NCJ Number
80055
Date Published
1979
Length
110 pages
Annotation
This report examines crime in Lahti, Finland; attempts to explain the high level of criminality in that city; and examines the city's potential for developing an effective criminal policy.
Abstract
Lahti is the sixth largest city in Finland. The level of crime is high; the number of reported robberies is higher here than in Helsinki, Finland's largest city, and the number of theft and assaults is also higher in Lahti than in other larger cities. To explain the high crime rate in Lahti, the report looks at the general theories of crime and the theories which support a connection between urbanization and crime. Special attention is devoted to the possibility that many Lahti residents have not become attached to the network of human relations and institutions in conventional society, a factor which would have been influenced by the economic development of the city. The report notes that a municipality's possibilities of making decisions with an influence on criminality should be extensive. However, these possibilities are limited by economics and politics, as well as by the relations between the State and the city. The city's traditional tasks in the maintenance of order and in social development have diminished, and the city has become primarily an economic unit. The report suggests that criminality could be prevented to an improved degree if it is conceived as a regional problem for which local bodies bear responsibility. Footnotes, 34 references, tables, and a graph are included. (Author abstract modified)