Finland Times

 

The Court of Appeals in Turku. File Photo Lehtikuva.

The Court of Appeals in the country has been issuing mild convictions in rape cases, according to national broadcaster YLE´s investigative programme MOT.

 

The number of rape incidents have increased in the past five years, said the MOT report.

 

Unconditional convictions of rape handed by the Court of Appeal have been on average less than two year, according MOT.

 

More than a third of District Court convictions are conditional sentences.

 

Despite sexual crime legislation being made more stringent in the past five years, the Court of Appeals’ rape convictions seem to be mild.

 

Rape victim. File Photo Lehtikuva.

At the same time, sentences handed by the District Courts on average have become more punitive by being extended only by a few months, said MOT.

 

There are also differences in the nature of sentences in respect to the Court of Appeals. Often, the convictions are less punitive at the Helsinki Court of Appeals while the Rovaniemi Court of Appeals took a tougher line.

 

The investigative programme also examined the cases related to rape, aggravated rape and coerced sexual intercourse.

 

The Court of Appeals handled 544 such cases between 2011 and 2015. MOT previously conducted such as report back in 2010 which examined verdicts issued by the Court of Appeals between 2005 and 2009. During that period, the court handled 337 cases of rape, aggravated rape and coerced sexual intercourse.