Attempted Homicides in Finland Reach Highest Level of the 2000s

In January–June, Finnish authorities became aware of a total of 48 homicides, which is four more than during the same period last year. Last year as well, the number of homicides increased compared to previous years.

In Finland, as many as 48 homicides were committed in the first half of this year. This is the highest number recorded for the first half of a year since 2014.

The change in the number of homicides has been rapid, as in 2023 the total was only 57. Last year, the number rose to 89, and this year—if the pace of the first half continues—it could approach one hundred.

Whether one hundred homicides is a lot or a little is not a straightforward question. One only needs to look back one generation, to the 1990s, when an average of about 140 homicides were committed annually—nearly half more than in the first half of this year.

On the other hand, there has also been an increase in attempted homicides in the first half of the year, with as many as 209 cases reported to the police during the first six months. This means that the number of attempted homicides in Finland was the highest in the entire 2000s.

Naturally, one might wonder whether something unusual lies behind the rise in homicides. So, I ran a Google search with the word “murhasi” (meaning “murdered”) to find a few random cases to examine.

In the first case, a 60-year-old man—apparently of Roma background based on his name—was reported to have been convicted in court of murdering his partner with a knife. In the second case, a 30-year-old man is suspected of murdering his mother, also with a bladed weapon. In the third case, a man in his thirties killed his parents, both over 70, with a pocketknife when they came to his apartment.

Based on these examples, the use of knives continues to be a recurring feature in Finnish homicides, meaning that in this sense nothing particularly unusual has occurred. Thus, at least for now, the share of immigrants in Finnish homicides is not emphasized in the same way as, for example, in Sweden, where by 2017 their share had already risen to 72 percent.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
A Sudanese Man Killed His Wife – So What?
The Finnish Stabber Has a Long Track Record of Violence
The root causes of racist violence