NCJ Number
176163
Editor(s)
T Belgasem
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Social changes in Finland over the past several decades are reflected in recorded crime statistics.
Abstract
Crime in general increased during the 1960s and the 1970s as affluence continued to increase, large postwar cohorts reached a crime-intensive age, and the urban South experienced a wave of migration from the rural North. This surge in recorded crime was followed by a period of more stable trends. During the 1980s, however, crime in some categories increased. With the economic recession in the early 1990s, many major crime categories began to decrease up until 1994, but new increases were recorded in 1995. Trends in the occurrence of specific offense types are reviewed, including homicide, assault, robbery, theft, embezzlement, fraud, property damage, drunken driving and other traffic offenses, labor safety offenses, economic offenses, and drug offenses. Criminal punishments in Finland are described that include fines, conditional and unconditional imprisonment, and community service. Diversion strategies such as nonprosecution and mediation are also examined. 1 table