Finland: Rising Alcohol Violence After Policy Change
According to research, alcohol fueled violence is on the rise in Finland, after a policy change has made alcohol more available. Specifically, men using alcohol killing each other in Finland is increasing at an alarming rate.
Preliminary information coming through the Institute for Criminology and Legal Policy, Krimo, shows an increase of 25% to 30% in alcohol related killings from 2017 to 2018. Apart from the death toll, violence related to alcohol has also risen.
The increase is staggering, over 20 more dead than the year before. In crime statistics, this means an increase of over 30%, said Krimo university researcher Martti Lehti as per an article by yle.
Krimo’s investigation shows that both the perpetrator and the victim of acts of violence usually have an alcohol content in the blood of about 2 per thousand.
Researcher Lehti highlights a connection between increased availability, higher consumption and more violence related to alcohol. Consumption of alcohol has increased in Finland by 0.6% in 2018. In terms of availability, strong beer and also alcohol products with an alcohol content up to 5.5% entered food stores last year. Previously they were exclusively sold in the Finnish government alcohol retail monopoly, Alko.
A survey published by Krimo last year supports the trend of increased alcohol availability and rising alcohol related crime. According to the survey which maps alcohol consumption and related death from 19th century to early 2000s, the pattern consistently shows higher alcohol consumption links with more death.
Need for More Effective Alcohol Control Policy
According to Olavi Kaukonen, the operational manager at the A-clinic foundation, alcohol consumption in Finland is concentrated to about 10% of the population which is about half a million people. The crimes against life are concentrated even tighter around about 10,000 people belonging to a lower socioeconomic demographic. These people are going unnoticed by the Finnish government despite the social and health care reforms which look good on paper.
Olavi Kaukonen is critical of the changes to the national alcohol policy that have led to alcohol becoming more accessible. He believes the violent Finnish culture linked with alcohol consumption can be changed by making care and treatment more accessible for people with alcohol use problems and investing more in alcohol prevention work.
Alcohol Harm in Finland
© WHO Global Alcohol Status Report 2018
In Finland, beer constitutes almost half (49%) of total alcohol consumption. Furthermore, alcohol use disorders and alcohol dependency is staggeringly high for men comparatively to the WHO European region average. In this view, increased accessibility, specially for beer could be a key factor in the growing trend by Finnish men using alcohol as an excuse for violence.
