NCJ Number
84845
Date Published
1981
Length
123 pages
Annotation
This is the 7th in a series of annual reviews of crime and criminal justice in Finland, based on the Finnish official statistics of crimes known to the police and the criminal cases tried by the courts.
Abstract
In 1980, crimes against the criminal code represented 46 percent of all known crimes, with property crimes comprising about three-fourths of that total and drunk driving offenses one-tenth of it. The report contains graphs showing the number of recorded homicide, assault, robbery, theft, embezzlement, fraud, and property damage offenses per 100,000 population aged 15 and over for Helsinki, for cities with 30,000 or more inhabitants, for cities with less than 30,000 inhabitants, and for rural communities. Data and analyses are also given on auto thefts, traffic offenses, juvenile crime, and on comparison of assault and theft rates in four Nordic countries for 1979. The latter shows a relatively low crime rate for Finland, but a high prisoner rate due to the country's high crime clearance rate, extensive use of unconditional prison sentences, and long imprisonment terms. Nevertheless, the statistics indicate a general downward trend in the daily average number of prisoners from a 1976 high of 5596 to 5082 in 1980. This imprisonment rate is deemed the highest in Western Europe. Extensive tabular and graphic data are given. (Author summary modified)