Sexual crimes, extortions rise in H1

About 2 500 sexual crimes were reported to the Police in January-June period this year and the number is 25 percent higher compared to the stipulated period of last year, said the National Police Board in a press release on Tuesday.

The sexual crimes included sexual harassment, rape and sexual abuse of minors.

Over a longer term, the number of rape crimes reported to the Police has continued to grow. The numbers of sexual abuse of minors have varied, but in 2020 the reports were significantly more numerous than usual, and the number in the early part of this year seems to be higher than during the corresponding period last year.

The lockdown that started in March 2020 may have caused lower numbers last year, while this spring people started to move about and do things more actively, and this may have impacted the increase this year.

The number of extortions also continues to grow, with about 700 cases more reported to the Police, compared to the same months last year. The growth in extortions is explained by those of the customers of the psychotherapy centre Vastaamo.

During the past year, both companies and public sector organisation have been victims of global extortion campaigns with malware and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, for the purpose of extorting money from the targeted organisation, possibly also through a threat of leaking the information obtained through hacking.

Meanwhile, during January to June of the current year, the Police was informed of about 227 000 crimes nationwide. This is about four percent down from the same months last year.

At the same time, the investigation times have got about 17 days longer, on average in the first six months of this year.

“There are several reasons explaining the prolonged investigation times. For example, the heavy and gross crimes continue to grow, calling for demanding investigative measures. The volume of cybercrime has also grown. In almost all crime cases, there is also digital evidence material, and the technical investigation takes time,” Deputy National Police Commissioner Sanna Heikinheimo of the National Police Board said.

The number of drug crimes known to the Police, however, decreased from last year by 27 percent.

The numbers of drug-related crimes in the Police records may vary significantly from year to year if the Police detects larger crime entities with several individual crimes and suspects. Such larger entities include the cases where online drug trafficking has been detected.

“Despite the decreasing volume of drug crimes known to the Police, the drug crimes detected by the Police and the Customs indicate that drug use is on the increase,” Heikinheimo said.