NCJ Number
210936
Editor(s)
Eira Mykkanen
Date Published
February 2005
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Crime trends in Finland are broken down into offense types for the period 1994-2003.
Abstract
In 2003, there were 103 homicides reported to the police in Finland; the annual number of police-recorded homicides has varied between 130 and 155 over the last 10 years, and the annual homicide rate per 100,00 inhabitants has been 2.7 on average. In 2003, there were 28,862 assault offenses and 347 attempted homicides reported to the police. The recorded number of nonlethal assault offenses increased in the mid-1990s approximately 30 percent; but in recent years, the number has been relatively stable. Recorded robberies increased at the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, but in the mid-1990s their number receded to an annual level of approximately 2,000 offenses. In 2003, the number of recorded robberies was 2,045. Reported forcible rapes increased from 1995, and in 2003 there was a 4-percent increase in forcible rapes from the previous year. This report suggests that these increases are due to improved reporting procedures for rape. Although recorded theft offenses increased during the 1980s, they stabilized in the early 1990s and have continued to be relatively level through 2003, during which the police recorded 178,000 theft crimes. Offense data for 1994-2003 are also reported for thefts of motor vehicles, embezzlement, fraud, damage to property, tax offenses and economic offenses, drunken driving, other traffic offenses, narcotics offenses, juvenile crime, and juvenile homicide. Also discussed are women as perpetrators and victims of violence, foreigners and crime, crime trends in large cities, fear of crime, the role of alcohol, and international perspectives. 1 table and 11 figures