Suspected Hate Crimes Reported to the Police in Finland in 2015

• In Event: Reporting and Recognizing Hate Crimes

Abstract

Racist crimes (1997 - 2007) and hate crimes (2008 - ) in Finland have been monitored by independent researchers for over a decade. This has been done not only by the police but also by researches in the Ministry of Interior and later at the Police University College. The research material been used consists of police reports which the researcher examines and then categorizes the suspected hate crimes.
The aim of this presentation is to give an example of a research where official police data has been used, what are the benefits of this type of research data and what problems lie within this type of data.
In addition, the Finnish methodology in gathering hate crime data will be compared to the methods used in other countries, for example in the UK. The UK has various methods in gathering information of hate crimes as well as hate incidents. However, in the UK hate crimes are a major problem which is why some of the methods might not work in Finland. The Finnish hate crime report referred to is titled "Poliisin tietoon tullut viharikollisuus Suomessa 2015" (eng. Suspected hate crimes reported to the Police in Finland in 2015).

Author

• Tero Tihveräinen, Police University College