Hungary’s three-strike meant to reduce the number of crimes committed by recidivists did not exercise a remarkable effect on the statistics, figures show.

Of the 122,529 criminals registered last year, nearly a third already had a criminal record, and 11% were recidivists.

The number of reported crimes rose 13.5% last year; from 394,034 to 447,186. A total of 133 murders were committed. Crimes against property were up 8%, burglaries and thefts by 17.4%. The financial damage caused by crimes against property increased compared to the previous year, rising from HUF 140 billion from HUF 101.6 billion.

Drug abuse increased 20%, hooliganism jumped 28%, white-collar crime surged 26% and grievous bodily harm offences rose 10.8%.

While the number of known corruption cases dropped to 481  from 963, latency is still huge as corruption cases statistically accounted for only 0.2% of all registered crimes on average during the past two decades.