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Researcher: Laura Peutere, Police College of Finland

Suspected crimes with racist characteristics in the criminal justice process Case study: Helsinki 2006. Researcher: Laura Peutere, Police College of Finland Funded by the ‘Yes - equality is priority’ EU programme Duration: from January to October 2008. Structure of the presentation.

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Researcher: Laura Peutere, Police College of Finland

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  1. Suspected crimes with racist characteristics in the criminal justice processCase study: Helsinki 2006 Researcher: Laura Peutere, Police College of Finland Funded by the ‘Yes - equality is priority’ EU programme Duration: from January to October 2008

  2. Structure of the presentation • Background • Research questions • Research material • Results • Conclusions Police College of Finland

  3. Legislation pertaining to racist crimes in Finland • Offences whose essential elements include racism: discrimination, work discrimination, ethnic agitation • The Penal Code was amended in 2003 to allow for increased punishments for racially motivated crimes: -> “the offence has been directed at a person belonging to a national, racial, ethnic or other population group due to his/her membership in such a group”. • The Government Bill 2002: racially motivated crimes are aggravated because they are aimed at minority groups that are most in need of protection Police College of Finland

  4. Crime with racial characteristics in Finland • Studies of number and characteristics of cases of racist crimes reported to the police 1997 -> • Reports of an offence are retrieved from the Police Information system -> ‘racism code’ -> searching for different terms of abuse • Statistics on type of crime, suspects and victims, time and place of occurrence of the crimes reported to the police Police College of Finland

  5. Crime with racial characteristics in Finland • The number of reports to the police has been increasing (2003 -> 387, 2007 -> 454 reports) • The punishment was increased on the grounds of racial motivation 10 to 14 times in a year • 40 % of the suspected crimes reported in 2006 were filed in the Helsinki Metropolitan area, 25 % in Helsinki itself Police College of Finland

  6. Research questions • How large a percentage of suspected crimes with racist characteristics lead to the court deciding that a crime has been committed and passing sentence? • For what reasons cases do not end up in court and at what point in the process they are discontinued? • How the potential racial motivation of a crime is taken into account in the criminal justice process? Police College of Finland

  7. Research material • 107 reports of an offence with racist characteristics filed in the Helsinki jurisdictional district in 2006 • Pre-trial investigation material • The prosecutors’ applications for a summons and decisions to waive charges • Court documents • Interviews with the officials Police College of Finland

  8. RESULTS:Situations and contexts of reports of an offence with racist characteristics (total 107) • Assault with racist characteristics (33) • Breach of honour or unlawful threats without violence (22) • Mass fight between two or more people (22) • Breach of domestic peace, harassment at an ethnic restaurant (16) • Discrimination (10) • Assault ascribed to racist provocation(4) Police College of Finland

  9. The state of investigation of suspected crimes and their progress to consideration of charges Police College of Finland

  10. Clear-up rates of suspected crimes: Statistical comparisons 2006 Police College of Finland

  11. Progress of suspected crimes from consideration of charges to court Police College of Finland

  12. Punishments • Punishments have not been increased on grounds of racial motivation in any of the cases • 29 people have been convicted of assault -> two thirds were sentenced to a fine – 40 day-fines on average -> similar to average sanctions practises • The number of cases of other types of crime in the research material is too small to make feasible comparisons to statistics Police College of Finland

  13. Investigation and identification of racial motivation in crimes - Interviews with six police officers • It is difficult to establish the motivation - “you can ask for the reason but not go inside the suspects head” • Verbal abuse constitutes important proof of racial motivation • If there seems to be other motives for a crime, the racial motivation may be obscured • Earlier crimes committed by the same offender • Crimes committed by minorities to other minorities and to majority population? Police College of Finland

  14. Racist characteristics of crimes in the police pre-trial research material: Examples from different cases: • Statement of a victim “Behind me I heard them saying ‘fucking nigger’, go back to your own country” “called us niggers and insulted” • Statement of a witness “Every Somalian should be killed” ”The suspects called the victim as ‘a nigger’” • Statement of a suspect “I just don’t come along with brown boys” “As early as in the kindergarten I have been taught that a nigger is a nigger” “My intention was to frighten him” Police College of Finland

  15. The prosecutor’s applications for summons: Examples from different cases: • The suspect has defamed the victim(s): ”by calling them by racist names” “by calling them a whore and a Russki” “by calling them a crazy Russian whore” “by calling them negroes” “by calling them an obscene name” “by calling them offensive names” Police College of Finland

  16. How the prosecutors take into account of racist characteristics of crimes? • The prosecutors interviewed (5) had little experience of cases of racially motivated offences • Why didn’t the prosecutors demand an increase in punishment on grounds of racial motivation? - The criteria for bringing a charge is not satisfied -> racist motivation has not been investigated - The motivation of the crime is hard to prove - Racist abuse - breach of honour or proof of racial motivation? Police College of Finland

  17. Racist abuse as breach of honour Police College of Finland

  18. Racist slurs have not been taken into account in applications of summons Police College of Finland

  19. Conclusions • Suspected crimes with racial characteristics progress just like ordinary crimes in the criminal justice process • Racist abuse progress well as ‘breach of honour’ in the criminal procedure • Racial abuse is taken into account only as a case of ‘breach of honour’ -> The purpose of the law to provide special protection for minority population is not fulfilled • Breach of honour is a private-prosecution crime -> charges are brought only if the victim chooses to prefer charges Police College of Finland

  20. Conclusions • There is no systematic way to establish racial motivation in the pre-trial investigation • The information on racist characteristics is conveyed from one official to another in the criminal justice process in a random manner • Even if racist abuse was an important evidence of racial motivation seems that it alone was not enough for prosecution • If there are no witnesses for the racist abuse, racist motivation is even more difficult to prove Police College of Finland

  21. Paldies! Contact information: Laura Peutere Police College of Finland laura.peutere@poliisi.fi Laura Peutere (2008): Suspected crimes with racist characteristics in the criminal justice process - case study in Helsinki 2006 -> The report will be available in pdf-format at www.polamk.fi Police College of Finland

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