Criminology, Crime and Criminal Justice in Hungary

Abstract

Criminology as a discipline began in Hungary at the end of the 19th century. Its development has been enormously influenced by the evolution of the country's political and social systems — sometimes its very existence was denied, sometimes it was hijacked for ideological aims. This article describes the main features of criminology in Hungary and charts developments in crime and criminal justice over the past two decades. From the beginning of the transition period our country has been in a state of perpetual change. These processes have affected the crime problem and crime control policy. The rate of recorded crime reached a peak in the early 1990s. However, the effects of the systemic change already seemed to be fading away at the beginning of the new century. The increase in the recorded number of crimes has slowed down, and crime rates now appear to have stabilized. The article describes Hungary's recorded and `dark' figures of crime, as well as the academic and research institutions in the field of criminology. Since regime change, three major criminal law reforms have taken place in Hungary. The paper discusses the driving forces behind these reforms and their outcomes.