Statistics compiled by the National Police Board of Finland indicate an increase in the reporting of violent crime during the first five months of 2020.
More premeditated and attempted homicides were committed during this period in 2020 than in any comparable period over the last ten years.
Overall, a total of 201 murders, homicides, or attempted homicides occurred between January and May of this year. The previous high for the period of the last 10 years was 2012, when 179 such crimes were recorded, national broadcaster Yle reported.
According to the police, the number of attempted murders spiked a whopping 75 percent compared with the same period in previous years. The number of suspected homicides jumped by 60 percent, whereas homicide attempts increased by 24 percent compared with the 2010s average.
The number of violent crime incidents particularly spiked in March. Doctoral researcher Miikka Vuorela from the University of Helsinki stressed that this is when the effects of the coronavirus were at their highest.
“People stayed in their homes, afraid of getting sick and losing their jobs. This stress contributed to the onset of alcohol and substance abuse, as well as mental health problems”, Vuorela told Yle. “This is an exceptional phenomenon in which the current crisis is producing a wave of crime”, Vuorela said.
He emphasised that Finland has never seen a wave of crime related to a non-violent crisis before.
“Usually, violence increases during war, but not during economic crises, for example”, he mused.
The police, however, are more cautious in assessing the reasons behind the spike. At the same time, the Helsinki Police Department has noted a series of specific issues during the spring.
“There have been three main reasons for homicides: the use of recreational drugs, family issues that result in violence, and mental health problems, especially in relation to the incidents of attempted murder”, detective Jari Koski of the Helsinki Police Department explained.
Greater Helsinki recorded the highest number of committed and attempted homicides. Violent crime-related alerts mostly came from private homes. City centres, by contrast, were calmer than usual due to lockdown putting a halt to public life.
However, as seen per capita during the past two decades, the northernmost region of Lapland is the most violent. According to Jukka Haataja of the Lapland Police Department, there are several reasons why conflict situations in Lapland are resolved with violence more often than elsewhere in the country.
“Alcohol is involved in almost all homicides here. A typical homicide in Lapland is a drunken, impulsive killing with a sharp weapon”, Haataja explained.
With 7,117 confirmed cases and 326 fatalities, Finland remains relatively mildly hit by the coronavirus. The Nordic country has even lifted the state of emergency that was valid for three months, and is in the process of lifting the restrictions on public life.
