Prosecutorial Performance and Conviction Rates in Europe

Abstract

The Hungarian Prosecution Service has performed a persistently high conviction rate of over 95% for several years, reaching 98.8% in 2021. While the Prosecutor General's Office is positive about this figure and sees it as proof of the effectiveness of prosecutorial performance, others criticise it and consider it a manifestation of a hidden presumption of guilt and a result of some faulty decision-making. A European comparison is needed to determine whether the Hungarian criminal statistic records are really outstandingly high in this respect compared to neighbouring countries. With this in mind, the aim of this paper is to examine prosecutorial effectiveness and conviction rates from a comparative criminal procedural point of view and a criminal statistics approach. The research is partly based on data collected by the UN
European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control between 1995 and 2004, and for topicality also on the 2021
edition of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. These are subjected to further independent review and analysis to answer the question raised. As a result, the research shows how Hungary is ranking in terms of the prosecutorial performance index and conviction rates among European countries and draws constructive conclusions on the correlations between prosecutorial effectiveness and the efficiency of the criminal justice system.