Court-Ordered Compensation for Losses From Crime: Study on the Practice in the Helsinki City Court in Ordering Compensation for Losses From Theft (From Research Report Summaries 1994, P 9- 12, 1995)

• NCJ Number: 156507
• Author(s): K Ervasti
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 4 pages
• Sale Source: National Research Institute of Legal Policy
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Finland

Annotation

This study examined the practice of the Helsinki, Finland, City Court in ordering compensation for losses from crime and the extent to which complainants actually received compensation ordered by lower courts.

Abstract

The study focused on court orders to private parties for compensation on the basis of an offense. The first stage of the study examined 112 cases of theft and aggravated theft in which the court ordered the offender to pay the complainant compensation for his or her losses. Additional data were obtained on 45 cases that involved a loss due to theft or aggravated theft but in which the complainant had not requested compensation. A questionnaire was sent to victims during the second stage of the study to determine how much they received as compensation and from whom. In most cases, especially when losses were small, victims received no compensation. When victims received compensation, such compensation usually came from an insurance company. Victims rarely received compensation on the basis of Finland's Damages Act, State Compensation for Victims of Crime Act, or voluntary insurance schemes. Many victims did not receive compensation simply because they did not even try to claim it. Problems associated with Finland's system of compensating crime victims are discussed, and the author points out that most offenders do not have any income from which to pay compensation.