Homicide in Finland

The chapter deals with homicidal crime in Finland. It is based on existing research literature, the data of the Finnish Homicide Monitoring System (FHMS), and the main statistical data sources. Homicidal crime has been a central topic in modern Finnish criminology and forensic psychiatry since the early-1900s; the existing studies on homicide trends, the different characteristics of the crime as well as their explanations cover the period from the sixteenth century till today. Estimations on crime levels before the eighteenth century are based mainly on court records; an unbroken series of cause-of-death data of the annual number of victims of intentional homicides is available from the mid-1750s onward; court statistics data are available since the 1890s and police statistics data since the 1920s. The FHMS was created in 2002; it includes detailed information on homicides, homicide offenders, and homicide victims. During the last two centuries, homicide rates have been considerably higher and more volatile in Finland than in other parts of Scandinavia or in Western Europe; a very distinct characteristic of homicidal crime in Finland during this period has been the close linkage between the crimes and alcohol consumption situations; compared with Western Europe and North America also the age-structure of homicidal crime is in Finland today substantially older and the role of ethnic minorities in violent crime significantly smaller; about 80% of all homicides in Finland today consist of violence between middle-aged, unemployed male alcoholics. Explaining the difference between the Finnish and Scandinavian homicide rates has been a central topic in modern Finnish homicide research; explanations include, among other factors: the heritage of the Finnish wars, the more drastic socioeconomic and political modernization processes of the twentieth century, the less active and integrative employment policies of the more recent decades, and the different cultural traditions – especially those of alcohol use.