Hungary
| Author | Kaine Jones, Mekisha Smith, Robert Hanser, Nathan Moran, Roe Roberts, Gabriel Thrasher |
| Pages | 468-472 |
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Official country name: Republic of Hungary
Capital: Budapest
Geographic description: Landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in central Europe, northwest of Romania and east of Austria.
Population: 10,006,835 (est. 2005)
Hungary's modern criminal law system is founded on ancient Roman-Germanic law and heavily influenced by European law of the Middle Ages. Its modern system is based on developments that began when its first criminal law code and criminal proceedings code was passed between 1896 and 1897. These changes were minor; however, after World War II and the formation of the party-state in 1948, socialist law was adopted, which strongly impacted the criminal justice system. During that period, Hungary implemented two different criminal law codes and three criminal proceedings codes, which created significant change within the legal system (Pusztai 1995).
As with most criminal justice systems in the prior Soviet Eastern bloc, Hungary's criminal justice system was politically controlled and, as such, was regulated by the impulses of the party leader at the time rather than by the laws of the country. In association with efforts toward creating a democracy that began in the late 1980s was the establishment of a fully independent judicial system. A new criminal law code was drafted in 1990, which was subsequently modified considerably to conform with the European Human Rights Convention.
The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for all public administration, safety, order, and internal security. As such, it controls all armed security organizations, namely:
The Hungarian National Police (HNP)
The Security Police
The Border Guard
The ministry is also responsible for other operations, such fire prevention and passport control.
Hungary's centralized state police force is a hierarchical system, the highest-ranking agency being the HNP, which is headed by the chief police commissioner who holds the rank of police general. The HNP control several divisions, the
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two primary law enforcement divisions being Directorate General for Criminal Investigations and the Directorate General for Public Security. It also controls special units and regional organizations. The Directorate General for Criminal Investigations is responsible for the:
Organized Crime Directorate
Criminal Logistics Directorate
International Law Enforcement Cooperation Center
Analysis and Coordination Directorate
Forensics and Research Institute
Financial Investigation Directorate
The Directorate General for Public Security is responsible for the:
Traffic Enforcement Department
General Police Duties Department
Police Administration Department
Airport Security Service
Special units and regional organizations are the:
Rapid Response Unit
Republican Guards
Budapest Metropolitan Police Headquarters (22 district police stations)
County Police Headquarters (19, with 131 town police stations)
The free-market economy has caused policing to become less attractive as a profession, with subsequent high attrition rates and difficulty retaining qualified employees, as many younger and more educated police officers are attracted to the higher wages offered in the private sector. In 1995, in an effort to encourage applicants, NPA employees received a 24-percent pay increase, bringing their salary to 40,000 Hungarian forints—approximately US$296.00—per month (Szabo 1996).
Since democratization in Hungary, civilians have come to expect the freedom to exercise their human rights with little interference from the police, and limitations on police authority has reshaped police community relations. This is particularly evident in the problematic and often confrontational association with ethnic minorities, particularly the Roma, an ethnic minority with a long history in Hungary and which experienced discrimination and segregation both before and during Communist rule. However, there remain serious problems in police treatment of ethnic minorities. According to the Project on Ethnic Relations 2000, There is a need to:
develop and implement an adequate civilian complaint process as well as policies and procedures related to police use of force … the credibility of police...
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