Finland | HCRW

Finland regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Finland has conducted victimization surveys to measure unreported hate crimes. The Finnish police closely co-operates with the Finnish Human Rights League, the Finnish Red Cross and Finnish Victim Support to develop a co-ordinated response to combat hate crimes. These organizations, along with the national police and other key authorities, form a network tasked by Finland's Ministry of Justice with monitoring hate crimes in Finland and developing adequate measures to prevent such crimes. Finland implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crimes for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2017 and went on to train over 1,000 police officers on hate crimes before integrating the programme's hate crime modules into pre- and in-service training for police.

SELECT YEAR

Download the 2016 hate crime report for Finland

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2023	1,361	49	48
2022	1,094	121	27
2021	1,390	44	30
2020	1177	48	42
2019	900	22	17
2018	880	55	21
2017	1497	63	37
2016	1311	N/A	N/A
2015	1704	Not available	Not available
2014	954	Not available	Not available
2013	904	Not available	Not available
2012	836	38	12
2011	1418	29	12
2010	1407	38	Not available
2009	1580	41	Not available

About 2016 Data

The police also recorded criminal forms of intolerance other than hate crimes, such as defamation, other hate speech offences and criminal discrimination. These data are reported to ODIHR but are not included in the overall figure or in the breakdown below. The Prosecutor's Office and the courts only record by crime type and that is why statistics on prosecuted and sentenced hate crimes are not available.

Hate crime recorded by police

1655 hate crimes were originally reported to ODIHR. The number of crime reports was 1079, as one crime report can include several of hate crimes. This number included cases of Ethnic Agitation, Defamation and Discrimination, which were removed and are not presented here.

By bias motivation
By type of crime

Download official data

National developments

The National Police Board of Finland signed an agreement with ODIHR to implement the Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme.

A three-day training programme was created by the Police University College and carried out in November 2016. Prosecutors and judges also participated in hate crime trainings.

A working group was created within the Ministry of Interior to develop a holistic programme against hate crime.

In 2016, a working group within the National Police Board issued a report on combating hate crime. One of its recommendations was to create a special unit within the police force on countering hate crimes online, which would be supported by a nationwide network of dedicated police officers.

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that Finland has not reported information on the numbers of prosecuted and sentenced hate crimes to ODIHR.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2016-05	Violent attacks against people	Migrant Tales	Show info
2016-10	Violent attacks against people	Migrant Tales	Show info
2016-03	Attacks against property	Migrant Tales	Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

In its report, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Finland, recommended that the authorities take measures to reduce the number of anti-religious hate crimes, ensure that hate crimes are effectively investigated and that law enforcement, security and judicial authorities be trained and have guidelines to address hate crimes against immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.