NCJ Number
143472
Date Published
1993
Length
158 pages
Annotation
An overview of Finland's criminal justice system is presented that covers criminal investigation and the public prosecutor's role, courts, police, prisons, community-based corrections (probation, parole, community service, and aftercare), and mediation.
Abstract
Following a review of the Finnish criminal justice system's historical roots, the discussion turns to the system's general structure. The system is based on principles of legality, equality, predictability, and proportionality. Courts rely on two penal sanctions, imprisonment and fines, and imprisonment length is determined according to limits prescribed by law. Statistics on offenses known to the police in Finland indicate that offenses roughly doubled between 1970 and 1986, from 348,859 to 698,762. Criminal procedures are designed to offer legal protection against criminal law violations. The Finnish legal system is based on the Continental model where matters of guilt and punishment are combined in the same trial phase and decided by the same parties. Finland has no grand juries, investigating magistrates, or pretrial hearings. Rather, the trial begins with the presentation of an indictment, after which the accused may raise objections to the court's jurisdiction or procedural pleas. Courts exist at three levels: (1) inferior courts are usually comprised of a professional judge and a panel of lay adjudicators; (2) appellate courts consist of a quorum of three professional judges; and (3) the Supreme Court consists of a quorum of five judges. The public prosecutor must bring an offender to justice as soon as there are reasonable grounds to suspect the individual has committed an offense. The Finnish police force is organized under the Ministry of Interior and has national, regional, and local levels. The police force has separate agencies for security, traffic, and criminal investigation. Finland's prison system includes both open and closed institutions. As of 1989, the country had seven central prisons, one juvenile prison, and eight provincial prisons. The juvenile prison operates according to the Young Offenders Act. Alternatives to reduce the prison population include probation, parole, community service, and aftercare. Mediation services for both civil and criminal matters have been available in Finland since 1984. Comparisons are made between the Finnish and the U.S. criminal justice systems. References and tables