Increase in youth crime continues in Helsinki

More than 2,000 offences committed in 2008

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Since 2005, the crime rate of the under-15s has been constantly growing in Helsinki, and according to statistics, the number of offences in 2008 was 2,138.
     
By far the most typical offences committed by youngsters are property crimes, such as petty larceny. Even assaults and mild assaults are typical, and over the last couple of years the number of such violent acts has increased.
      In addition, some violent actions committed by adolescents and pre-teens in the Greater Helsinki area have been observed.
      Deputy Police Chief Jari Liukku does not regard the statistics as alarming. Fluctuation is small, and some occasional series of crimes have a certain impact on the number of vandalism cases and others.
      According to Liukku, the higher figures are also attributable to the authorities’ active and spontaneous intervention in problems as well as to their keeping potential perpetrators under observation. The figures have been rising since the launch of a mobile police squad, which is to help where it is needed.
     
”All of us should remember our own youth”, Inspector Jarmo Heinonen points out. He works as the officer in charge of investigations into youth crime in the Itäkeskus District Police Precinct in Helsinki.
      Heinonen is worried about the fact that youngsters do not know how to fight. They are not aware what a kick, a fist, or a knife mean. ”Their methods are getting way out of proportion”, he adds.
      Moreover, youths may look for violent modes of operation in the media. The power of the media is appreciated, with many victims preferring to contact the press than report an offence, Heinonen notes.
      New modus operandi and law paragraphs are also reflected in the statistics. Heinonen believes that the numbers of crimes have increased mostly because the police want and receive increasing numbers of reports of offences.
     
The old traditional authorities - for example parents and teachers - have also lost their power over young people, which is why police are often needed. Moreover, parents do not necessarily want to discipline their children. On the contrary, they are likely to defend them.
      ”If a 13-year-old boy breaks a window, and someone sees the act and catches him, the boy’s parents are interested in whether or not the person held their child too tightly. They show no interest in the broken window at all”, Heinonen observes.
     
In Espoo, the offensive behaviour of young people had long been diminishing, until a couple of years ago, when it again started to become more common.
      The number of actual violent crimes is low, but the cases of wilful damage are common.
      ”Last autumn we saw a lot of vandalism and even fires being set”, reports Inspector Sari Vuorinen from the Espoo Police Precinct.
     
”Typical venues for youngsters drinking bottles of beer out of a plastic shopping bag are the yards of daycare centres and schools”, Vuorinen notes. Other places on the list are shopping malls, railway stations, parks, and beaches.
      In Vantaa, one of the hang-out places for young people is the railway station in the suburb of Myyrmäki.
      ”A year ago we had problems in Tikkurila”, says Tanja Martikainen from the Vantaa Police Department.
      ”Young people are gathering in places where a station and a shopping mall are near each other, whereupon all kinds of incidents occur”, Martikainen notes.
      Olavi Sydänmaanlakka, who is in charge of youth services at the charity organisation HelsinkiMissio, says that we should always observe the behaviour of grown-ups when we encounter problems with children.
     
”Young people need a milieu in which to discuss their problems and other affairs with neighbours, fathers and mothers, and the class on a community level. Not every incident requires crisis therapy”, Sydänmaanlakka says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki youth crime rate up by a third from last year (18.10.2005)
  Helsinki officials and Somali community groups ponder youth crime issue (10.10.2005)

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