Finland’s homicide rate is among the highest in EU, in fact it was the highest before the recent enlargement of the Union. Also rates of other forms of serious interpersonal violence, though more difficult to compare across nations, are high. These are some of the reasons why Finland’s National Council for Crime Prevention set up a suite of work groups to consider ways to reduce violence in the country. Violence reduction is also on the agenda of the government, lead by prime minister Matti Vanhanen, and the ministry of the interior is preparing a programme for internal safety that is coordinated with the work done under the auspices of the Council for Crime Prevention.

In its January 2004 meeting, the Council decided to set up seven groups, each charting the current state of affairs of a problem area in violence as well as thinking of ways to prevent violence.

The work group on homicide will describe the development of violence with lethal outcome, compare the Finnish situation with that of other European countries and determine the characteristics of Finnish homicides.

Another group will look at alcohol and violence. A large proportion of violent offences in Finland involve not only drunken people, but seriously drunken persons. The group will look at the relationships of alcohol consumption, drinking habits and violence and will consider the points of view of alcohol control policy, of social policy and of situational crime prevention to suggest ways to reduce alcohol-related violence.

The group on violence against women will review the current state of knowledge particularly on serious violence against women, including intimate partner violence, other domestic violence, violence at work, and sexual violence. It will also consider experiences from a large number of different projects set up to prevent violence against women.

Violence encountered at work is the theme of another group. According to a series of national surveys on injuries and violence, violence at work has increased during the past few years while many other forms of violence have gone down.
A very large area of violence is covered by the group on violence among and against young people and children. They will look at the rates of violence perpetrated by young people as well as the rates of violence against young people and children by offenders of any age.
Finally, a work group on culture and violence will look at possibilities of forms of culture that would promote non-violence rather than violence.

The members of the work groups are experts of the relevant fields, such as law, psychology, psychiatry, criminology, and social work, officials of government bodies, and representatives of non-governmental organisations doing crime-preventive work.