Violent crimes in Finland are most frequently committed in the home.

Heated debate continues as to how violent Finland really is compared to other European countries, reports the Helsingin Sanomat.

“FINLAND is not a violent country by European standards, according to social scientist, Professor Pertti Töttö of the University of Eastern Finland. Finns commit quite many violent crimes compared to countries in Western Europe, but far less than any country in Eastern Europe.

On the other hand, according to Professor Emeritus of Criminal Law Eero Backman Finnish culture is a traditionally violent one where more homicides are committed than in Western Europe and even some Eastern European countries.

Both professors refer to the crime statistics of the National Research Institute of Legal Policy and come to completely opposite conclusions based on the aforementioned statistics.

Martti Lehti, a researcher at the institute, considers Finland to be a violent nation. He thinks that Töttö gleans partially non-essential things from the statistics. ‘Four times more homicides are committed in Finland than in Germany, but it’s four times less than in Ukraine. But which nation do we want to compare ourselves to?’ Lehti asks. ‘It is problematic to compare ourselves to the former socialist countries where violent crime has been growing since the 1990s. Their situation is a bit exceptional, and they will eventually come down from that.’

The amount of aggravated assault in Finland is particularly high by Western European standards. The level of lesser assault is close to the Western European average. That is at least partially due to the fact that most Finns do not commit violent crime – at least the kind that is recorded in statistics. ‘In Finland the working population is no more violent than in Sweden and Norway,’ Lehti says.

In Finland aggravated assault is mostly committed by male, unemployed, middle-aged alcoholics. They commit an exceptional amount of it by European standards.

A typical Finnish case of violent crime occurs in a private residence. Both the perpetrator and the victim are 30-50-year-old unemployed and alcoholic men. Both are intoxicated, they have an argument over something and then one strikes the other with a bladed weapon. According to statistics by the National Research Institute of Legal Policy, in 70 per cent of all homicides committed between adults in Finland between 2002-2008 all the parties involved were drunk when the crime was committed.”

HELSINGIN SANOMAT 28 February. TOMMI NIEMINEN
LEHTIKUVA - Martti Kainulainen