Study shows the difficulties of comparing homicide statistics

In Finland homicides are committed by drunks, in Holland by criminals; just 6% of Finland’s homicides relate to criminal activities

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Finland rightly appears rather high on the statistics for violent crime in Europe, but as so often behind the statistical data there lie a number of caveats and a lot of small print.
      There are, for instance, large differences between different EU nations when it comes to the reasons for homicides and the methods used in such crimes.
      In Finland, a typical person to commit a homicide is a middle-aged heavy consumer of alcohol and the victim is his drunken contemporary. In Sweden the situation is somewhat similar, but already in Holland the statistics read rather differently.
     
These facts emerge from a fresh study conducted by the Finnish National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula), the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), and the Dutch Leiden University.
      “In Finland only six per cent of homicides relate to organised crime or other criminal activities. In Holland the corresponding figure is as high as 30 per cent, which took us by surprise. In recent years the situation has even worsened. Therefore the rate of solving such crimes in The Netherlands is noticeably lower than in the Nordic region”, explains Optula researcher Martti Lehti.
      The study focused on 1,577 homicides with 1,666 victims and 1,917 perpetrators. Of the examined cases, 491 had taken place in Finland, 355 in Sweden, and 820 in Holland in 2003-2006.
     
”In Holland, 35 per cent of the homicides were committed by shooting and 38 per cent outdoors, which speaks of the fact that the killings had to do with robberies and other criminal activities”, Lehti says.
      In Finland the most commonly-used weapon was a blade, usually a kitchen knife, the victim a relative or an acquaintance, and the scene of the crime a private residence, often the location for a drinking session.
      “What also sets Holland apart from Sweden and Finland is the fact that most of the perpetrators were born in some other country”, Lehti specifies.
      In Holland the perpetrator and the victim rarely knew each other. Furthermore, the killers there were younger than in the two Nordic examples. These characteristics, too, hint at organised crime.
      “In Finland, the threat of organised crime has now existed for a couple of decades, but so far the authorities have managed to keep it at bay.”
     
What sets the Swedish homicide situation apart from the other two countries is primarily the fact that the extremes are missing at both ends.
      “What combines Sweden and Finland are the similarities regarding the perpetrators, the victims, and the scene of the offence. What separates the two countries is the fact that also in the Swedish statistics homicides committed by perpetrators of foreign background stand out”, Lehti adds.
In the researcher’s opinion, in Finland the influence of alcohol is blindingly and frighteningly obvious, which would give cause to intensify alcohol education work in the country.
      Roughly speaking, in Finland only the scene of lethal crimes has changed: in the 1960s a large portion of homicides still took place in public or semi-public places. In Sweden, most of the killings took place behind closed doors already in the 1950s.
     
In all three countries, if the victim was a woman, the killer was in 57-65% of the cases her present or former partner. Of all the victims, 70-85% were killed indoors, women usually in their own home. Only 10-18% of the homicides were committed without using either a firearm or a knife.
      In Finland, just 4% of the victims were of foreign background. For Holland the corresponding percentage was 43.
      Finland had the oldest perpetrators and victims (average age 42.1 years), Holland the youngest (37.4 years).
      In Finland 40 per cent of the households own a firearm, in Holland only five per cent. Nevertheless, in Holland the number per capita of homicides committed by using a gun is higher than in Finland.
      In Finland a male perpetrator and a male victim had consumed alcohol in more than 80 per cent of the cases. Sweden’s corresponding figure was less than 50 per cent. Half of the Finnish perpetrators were unemployed, and in Sweden the figure was 40%.
      One further striking difference is that street violence was assocated with 16% of Finnish cases, and with twice as many in Holland.
     
Many have raised eyebrows at Finland's high incidence of homicides (mostly designated as manslaughter rather than murder).
      The raw figures do indicate a higher level relative to the total population (491 cases between 2003 and 2006, in a population of some 5 million, as against fewer in Sweden - pop. 9.4 million - and 820 in The Netherlands, where the population is already 16.5 million), but to some extent the perception of risk of being involved in such crimes, either as victim or as the offender, is lower in this country simply because of the nature of the killings.
      The risk of becoming the victim of a random killer is perceived to be low, assuming of course that one does not fit into the narrow profile of often marginalised individuals described in these statistics.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Number of homicides down appreciably in 2009 (27.1.2010)
  Tougher gun licencing could prevent some homicides (4.1.2010)
  Marginalised men typical perpetrators - and victims - of homicide in Finland (2.4.2004)

See also:
  Homicide rate in Finnish Lapland higher than in Central Africa (22.1.2008)
  Homicide rate higher in provincial towns than in Helsinki (21.1.2008)

Links:
  Homicide in Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden (National Council for Crime Prevention, Sweden)

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