Abstract
This chapter deals with the development of criminal policy, and penal policy in Hungary after the political transformation of 1989–1990. The free parliamentary elections held in the spring of 1990 ended 40 years of ‘socialist rule’ in Hungary. The change of regime significantly affected the problem of crime and penal policy. The number of recorded crimes was 1.7 times higher in 1989 than in 1980, and 1.5 times higher again in 1999 than in 1990. The increase slowed down in the second half of the decade and stopped in 1999; crime rates have been stable ever since. In the first years after the change of regime, the significant increase in crime coincided with the decline in imprisonment rates resulting from the new ‘reductionist’ penal policy. However, in 2009 ‘three strikes’ rules and in 2010 mandatory life imprisonment were introduced to the Hungarian Penal Code. A policy of zero tolerance policy and an ‘expansionist penal policy’ arrived in Hungary with the center-right government which was formed in May 2010. This study pays special attention to the driving forces and features of penal policy over the past 20 years. Sentencing practice is also discussed. In the course of this chapter the characteristics of sentencing practices in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are compared. The chapter also gives an overview of the changes in crime in Hungary in 1988–2010, particularly with regard to property crimes, economic crimes, murders, alcohol-related crimes and drug offences. The conclusion of the author is that the nature of the political system fundamentally determines the characteristics of penal policy. The latest developments in the field of penal policy indicate that the reaction to crime has become a political issue in Hungary. The reason for extending the scope of criminal law, the stricter penal policy and as a consequence the increasing prison population is not the ‘heritage of the socialist past’, but a phenomenon of ‘governing through crime’ and the penal populism of the government.
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Notes
- 1.
Provisions relating to juveniles and militaries are given in the Penal Code but in separate chapters. But a special Act contains criminal sanctions on legal persons (Act of CIV 2001).
- 2.
One of the characteristics of the transformation in Hungary was that no new Constitution was instituted immediately. The important codes, which were adopted by a ‘one-party’ Parliament before 1990, were not repealed the new multi-party Parliament, but modified for adoption into the new system (e.g. the Penal Code). This was because the political forces participating in the transformation held the rule of law to be a guiding value for the process. It is referred to by the Hungarian Constitutional Court as the ‘Rule-of-Law revolution’, in which the Court determined the essence of the transformation.
- 3.
Hungary has held membership of the Council of Europe since November 6, 1990.
- 4.
After the resignation of government of Ferenc Gyurcsány on April 14th, 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai formed a new government. In the Bajnai government some ministers were members of the Hungarian Socialist Party, while others were independents not affiliated to any political party. Two parties supported the government in parliament: the Hungarian Socialist Party and the Alliance of Free Democrats.
- 5.
Parliamentary Dec. 115/2003. (X.28) OGY on the National Strategy of Social Crime Prevention.
- 6.
Explanatory Notes to the Act II of 2003. Igazságügyi Közlöny (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Justice) 2003.2.
- 7.
Explanatory Notes to the Act LXXX of 2009. Complex Jogtár Plusz, 10.07.2009.
- 8.
Explanatory Notes to the Act LVI of 2010. Complex Jogtár Plusz, 31.07.2010.
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Acknowledgments
For their help in the course of writing this study, I would like to thank Barbara Mohácsi (research assistant, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Procedure Law and Law Enforcement), Simona Diblikova (Institute of Criminology and Social Crime Prevention/Prague/), Dr. Franc Brinc (Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana), Dr. Witold Klaus (Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Legal Studies, Department of Criminology), and Dorottya Laczkovich (administrator, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminology and Gabriella Kasza, secretary, Constitutional Court of Hungary).
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Lévay, M. (2012). Penal Policy, Crime and Political Change. In: Šelih, A., Završnik, A. (eds) Crime and Transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3517-4_5
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