Tihveräinen, T. (2016): Poliisin tietoon tullut viharikollisuus Suomessa 2015 (Suspected hate crimes reported to the police in Finland in 2015), The Police College of Finland (Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu) 2016
Country
Finland
Title
Year
Type of publication
Geographical coverage
National
Area/location of interest
Type of Institution
Public authority
Institution
Main Thematic Focus
Hate crime
Target Population
General population
Key findings
In 2015, the police filed 1,250 reports of suspected hate crime cases. Compared to the previous year there was a 52 % increase in suspected hate crimes. The clear majority (79,3 %) of the cases were classified as racist incidents. The rest of the cases had following motives: religion or corresponding motive (10,6 %), sexual orientation (4,4 %), disability (5,2 %) and gender identity or gender expression (0,5 %). In 2015, 991 reports of offences with racist motives were found in the police information system. The most common suspected crimes were assaults. In 2015, in the majority of hate crimes based on religion, the target religion was Islam (71 cases) whereas the motive was related to Christianity in 18 cases, to other religions in 15 cases and the religion was not specified in 29 cases. The most common suspected crimes were verbal insults or threats. The police should use hate motive code whenever hate motive is suspected in a case. However, the code was used only in 18 % of the cases selected for the report.
Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)
The statistics are based on crime reports retrieved from the national police information system using search words and codes, after which the reports of an offence are read and classified as hate crime (or not) according to the specific information found on the reports, for example if the victim or the police has suspected that there was a hate motive behind the crime.
Sample details and representativeness
1,250 reports of an offence were selected from the raw material and classified as hate crime.