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 2018 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 2018 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. Prosecution and sentencing numbers only represent cases flagged by the police as hate crimes.

Hate crime recorded by police

A total of 1,300 hate crimes were originally reported to ODIHR. The number of individual crime reports was 910, as one crime report can include several hate crimes. This number included cases of ethnic agitation, defamation and discrimination, which were removed and are not presented here. With the consent of the Roma community, hate crime against Roma people has been included as a category separate from Racism and Xenophobia.

By bias motivation
By type of crime

Download official data

National developments

The authorities have been implementing the National Action Plan on Fundamental and Human Rights for 2017–2019, which includes projects on hate crimes and hate speech.

The Ministry of the Interior has designed a new Police Preventive Work Strategy, which sets hate crime as a priority. The National Police Board is currently developing an Action Plan to implement the strategy, including measures against hate crime.

The Ministry of Justice has continued implementing an EU-funded project, "Against Hate". One of the main objectives of the project is to further develop the national reporting mechanisms, especially regarding statistics on the prosecution and sentencing of hate crime. The project also aims to enhance the capacity of the police, prosecutors and judges to counteract hate crime and hate speech, and to develop support services for victims of hate crime.

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that Finland has met most OSCE commitments on hate crime data collection and reporting.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-02	Violent attacks against people	SETA	Show info
2018-12	Violent attacks against people	SETA	Show info

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Date	Type of incident	Source	Description
2018-12	Attacks against property	SETA	Show info
2018-12	Violent attacks against people	SETA	Show info

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Anti-Roma hate crime

The Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee Of Experts On Roma And Traveller Issues (CAHROM) published relevant recommendations in its "Thematic Report on Roma and Travellers' Access to Justice (with a gender focus)."

Racist and xenophobic hate crime, Anti-LGBTI hate crime

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published relevant recommendations in its "Fifth Report on Finland."