The question as to whether intimate partner homicide (IPH) is committed by average people as opposed to socially disadvantaged persons has both theoretical resonance and practical salience. The gender framework predicts that IPH offenders are socially and individually less disadvantaged than other homicide offenders. The violence framework predicts that IPH offenders resemble other homicide offenders in that they tend to come from socially disadvantaged groups. We examine these perspectives using data on all homicides committed in Finland since 2002 (N = 836 offenders). The findings indicate that socially disadvantaged people are overrepresented in IPH as in other homicide types. In terms of social correlates, IPH clusters with other homicides in close relations, irrespective of the victim’s gender.
This study provides an overview of homicide clearance in four West European countries: Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Using data from the European Homicide Monitor, employing similar definitions and uniform coding schemes, this study allowed for unique crosscountry comparisons in factors influencing differences in homicide clearance rates. Findings based on homicides occurring in the period 2009-14 revealed overall low homicide rates in all countries, with a wide variety in homicide clearance rates, ranging from 77 percent in the Netherlands to 98 percent in Finland. Results further showed that both event-based as well as victim-based characteristics significantly influenced the likelihood of homicide clearance, suggesting that homicide clearance rates can, for a large part, be attributed to the prevalent types of homicide in each of these European countries.
Since the 1960s, homicides against children have decreased dramatically in Finland. The article examines this decrease by disaggregating the trend in five child homicide types between 1960-1974 and 2003-2009. There were several factors reducing the motivation and opportunity to commit most child homicide types during the period. Some were results of active social policies, some were byproducts of the policies, and some were related to the change of the moral climate. Most of the factors were interdependent. However, one type of child homicide has been resistant to any of the factors and the decreasing general trend: maternal filicide-suicides.
Immigrants are known to be overrepresented in the crime statistics of Nordic countries. However, the composition of immigrant populations varies across countries both in terms of immigrants' country of origin as well as their population structure (age and sex). Cross-country comparison of crime rates is always difficult because of differences in legal systems, but it is even more challenging when using very broad categories of immigrants, lumping heterogeneous groups together. Previous studies have largely compared the entire immigrant population of a country with the majority population, which under-appreciates the heterogeneity that exists across immigrant groups. In this paper, we compare the crime rates in Norway and Finland, while adding additional nuances by reporting crime rates for 25 specific immigrant groups relative to the majority population. The data are gathered from Finnish and Norwegian administrative records, representing or comprising the resident population aged 15 -64. We analyse both violent crime and property crime, and we present the results adjusted for population structure (sex and age). The results show considerable similarity in the rank order of crime rates of immigrant groups in the two Nordic countries. Although the current study is mainly descriptive, it aims to set some limits to what it is to be explained. In fact, the diversity is so great that it is questionable whether one should treat immigrants as one single group at all. Whatever the causal mechanisms driving immigrant crime are, it seems plausible that some similar processes are operating across the Nordic region.
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