HATE CRIMES REPORTED TO THE POLICE IN 2017

In 2017, the police received 1,165 reports of offences involving a suspected hate crime, an increase of 8% on the previous year.

In the majority of the reports, 69.8%, hate crimes were committed because of the victim’s nationality or ethnic origin and 20.2% were motivated by the victim’s religious conviction or belief. Disability was the motive in 4.9% of cases and in 4.1% cases the motive was sexual orientation. In 12 cases, or 1.1% of the total, hate crimes were motivated by gender identity or gender expression. Police coded 451 reports of offences as hate crimes (39%).

The offences committed on the grounds of nationality or ethnic origin mostly involved people who belonged to the majority population and demonstrated prejudice or hatred towards people from ethnic or national minority groups. The most prevalent type of suspected crimes were assaults. These were most likely to occur outdoors in public places such as on the road, in the street or market place, or on the internet.

Reports of offences involving hate crime on the grounds of the victim’s religion or religious conviction increased by 58% on 2016. These were most often directed against Muslims, and one in three were assaults. Crimes motivated by the victim’s religion mainly took place on the internet.

The number of reported offences motivated by the victim’s real or perceived sexual orientation, identity or expression increased by 5% year on year. In this category, defamation was the most common offence reported and in 57% of the cases the suspect was known to the victim.

The police received 57 reports of hate crimes committed on the grounds of the victim’s disability, an increase of 36% on the previous year. Over one third of the offences were assaults, and usually the victim knew the suspect.

Link to the full publication in Finnish: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-815-350-7

DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENTS CODED BY POLICE AS HATE CRIMES, 2013–2018

Year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Number	24	31	35	50	62	55

 

In 2018, district courts issued 55 judgments coded by the police as hate crimes. In 20 of these judgments, the main offence was ethnic agitation. In addition, nine cases involved reconciliation, dropped charges or merger with another case. All in all, 26 cases remained open for review.

Of these, assault was the main offence in 16 cases and illegal threat in five cases.

Ethnic origin was given as the motive in the vast majority of cases in which a hate motive was evident. In addition, the victim's religion was a motive in one case and the victim's sexual orientation in another case.

In nine cases, a demand was made to increase the punishment because of a hate motive. In four cases, the district court increased the punishment. The motive for hate was related to ethnic origin in two cases, to religion in one case and to sexual orientation in one case. For details of the cases in which the punishment was increased on the grounds of a hate motive, see the summaries in Finnish here.

 

DECISIONS ISSUED BY DISTRICT COURTS IN CASES INVOLVING ETHNIC AGITATION, 2013–2018  

Year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Number	4	3	1	5	13	31

 

In 2018, there were 31 judgments in which the main offence was ethnic agitation.

With the exception of one case, the defendants were sentenced as charged. In one case, the charge was dismissed in part. The dismissed charge also involved a traffic offence, but the defendant was sentenced for ethnic agitation as charged.

In a vast majority of cases, the offence took place in Facebook. However, according to the judgments, messages were also spread on Twitter and YouTube, in a blog, and in the online magazine MV-lehti.

For the judgments issued in 2018, see the summaries here.