Finland Times

 

There were 6,900 victims in domestic violence offences recorded by the police in 2014, which is 6.4 per cent down on the previous year, according to Statistics Finland's data.

 

Close on one-quarter of the domestic violence victims were underage and 69.0 per cent of the victims were women.

 

Good one-half of aggravated assaults were, however, directed at men. Of suspects of domestic violence and intimate partner violence, 22.6 per cent were women, the data show.

 

Slightly under one-half of recorded domestic violence and intimate partner violence is violence between married or cohabiting couples.

 

Close on one-fifth of domestic violence and intimate partner violence took place between former married or cohabiting couples.

 

In around 80 per cent of cases of violence between married or cohabiting couples, or former married or cohabiting couples the victim was a woman.  

 

Of all recorded domestic violence and intimate partner violence cases, around two-thirds were assaults and one-quarter petty assaults.

 

Around two per cent of all cases were sexual exploitations of a child. Of the suspects, close on one-half were under the influence of alcohol or some other intoxicant at the time of committing the offence. Around 55 per cent of domestic violence and intimate partner violence took place between persons living in the same household.

 

The law reform, which entered into force at the beginning of 2011, considerably increased the number of recorded assault offences. After the legislative amendment, petty assaults on minors or close relatives became officially prosecutable.

 

The amendment also seems to have increased the proportion of women as suspects of domestic violence and intimate partner violence. In 2010, the proportion of women suspected of domestic violence and intimate partner violence was 19.3 per cent, and in 2014 the corresponding proportion was 22.6 per cent.

 

Around one-third of violence directed by parents at their children is carried out by women. The share of violence performed by women is, however, the higher the younger the child victim is.

 

In cases where the victim is under six years old, the suspect was a woman (the child's mother) in 33.7 per cent of cases. When the victim was aged between 15 and 17, the suspect was a woman in 28.2 per cent of cases.

 

In 2009 to 2014, there were slightly more than 3,000 victims of domestic violence and intimate partner violence that had been victims of the same in at least two different years. Of these victims, around 80 per cent were women. There were 340 underage persons that had been victims in several years.

 

Victims of domestic violence and intimate partner violence 2010 to 2014

Relation between the victim and the suspect/year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Total	5,711	8,224	8,399	7,346	6,873
Suspect is the parent of the victim	1,366	1,698	2,078	1,656	1,614
Siblings	284	471	430	460	381
Directed by a child at his or her parent	287	380	374	338	343
Between spouses, total	2,453	3,915	3,846	3,350	3,117
...Spouse	1,539	2,405	2,350	2,062	1,891
...Co-habiting partner	914	1,510	1,496	1,288	1,226
Former spouse	519	690	596	565	540
Former co-habiting partner	605	802	807	748	718
Other person living in the same household	197	268	268	229	160

Violence directed at underage children by their parents 2014

Victim's age/suspect's sex	Male		Female		Person suspected total
	Number	%	Number	%	Number
0 - 6	398	66.2	203	33.7	601
7 - 14	464	62.8	274	37.1	738
15 - 17	112	71.7	44	28.2	156
Underage, total	974	65.1	521	34.8	1 495

Source: Statistics on offences and coercive measures 2014, Statistics Finland.