Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

(population 5.4 million) is a Central European country with a history of relatively low crime. While crime became more widespread after the

revolutions of 1989 The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts ...

, it remains low when compared to many other post-communist countries. Slovakia employs numerous law enforcement bodies and secret services in fighting crime, yet according to numerous

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

s the Police together with the Secret Services are some of the least trusted institutions in the country.

Crime by type

Murder

In 2018, Slovakia had a murder rate of 1.37 per 100,000 population. There was a total of 57 murders in Slovakia in 2016.

Violence and theft

Apart from the occasional mafia shootings,

gun violence Gun-related violence is violence against a person committed with the use of a firearm to inflict a gunshot wound. Gun violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable ...

in Slovakia is rare. There are approximately 3,000 – 4,000 home

burglaries Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...

and 7,000 – 8,000 car thefts in Slovakia each year. Together, there are around 15,000 cases of violent criminal acts (damage to victim's life or health) in Slovakia every year.

Illegal drug trade

Slovak Republic is a party to the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1972 Protocol thereto, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Not only the manufacture and selling of certain drugs is illegal but also their possession. Slovak law does not differentiate between hard drugs and soft drugs and sentences can in theory be as harsh as

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. Until the mid-1990s the drug situation in Slovakia remained somewhat stable; extensive small-scale illicit

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...

production, no

opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum'', commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable orname ...

cultivation, only minimal

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

cultivation in private greenhouses and the country was already a key transit point for smuggling Asian

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

both via

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and lying on the "Balkan route" from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Seizures of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

up to this point have been minimal and at this time Slovakia emerged as another crossroads for cocaine traffickers seeking new routes to Western Europe ( Colombian traffickers have been smuggling cocaine through the neighboring

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

since 1991). Because the banking sector in Slovakia was still in nascent stages at this time, drug

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

operations were limited. In November 1995, an independent national drug service was created in Slovakia and the government established a new comprehensive anti-drug plan to target drug trafficking and use and made drug-related changes to the criminal code. The biggest seizures made by the Slovak police in 1995 were a 123.5 kilogram heroin seizure, and a 25 kilogram cocaine seizure. Implementation of chemical control regulations and legislation continues to create concern about the vulnerability of the country's well-developed chemical and pharmaceutical industry being partially used for the production of illegal drugs or precursor chemicals.

Organized crime

The Slovak mafia constitutes various

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

groups in Slovakia, controlled primarily by Slovak interests. The Slovak mafia does not have significant international presence and even in Slovakia, their activities are limited by boundaries set by the powerful

Russian mafia The Russian mafia ( or ), also known as Bratva ( ; ) less as Obshchak (Общак) or Brigades (Бригады) , is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating or/and operating in Russia. In December 2009, Timur ...

Ukrainian mafia The Ukrainian mafia ( Ukrainian: Українська мафія) is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating in Ukraine. Such organizations are regarded as one of the most influential types of organized crime coming o ...

Chechen mafia The Chechen mafia (; ) is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia groups. Structure While most Slavic and Caucasian gangsters in the Soviet era followed the thieves ...

, and various

Balkan The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

groups controlling much of the

trade. The Slovak mafia is traditionally especially active in security business, construction and ownership of restaurants and nightclubs. According to the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

, "Both indigenous and foreign organized crime groups are well established in Slovakia". Under Slovak law, the creation, membership, activity, or support of an organized crime group constitutes a crime. In its modern form, the mafia is a young phenomenon in Slovakia, having truly emerged only after the

. According to known Slovak sociologist Pavol Haulik from the MVK poll agency, "We can state that people imagine that the mafia has a very strong influence in Slovakia". In 2005, a list of mafia members, families and "special interest groups" suspected by the Slovak police leaked to the public, complete with lists of registered weapons and vehicles followed by two leaks of updated lists in 2011. Some groups may not meet the definition of a mafia-style group; therefore they can be referred to as criminal networks, or loose networks of associates engaging in criminal activity.

Corruption

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 indicates that corruption remains a serious problem in Slovakia.

Crime dynamics

During the 1990s, there were 2,300 reported crimes per 100,000 citizens in Slovakia. In comparison with the neighboring countries - it was 3,200 in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, 3,400 in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, 4,100 in the

and 6,100 in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. From 1989 to 1999, the number of crime perpetrators has slightly risen from over 35,000 in 1989 to almost 45,000 in 1999. The number of perpetrators not convicted remains stable at some 80 percent of total perpetrators. Also somewhat stable is the number of habitual offenders at approximately 10,000. The 2000s saw again a slight rise in the number of perpetrators and a steep rise in economic crime.

References

External links

Registered criminal offences by regions in the Slovak Republic in 2009 in total
- official data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
Damages caused by criminality in total (1989–2005)
- official data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic {{Crime in Europe Crime in Europe Crime in Europe by country