National council for crime prevention

There are different types of crime, and different factors influence the development of these different types of crime. However, one feature that applies to almost all offences is that they would not be committed unless

• a motivated offender meets
• a suitable opportunity
• in the absence of a capable guardian.

Unless all three conditions are present, there would be no crime.

The most important reason for the growth of crime is that the opportunities for crime have increased in particular in respect of property crime. For example the amount of consumer goods generated by the present standard of living means that there is a wealth of property available for theft. Due to his or her mobility, a potential offender meets an increasing number of opportunities for crime. At the same time, there has been a decrease in supervision, and also this has to a large extent been due to the increase in mobility and to urbanization. In earlier times, the social control that had been based on social relations was a strong factor in regulating behaviour. A second good example of the increase in the opportunity for crime is the way in which the growth in traffic has increased the opportunity for traffic crime.

There are considerable regional differences in crime. In general, there is a higher level of crime in large cities. This is due both to the fact that there are more opportunities for crime in cities, and to the decrease in social control that follows urbanization.

One observation that is true of almost all types of crime is that a small number of people commit the large share of offences. Those persons who commit a number of offences have generally begun to commit offences at a very young age, before reaching their fifteenth birthday, the age of criminal responsibility.

Crime is connected with marginalization. The connection goes both ways: marginalization increases crime and being labelled as a criminal increases marginalization. The "criminal classes" form a future threat. There is a danger in Finland that a large sector of the population will remain permanently outside of working life and other systems that provide the individual with a stake in lawful society.

So far, there has been little organized crime in Finland. Finnish crime is domestic. Otherwise, it is similar to crime in other small countries in Europe, and in particular in other Nordic countries. However, at least in the Nordic perspective Finnish crime is characterized by a considerable amount of serious violence. As is also the case with a considerable part of other types of crime, this is connected with the Finnish intoxication-oriented pattern of drinking. The increase in the consumption of alcohol has been accompanied by an increase in many types of crime. Future threats include a growth in organized and international crime.

Fewer and fewer offences are being cleared. In part this is due to the fact that the resources available to the police have decreased in proportion to the number of offences that need to be investigated. However, the primary reason for the decrease in the clearance rate is that, as a result of the development in society, an increasing proportion of crime remains hidden. Such crime is committed in circumstances which do not provide the basis for launching a successful investigation. This weakens the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and is one of the fundamental reasons why we should invest in the prevention of crime.