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REPORT
on the activities of the National Institute of Criminology (OKRI) in 2021
(Please find the final results of researches at "Research projects")
I. UTILISATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS
We devoted considerable attention to the utilisation of our research results in this reporting period, too. Areas for the utilisation of results include cooperation in the development of theories and the presentation of research results in educational activities (in training courses for trainee prosecutors and junior prosecutors, in university and college education and postgraduate courses etc.), as well as at conferences and other professional events. Our researchers have published in and worked as editors or reviewers for several professional journals.
Their active involvement in scientific organisations is also of great importance. Our researchers who expressed their views in the media played an important role in informing the general public by presenting our results, approaches and opinions also in the course of the year under review as well.
1. Presentations
In 2021, researchers from the Institute delivered a total of 74 presentations at various conferences and professional forums. Of these presentations, 12 were delivered in a foreign language.
Requests to chair sections of conferences also indicate professional recognition and presume professional skills. In the reporting year, researchers from the Institute were requested to chair sections on 22 occasions.
2. Publications
During the reporting year, our researchers published altogether 74 publications, of which 10 were published in a foreign language. 5 of these were published abroad.
This year, OKRI’s researchers wrote 17 book chapters, published 1 book, and authored 22 studies published in academic journals and 1 in conference publication. In addition, 11 papers were published in publications of the Institute, and 10 studies elsewhere (abstracts, websites other than the Institute’s etc.). Furthermore, our colleagues received requests to edit various professional publications and journals 12 times this year. It is increasingly common that some publications are not published in print but are only available online. It is therefore fortunate that the researchers of the Institute can also take advantage of the flexible publication opportunities provided by the internet.
3. Involvement in domestic and international professional cooperation and project tenders
3.1. Professional cooperation
| » |
Participation in the Hungarian steering committee of the project of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) entitled ‘Effective Criminal Justice System Strategies and Practices to Combat Gender-based Violence in Eastern Europe’, representing the Prosecutor General’s Office. |
3.2. Successful tenders
| 1. | Year of submission: 2020 The project: EU, HERCULE-TC-AG-2020, Project Number: 101014783 Title and topic: Corruption risk, risk of corruption? Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption |
4. Involvement in professional organisations
Professional recognition of the Institute’s researchers is indicated by requests to participate in the work of various professional organisations and bodies, and effective contributions to them. Most researchers are members and/or officers of one or more Hungarian or international organisations having a profile associated with research topics.
In 2021, the Institute’s staff took part in the work of the following international professional bodies:
• European Expert Network on Terrorism (EENet) – member
• European Forum for Restorative Justice – member
• European Journal of Probation, Editorial Board – member of the editorial board
• European Society of Criminology – member, codification working group member
• Independent Academic Research Studies – member
5. Education
5.1 OKRI researchers provide regular training courses at the following higher education institutions:
• Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Department of Criminology
• Eötvös Loránd University, Institute for Postgraduate Legal Studies
• Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Department of Substantive Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Sentencing
• Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Deák Ferenc Institute
• Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences
• National University of Public Service, Faculty of Law Enforcement, Department of Criminology
• National University of Public Service, Faculty of Law Enforcement, Department of Criminal Law
• Óbuda University Doctoral School of Security Sciences
• University of Pécs, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences
5.2 Taught subjects, courses
• “Asset Recovery”
• “Combating Cybercrime, Corruption and Money Laundering”
• “Humanitarian Response Manager Training”
• “Integrity Testing”
• “Introduction to Criminal Law and Criminology”
• “Introduction to Criminal Procedure Law and Forensic Sciences”
• “Introduction to Criminal Sciences”
• “The psychology of our decisions: splitting trials into two parts”
• “Violence and crime” course
• addressing the cases of vulnerable victims by the law enforcement agencies using a situation-oriented approach
• Applied Criminology
• Criminal psychology
• Domestic violence, child abuse (within the course on violent crime)
• Environmental Criminology
• Relationship/domestic violence
• The law of criminal enforcement
• The law of criminal procedure
• The persons involved in criminal proceedings
• The theory and practice of crime prevention
• Theoretical criminology
• Use of restorative methods during policing and during the enforcement of criminal sanctions
• Victimology
2. Prosecutor training activities
The researchers of the Institute also took part in the training activities of the prosecution in the reporting year. Our Institute organised 5 events with the support of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which were eligible for prosecutors’ training credits, and 1 professional training course was held at an external venue.
22–23 March: Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Expert evaluation
– online international workshop
21–22 June: Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Preliminary results
– online international workshop
16 July: The past 8 years of relationship violence in the light of jurisprudence
– continuing education, Siófok District Prosecutor’s Office
12 October: Damage to nature from the perspective of law practitioners
– online conference
22–23 November: Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Experience Sharing Training, based on case studies of different states
– online international training
24 November: “Pandemic and Crime”. Celebration of Hungarian Science, November 2021
– online conference
6. Media appearances
According to our records, researchers from the Institute featured as experts in print and electronic media on a total of 52 registered occasions in 2021: they appeared in the media 3 times in the printed press, 14 times in the radio, 20 times on a television channel and 15 times on the internet.
The Institute’s communication activities and the coordination of communication between the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Institute are each handled by one of our colleagues, who are appointed as press officers and deputy press officers respectively.
II. DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN RELATIONS
1. OKRI’s domestic relations
In general, the Hungarian relations of the Institute were similar to those in previous years.
Relations were the closest again with the Prosecutor General’s Office and with the prosecution apparatus in general. Almost a third of the work plan projects (ten research projects) were initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office. Following a request from the Prosecutor General's Office during the year, we completed five additional tasks in addition to the work plan research and represented the prosecution organisation in an international project.
Professional cooperation with the Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Science Research (TK JTI) and the National Office for the Judiciary continued in the year under review.
As a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, we regularly participate in the ordinary meetings of the Committee for the Security Assessment of Sport Events, as well as in the electronic preparation of the classification proposals in out-of-court procedures, and we also regularly participate in the meetings of the Security Committee of the Hungarian Football Federation.
One of our researchers won the MTA Bolyai János Research Fellowship this year.
Several researchers of the Institute act as supervisors and instructors in the English-language ‘Specialist lawyer training against cybercrime, corruption and money laundering’ organised by the Deák Ferenc Institute of Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
During the reporting period, the Institute hosted five trainees (from PPKE JÁK, ELTE TTK and NKE ÁNTK), in compliance with the epidemiological regulations in force.
By tradition, our professors participate in the work of institutes of higher education; several of them have university rank.
In 2021, researchers participated in domestic conferences or round table professional discussions on 71 occasions – mostly online – where they delivered presentations on special request, and on a further 58 occasions, they participated in domestic conferences without delivering a presentation.
2. OKRI’s international relations
International relations play an important role in the life of research institutes. International relations provide researchers with feedback, and they also help to evaluate the OKRI’s research activities, considering that invitations to take part in international projects, joint applications and offers to publish in renowned international academic journals all imply that the international scientific community appreciates the Institute’s research activities and professional accomplishments. When discussing the relevant results, it must be noted that the pandemic situation has made the maintenance of international relations involving personal participation or attendance significantly more difficult this year.
Our researchers gave a total of 42 presentations at various conferences this year, but most of the professional meetings this year were only held online. Despite the technical, logistical and financial challenges posed by the pandemic situation, our researchers have still managed to represent our Institute at international events on several occasions: They gave 3 conference presentations; and were active participants in 3 two-day events (including 2 workshops and 1 international training course) organised by the OKRI CRITCOR project. In 17 cases, our researchers participated in an international event without delivering a presentation.
In the context of international relations, the staff of the Institute participated in the following forums:
– Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Expert evaluation
online international workshop, organised by OKRI, 22–23 March
– HEUII Procedural Safeguards in Criminal Proceedings and Victims’ Rights: The implementation of the national course: sharing of expectations, presentation of the national page, planning, evaluation
COE Help Strasbourg, online conference, 27 May
– Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Preliminary results
online international workshop, organised by OKRI, 21–22 June
– Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption: Experience Sharing Training, based on case studies of different states
online international training, organised by OKRI, 22–23 November
– Counter-Terrorism, Technology and Development in Africa
International Virtual Conference, 22 Szeptember
– Mapping the Victimological Landscape of the Balkans
online conference, 3 November
– Gewalt in der Familie
Die ungarischen Opfer in Deutschland, online conference, 10 November
III. LIBRARY
The library stock increased by 103 books in the reporting period. The library stock currently consists of 9,747 inventory units.
The Hungarian Rules of Law in Force have been available this year too; they contain approximately 400 laws, the operative parts of 120 decisions and 100 opinions of the Supreme Court, and short summaries of 120 decisions of the Competition Council in three languages. It also contains international conventions in English, and the journal entitled Jogesetek Magyarázata (Explanation of Cases) can also be accessed through this database, to which the Institute also subscribes.
Exchanges and gifts are important sources of enlarging our collection. We consider it a priority to maintain good relations with libraries collecting books from similar sources. Our exchange partners are the following: the libraries of the Max Planck Institute of Freiburg, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the Curia, the Faculty of Law Enforcement of the National University of Public Service, the Constitutional Court and the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights.
We have a good relationship with the Library of the Hungarian Parliament, from where we continue to receive articles and studies relating to specific topics from the database of HeinOnline on a regular basis. This year, we obtained several articles digitally from the Library of the Hungarian Parliament.
We continue to mutually support each other with the libraries of the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Chief Prosecution Office of the Capital, the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Hungarian Research Institute for Forensic Sciences, the Curia and the Faculty of Law Enforcement of the National University of Public Service.
We continue to have a close professional cooperation with the Library of the Office of the Prosecutor General, which is realised in part through professional matters arising from the use of our common HunTéka system, and in part through interlibrary loans. Furthermore, this year too, it was our Library that carried out the selection of the literature for Ügyészségi Szemle (Prosecution Review), the peer-reviewed professional and academic journal of the Office of the Prosecutor General, and it gave assistance to researchers in recording their MTMT data.
At present, the library subscribes to the following international periodicals:
• The British Journal of Criminology
• European Journal of Criminology
• Kriminalistik
• Kriminologisches Journal
• Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform
IV. INSTITUTIONAL PUBLICATIONS
During the reporting period, five publications were published by the Institute itself, three in Hungarian and two in English.
1. Kriminológiai Tanulmányok 58. kötet [Studies on Criminology, Vol. 58.]
(Szerk.: †György Vókó) OKRI, Budapest, 2021
2. A láthatatlan emberek. Az emberkereskedelem jelensége Magyarországon [The invisible people. The phenomenon of human trafficking in Hungary]
(Author: Szandra Windt) OKRI, Budapest, 2021
3. Distinguishing criteria between petty and high-ranking corruption. Countries’ case studies
(Ed.: Barabás A. Tünde) OKRI, Budapest, 2021
4. A csekély súlyú és nagy volumenű korrupció elhatárolási szempontjai. Tapasztalatcsere különböző államok esettanulmányai alapján. Tréningkötet
(Szerk.: Farkas Krisztina) OKRI, Budapest, 2021
5. Distinguishing Criteria between Petty and High-ranking Corruption. Experience-Sharing Training based on case-studies of different states. Training Material
(Ed.: Krisztina Farkas) National Institute of Criminology, Budapest, 2021
V. CONTACTS, POPULARISATION OF SCIENCE
Conferences in OKRI, 2021
1. 12 October, Palace of Justice, Budapest
Title of conference: Damage to nature from the perspective of law practitioners
2. 24 November (online)
Title of conference: “Pandemic and Crime”. Celebration of Hungarian Science, November 2021
VII. WEBSITE
Our website provides information on a wide range of topics, including the following:
• reports published on the Institute’s wide-ranging operations;
• information provided on an ongoing basis on current domestic and international events;
• each of our researchers has an individual personalised interface where they can update their particulars, post their studies, and disclose other information;
• our publications, promoted in a special section;
• insights provided into the life of the Institute; news is supplemented with photos of memorable events;
• we assist in producing more specific searches with key data, as well as enhancing hits through international search engines;
• the English version of the homepage that assists foreigners in browsing;
• both in Hungary and internationally, in partnership with partner sites, there are more and more external links to the website of our Institute, therefore we also publish website access to many organisations and institutions in the "Useful links" section.
The renewed website is user-friendly, informative and its appearance is worthy of a European level research institute.