Number of rapes rises by 23% in Jan to June

The police, customs and border guard recorded a total of 364,800 offences committed in the country in January to June 2017, according to Statistics Finland.

However, the number of recorded offences was 31,500 (8 per cent) lower in the first half of this year than in the corresponding period of 2016.

The recorded number of crimes against life and health was 17,300, which is 2.2 per cent lower than in January to June 2016.

The number of sexual abuses, however, went up in the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2016.

A total of 620 rapes were recorded, marking a 22.6 per cent rise year-on-year.

A majority of the reported offences were recorded by the police.

In the January-June period, the police recorded 358,000 offences, which is 7.8 per cent down from the corresponding period in 2016.

In the first half of this year, a total of 4,100 offences were recorded by customs and 2,650 by the border guard.

Compared with January to June 2016, the offences recorded by customs decreased by 21.7 per cent and those recorded by the border guard by 7.8 per cent.

The reform of fine legislation on December 1, 2016 affects the updating of criminal offence statistics, especially the traffic offences. There is now a delay of around 60 days in updating the system on fines from automatic traffic control.