminality is politically constructed through the values, fears, and priorities of each regime. Through a comparative analysis of the United States during the War on Drugs, the Stalinist Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia, the paper shows how liberal democratic, totalitarian, and theocratic systems produce distinct categories of criminality. In the United States, drug criminalization reflected racialized social control and contradictions within liberal democracy. In Stalin’s Soviet Union, criminal law became a tool for eliminating ideological and political enemies. In Saudi Arabia, criminality is shaped by the fusion of religious authority and state power. The paper concludes that prison populations do not simply reflect crime rates but reveal the political logic of the regimes that define, punish, and confine them.

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