Finland Times

Helsinki Police Commissioner Lasse Aapio said the police have zero tolerance towards all kinds of sexual harassment, “but many victims do not want to file a complaint and in some cases a complaint is withdrawn later.”

Police representatives also noted earlier that media interest in sexual harassment by native inhabitants were relatively low. Most of the rapes take place among people who know each other and they are often ethnic Finns.

About 30-40 per cent of sexual crimes in Helsinki are committed by people of foreign extraction. This year, all the rape cases in which the perpetrators were unknown to the victims have been committed by foreigners including some with European background.

Commissioner Aapio underlined the need to report early, as in some cases a person who first is guilty of less serious harassment moves on to rape later.

Terhi Heinila, the secretary general of the National Council of Women in Finland, told national broadcaster Yle that more attention should be given to violence within the family.

She said each year thousands of Finnish women in Finland are subjected to rape or other sexual harassment by Finnish men.

Since 1994, sexual harassment within a relationship or marriage has been a crime. Husband can be found guilty of raping his wife.

In Finland, alleged crime suspects are well protected by privacy laws. If the suspect is caught in a fresh case, giving publicity to the ethnic background is illegal.

Aapio said the regulation that demands the asylum status of a person must be kept secret should be reconsidered. Until November 2015 it was not legal to include asylum status in a complaint report.

The police say sexual harassment in the Helsinki area seems to be most frequent along the commuter train line towards the north. The police say they will discuss the situation with the railroad company VR.

But, City of Helsinki security chief Matti Koskinen underlined on Wednesday that Helsinki remains a secure city. He pointed out that in international surveys Helsinki often reaches the top 10 of safest cities.

News Agency STT reports: Researcher Martti Lehti of the Criminology and Justice Policy Institute at the University of Helsinki on Wednesday said asylum seekers are overrepresented in this year’s rape statistics.

The effects of asylum seekers on the rapid growth of crime and security have long been difficult to obtain, because of the queue of information requests from the authorities. However, the Police Board published its figures last week.

This year more than 30,000 refugees have come to Finland, some seeking asylum and others leaving the country. If the estimation for asylum seekers is 30,000, then one in every 3,000 asylum seekers has been suspected of rape. Among Finns, the figure last year was one in 10,000.

The statistics are skewed, because, among other things, asylum seekers tend to be young men more often than old women. Asylum seekers are also at a proportionally greater disadvantage in society, which is one of the risk factors in crime.

The Helsinki police announced their own figures on Wednesday. From August, the police have investigated about 10 sexual crime cases involving an asylum-seeking suspect. The crimes vary from sexual harassment to aggravated rape. There are about 300 sexual offences reported to the Helsinki police every year.

A single person could be responsible for dozens of victims and crimes.