In 2017, the number of hate crimes reported to the police was eight percent higher than in the previous year. According to a study by the Police University College, a total of 1,165 reports classified as suspected hate crimes were recorded last year.
Despite the increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the police, it was still less than before the year 2016. The number of principal offenses decreased by 99. Principal offense refers to the most serious type of crime to which the injured party in each crime report was subjected to. All in all, the number of hate crimes can be said to have stabilized, but after the 2015 wave of migration, it still remains above the long-term average.
As in previous years, the majority of the hate crime reports in 2017 included features related to ethnic or national background, and assault was the most common type of crime.
Hate crimes reported to the police have been monitored for 20 years in Finland. Hate crimes are recorded on the basis of national police report data.
Increase in the number of hate crimes based on religion, belief or conviction
Last year, the police recorded 813 suspected hate crimes based on ethnic or national background, 18 less than in the previous year. The monitoring of hate crimes was developed by adding a sub-category to the specification, to facilitate monitoring of hate crimes targeting the Roma. Last year, 10 percent of all crime reports based on ethnic or national background, and 9.7 percent of principal offenses, targeted a person of Roma background. Discrimination was the most common incident in these 81 crime reports.
In 2017, the number of suspected hate crimes based on religion or religious conviction increased most, by 58 per cent compared to the previous year. The police recorded a total of 235 such hate crimes, and in 63 percent of them, the offense targeted Islam.
Enhanced investigation and prevention of hate crimes has produced results
In recent years, the police have stepped up their operations in order to recognize and prevent hate crimes. According to National Police Board guidelines, the police should classify the offense as a hate crime at all times when recording crime reports, if the case is suspected to involve any hate crime related features. In 2017, the police used the classification in 39 percent of all hate crimes reported to the police, while in 2016, the corresponding figure was 23 percent. One of the key reasons for the higher figure is the development of special police training related to hate crimes.
In early 2017, a national hate speech investigation team was established at the Helsinki Police Department, tasked to intervene in punishable hate speech on the Internet. The 2017 increase in the number of crime reports relating to hate crimes is to a large extent explained by crime reports recorded by this team. The types of crime included ethnic agitation, defamation or menace.
The annual report on hate crime 2017 is available as an online publication (abstract in English) at www.polamk.fi/julkaisut
Liite: Taulukko PNG, 17,6 kB
