NCJ Number
138947
Journal
EuroCriminology Volume: 3 Dated: (1990) Pages: 147-157
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This presentation on the causes and predisposing conditions of crime in Hungary also discusses society's reaction to crime.
Abstract
The number of crimes registered in Hungary totaled 184,000 in 1986, an increase over the 1977 figure of 125,000. Social injustice is identified as one of the basic causal factors of crime, in addition to economic inequities, large family size, school failure, and a loss of ideology and corresponding pursuit of excessive material goals. Several consequences emerge if one accepts the law of causality and determination as a universal law of human behavior: the crime, a social production, is determined by reasons and conditions; the individual can choose to observe or break social norms, but the choice is determined at the moment of the decision by the individual's personality and the situation; and it is neccesary to sanction others who play a role in the causal chain as well as the offender.