Study title

Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study 1996

Alternative Title

The Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study 1996

Dataset ID Number

FSD1140

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1140
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd1140

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Aromaa, Kauko (National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula))
• Kivivuori, Janne (National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula))

Abstract

The survey studied the extent, frequency, and nature of self-reported offending among young Finns. The main topics were truancy, running away from home, fare evasion, driving without a license, making graffiti on the walls, vandalism at school, vandalism outside of school, stealing from a store or a kiosk, stealing phase, stealing from school, stealing from home, buying stolen goods, bullying, taking part in a fight, beating up somebody, use of mild drugs, use of pills and drink-driving. The respondents were asked whether they had ever been involved in any of these activities and if they had and the activities had been illegal, whether the police had become aware of what had happened. In addition, the respondents were asked when they had started the activity in question, and whether they had been involved in it during the past year. If the respondents answered in the affirmative, they were asked if they had been alone or with somebody at the moment, and whether they had been caught. The respondents were also asked topic-related questions like what they stole from a store, or what the reason for bullying had been.

In the survey, all respondents were asked about their opinions about various propositions. Among others, the following topics were dealt with: mitigating punishment due to circumstances, how normal or common illegal activities were in puberty, causes of criminality, and the seriousness of petty theft as a crime. Furthermore, the respondents were asked whether they would in the future do some or any of the following forbidden things: truancy, fare evasion, petty theft, theft, mild assault and battery, or use of a mild drug. The respondents were also asked whether they thought it was normal that a young person breaks the rules set by their parents, the rules of the school, or the law. In the survey, the respondents were also asked about the severity of various punishments (house arrest, imprisonment, fine) in a situation where a young person had broken the law.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, school id, employment, how R liked going to school, how many times R had had to repeat a year in school, professions of the parents and their current employment situation, family relationships, use of money, leisure time activities and company, use of alcohol, and smoking.

Keywords

adolescents; alcohol use; assault; bullying; crime victims; criminal damage; disorderly conduct; drug abuse; juvenile delinquency; offences; punishment; schoolchildren; theft; traffic offences; youth

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Youth (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Crime and law enforcement (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (C) available only for research including master's theses.

Data Collector

• National Research Institute of Legal Policy

Data Producers

• National Research Institute of Legal Policy

Time Period Covered

1996

Collection Dates

1996-04 – 1996-05

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

9th grade students (aged 15-16) in Finnish-speaking municipal comprehensive schools

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability

Finland was first divided into 12 regions, provinces and metropolitan area of Helsinki. In each province, an urban municipality, a densely populated municipality and a rural municipality was chosen. Two schools from the metropolitan area of Helsinki, one school from Espoo. and one from Vantaa were picked to the sample. From Southern Finland, Middle Finland and Northern Finland, one school from an urban, a densely populated municipality and a rural municipality were picked to the sample.

Data were collected by contact teachers in sampled schools, instructed by National Research Institute of Legal Policy.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

91

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English and Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

242 variables and 4204 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Related Datasets

FSD1214 Teacher Victimisation in Finland 1997

FSD2672 Teacher Victimisation in Finland 2008

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The data contain variable q4 (school id) created at FSD, which is based on the original school id. This variable allows identifying the observations belonging to the same cluster.

The data do not contain responses to the open-ended questions. Variable q3 charting the province of residence and variable q6 containing information on the respondents’ class IDs were removed from the data for privacy reasons.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Aromaa, Kauko (National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula)) & Kivivuori, Janne (National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula)): Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study 1996 [dataset]. Data version 2.0 (2018-04-30). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd1140; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD1140

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Special Terms and Conditions for Access

Users of the data shall send the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy a copy of all reports, articles, other publications or unpublished theses based on or using the data. The copies shall be sent to the mail address: Department of Social Research, Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, Janne Kivivuori, P.O. Box 10, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, FINLAND.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Nuoret rikosten tekijöinä ja uhreina (2002). Toim. Janne Kivivuori. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja; 188.

Kivivuori, Janne & Salmi, Venla (2005). Nuorten rikoskäyttäytyminen 1995-2004: teemana sosiaalinen pääoma. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja; 214.

Kivivuori, Janne & Karvonen, Sakari & Rimpelä, Matti (2001). Nuorten rikoskäyttäytymisen yleisyys kyselyjen valossa. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen tutkimustiedonantoja; 54.

Kivivuori, Janne (1997). Nuoret rikosten tekijöinä. Tekojen yleisyys, rikollisuuden ymmärtäminen ja varastamisen vaiheet. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja; 141.

Kivivuori, Janne (1997b). Kouluun kohdistetun kontrollikritiikin arviointia. Nuorisotutkimus, 15(3), 3-13.

Kivivuori, Janne (1999). Nuorten rikoskäyttäytyminen 1995-1998. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja; 161.

Nuorten rikoskäyttäytyminen ja uhrikokemukset: Nuorisorikollisuuskyselyiden tuloksia 1995-2008 (2009). Toim. Salmi, Venla. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen tutkimuksia; 246.

Salmi, Venla (2008). Nuorten rikoskäyttäytyminen 1995-2008 [verkkodokumentti]. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen tutkimuslaitos. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen verkkokatsauksia; 9/2008. http://www.optula.om.fi/1247667029769 [viitattu 9.7.2013].

Kivivuori, J. (2014). Understanding Trends in Personal Violence: Does Cultural Sensitivity Matter? In Michael Tonry (ed): Why Crime Rates Fall, and Why they Don't. Crime and Justice, Volume 43. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Kivivuori, J. & Salmi, V. & Walser, S. (2013). Supervision Mode Effects in Computerized Delinquency Surveys at School: Finnish Replication of a Swiss Experiment. Journal of Experimental Criminology 9:1, 91-107.

Kivivuori, J. (2011). Discovery of Hidden Crime. Self-Report Surveys in Criminal Policy Context. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Kivivuori, J. & Salmi, V. (2009). The Challenge of Special Needs Education in School-Based Delinquency Research. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention 10:1, 2-17.

Kivivuori, J. (2013). Methodological studies in the development of Finnish crime surveys: Selected examples. In: Methodologies and methods in criminology. NSfKs 55. forskerseminar. Scandinavian Research Council fro Criminology, Aarhus Universitet.

Kivivuori, Janne & Aaltonen, Mikko & Näsi, Matti & Suonpää, Karoliina & Danielsson, Petri (2018). Kriminologia: rikollisuus ja kontrolli muuttuvassa yhteiskunnassa. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Kaakinen, M. & Näsi, M. (2021). Nuorisorikollisuuden esiintyvyys ja tekomäärät Suomessa 1995-2020. Kriminologia, 1(1), 5-19. https://kriminologia.journal.fi/article/view/109017.