Talk:Crime in Finland

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[edit] Inconsistent

The opening section states that Finland is one of the safest countries in Europe and then says it has the highest homicide rate in Western Europe. (It is actually quite a long way east.) It is no longer the worst in the European Union - see Murder rate statistics. The ungrammatical and uncited statement "27 percent of rapes were made by people with immigration background" needs some clarification. Hard to claim that gun availability does not affect murder rate when 14% of murders involve guns whereas only 6% of murders involve guns in the UK, which has strict gun control. Clean-up tag added. JMcC 23:34, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

It is not an inconsistency to claim that the country is safe, but the murder rate is high. When people think of law and order, they think about the random chance of being victimized: the prevalence and ability of law enforcement, and "street crime", which is terrorism, gang violence, rape, theft, robberies, drunk driving, etc. Finnish homicides tend to "stay in the club", so to speak, namely middle-aged unemployed alcoholic men killing other middle-aged unemployed alcoholic men. (And "Western Europe" is a political entity, not a geographical one. The idea of "Eastern Europe" is associated with former communist states.) The "immigration background" should be "immigrant background". The gun politics question is an Americanism, I think. --Vuo 13:39, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

While your point may be right, it is anecdotal. In any country the percentage of crime rates is based on specific numbers, not qualitative criteria (i.e. "drunk men killing each other"). If Finland remains safe in spite of high homicide numbers, then a citation is needed, otherwise this is based on subjective impressions, not on how crime statistics work. ---- Philosopher2king 1/7/08

[edit] 14% of homicides made with Firearms

This percentage is mentioned in the "Comparison of homicides in Finland and Ireland (in Finnish)" reference. It's data from year 2002. Source: Ministry of Justice official publication named Haaste. I'm removing the citation needed tag. --Sappe 06:44, 19 December 2006 (UTC)—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sappe (talk • contribs) 06:43, 19 December 2006 (UTC).