Previous recession led to more violent deaths

Money worries possibly behind Oulu family tragedy

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Economic recession and the worries associated with it could lead to an increase in violent deaths. A statistical peak in the numbers of murders, suicides, and manslaughter cases was recorded in the years after the last recession.
      Between 1990 and 1994, a total of 818 Finns died violently, reports researcher Martti Lehti of the National Research Institute of Legal Policy.
      in the years from 1985 to 1990 the figure for violent deaths was 714, and between 1995 and 1999 it stood at 732.
     
One minor surprise in the data collected by Statistics Finland is that during the period when the figures rose, alcohol consumption actually declined, as did the number of other violent crimes such as assaults.
      "Normally crimes of violence in the Finnish experience are associated with heavy use of alcohol. During the recession there was not the money around to buy alcohol, but other worries piled on the pressure", says Lehti.
      Tragedies such as that which occurred in Oulu at the weekend are in Lehti's view more common in middle-class families, but this is not something that has been examined since the last recession.
     
Being trapped between two homes, and the burden of debt that followed is seen as a possible reason for a shooting in which four people were killed in Oulu during the weekend, writes the late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.
      The construction of the family’s new house had been well under way when damage caused by damp had been found in the structures of the semi-detached home where they lived.
      Consequently, the planned sale of the semi-detached property was cancelled, although the deal had nearly been closed.
      “The man was very serious looking when I carried out repairs to get rid of the damp. At that point he did not understand humour”, recalled one contractor on Monday as he was buying construction equipment at a hardware store in Oulu.
     
The man, a schoolteacher at the nearby Kuivasjärvi School, shot his wife, two children, and himself on Saturday.
      According to the Swedish-language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, the mother of the family had said at the school where she worked that her husband had been making threats to kill his family.
      “I do not want to talk about the matter at this stage”, says the school’s head teacher Jari Haapalainen.
      “I have not heard of anything like this”, said Mika Penttilä personnel director of the Oulu education department.
     
The head of the investigation into the deaths, Kari Rantanen of the Oulu Police, did not wish to take a stand on the internal problems or monetary difficulties of the family.
      “These patterns will be investigated, but I cannot say what the timeline will be, in light of the suffering of the next of kin. There is no hurry”, Rantanen says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Family of four die in murder-suicide, Oulu neighbourhood in shock (20.10.2008)

Links:
  National Research Institute of Legal Policy

Helsingin Sanomat