Finland has seen a growing number of serious violent crimes taking place in public areas according to a new report from the National Police Board.
Published: 15/01/25 | 21:09
“Last year nearly half of the country’s serious violent crimes happened in the Uusimaa region with cases in Vantaa and Helsinki rising in particular,” Police Commissioner Ilkka Koskimäki said at a press briefing presenting the latest figures.
He also highlighted a significant increase in young people being named as suspects. “Minors now make up as much as one third of those suspected in these cases,” Koskimäki noted, adding that drug use is frequently connected to violent incidents.
For the past ten years Finnish police have tracked crime levels in major cities through a “disturbance index,” publishing the findings annually. The index measures reported crimes in public places including homicides, assaults, sexual offences, vandalism and attempted vandalism relative to population size.
According to the 2024 index Vantaa and Turku ranked as the least safe cities in Finland. Data from last year also showed that almost half of all serious violent crimes took place in public areas most often in city centres during weekends or at night.
This marks a “clear shift” compared to 2015 when the proportion was about one third, Police Board representative Sanna Heikinheimo explained.
Authorities have further observed a rise in cases where victims and offenders are strangers that is a pattern previously uncommon in Finland.
One such example occurred in December when Social Democratic Party MP Krista Kiuru was assaulted by an unidentified individual in Kaisaniemi Park Helsinki while on her way to collect her child from daycare.
Last year also saw several high-profile public crimes including racially motivated stabbings at an Oulu shopping centre, a school shooting in Vantaa and the suspected murder of a woman on a busy street in Tampere.
