Rapes, child sexual abuses raise by 27.6% in Q1

The number of rapes was increased by 27.6 per cent in the country from January to April this year than the number of the rapes took in the first three months of 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

A total of 93,800 offences against the Criminal Code were recorded by the police, customs and border guard during the first quarter of 2019, which is 2,700 cases (2.8 per cent) fewer than in January to March 2018.

Offences against property numbered 41,000, which is 4.2 per cent fewer cases than in the year before. A majority of the reported offences are recorded by the police.

During January to March 2019, a total of 126,100 offences and infractions were recorded by the police, which is 34.6 per cent down from 2018. The number of offences against the Criminal Code recorded by the police was 91,600, which is 2.6 per cent lower than in January to March 2018. Fines from automatic traffic control are updated into the police PATJA system with a delay of around 80 days, which has an effect on the number of traffic infractions in particular.

In January to March 2019, a total of 2,000 offences were recorded by customs and 1,100 by the border guard. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, the offences recorded by the customs decreased by 17.1 per cent and those recoded by the border guard by 7.5 per cent. The number of offences against the Criminal Code recorded by the customs was 1,700 and by the border guard 600.