Study title

Finnish Perceptions of Justice: Citizens 2016

Dataset ID Number

FSD3162

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3162
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3162

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Kääriäinen, Juha (University of Helsinki. Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy)

Abstract

The survey examined Finnish people's attitudes on crime, punishment, judges, courts, and criminals. Furthermore, views on what would be a suitable punishment for different types of crime were investigated.

The survey began with a set of crime-related true or false statements (e.g. "A typical Finnish convict is a man with an alcohol and drug abuse issues"). The respondents were asked how much they followed news about crime and punishment on different media outlets. The respondents' trust in different institutions, such as the police and the healthcare system, was investigated.

Next, the respondents were asked how they would distribute 100 million euros between different crime prevention methods. Furthermore, the respondents were asked how important they thought certain goals (e.g. "Rehabilitation of criminals", "Compensating the victims of the crime") were for criminal punishment. Opinions on criminal courts and the safety of the respondents' own neighbourhood were probed. The extent to which the respondents agreed or disagreed with several statements about judges and criminals was studied. The respondents were also asked how much they thought public opinion should influence a number of issues (e.g. taxation, alcohol price).

In the next part, the respondents were presented with seven different criminal cases, and asked what punishment would be fitting for each case. If the respondents felt that a prison sentence was required, they were also asked if there were any basis for a more lenient sentence (e.g. "The victim does not wish for prison sentence" "The felon is younger than 18-years old"). Furthermore, the respondents were asked whether the punishments for the aforementioned crimes should be harsher or more lenient than they were at the time of surveying.

Finally, opinions on the importance of several values were charted.

The background variables included the respondent's gender, age, marital status, household composition, educational level, economic activity and occupational status, household gross income, voting in elections, and political party preference, as well as the total time spent in educational institutions, and whether the respondent or any member of their household had been a victim of violence or theft in the past 5 years.

Keywords

court cases; courts; crime and security; criminal courts; criminal law; criminals; judges; law; offences; public opinion; punishment; trust; values

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Legislation and legal systems (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• TNS Gallup Finland

Time Period Covered

2016

Collection Dates

2016-05-02 – 2016-07-12

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish people over the age of 18

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified: Proportional

The sampling was conducted as a multistage proportional random sampling. Knowledge of pre-existing groups within the population was used for the proportional sampling.

In the first stage, the number of people required for the survey was divided regionally into major regions (NUTS2). In the second stage, the number was divided between municipality types within the major region.

The municipalities were categorised in the following ways: towns were divided into small and large towns based on their population, and urban municipalities were divided into three different categories based on their occupational structure. A representative sample of municipalities was drawn based on the aforementioned strata.

In the third stage, a number of starting addresses based on the population of each sampled municipality were randomly chosen. The interviews were conducted using random start sampling.

Proceeding from the randomly drawn starting address, eight interviews were conducted. The person in the household whose birthday was next was chosen for the interview.

The regions, where the amount of successful interviews was small, are overrepresented in the sampling frame.

Collection Mode

Face-to-face interview: Computer-assisted (CAPI/CAMI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

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

344 variables and 1251 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Related Datasets

FSD3163 Finnish Perceptions of Justice: Judges 2016

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

In questions B1 - B7, where the respondents are asked to choose a sanction based on an example case, the examples are not visible in the data. The full examples are presented in Appendix B of the codebook (in Finnish) and the transnotes.txt file (in English).

Weighting

The data contain a weight that weights the data based on gender, age groups (18-24, 25-34, 35-49, and over 49 years old), NUTS2 (Capital region, Other Uusimaa, Southern Finland, Western Finland, Northern and Eastern Finland), and the political party support of the 2015 parliamentary election.

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

Kääriäinen, Juha (University of Helsinki): Finnish Perceptions of Justice: Citizens 2016 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-05-30). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3162

Deposit Requirement

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

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

Kääriäinen, Juha (2017) Seitsemän rikostapausta: käräjätuomareiden arvioima rangaistuskäytäntö ja väestön rangaistusvalinnat. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto. Kriminologian ja oikeuspolitiikan instituutti. Katsauksia 21/2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/190440

Sorvari, Kirta (2019). Sukupuolen, koulutusasteen ja siviilisäädyn yhteys kansalaisten asenteisiin rikosseuraamusten tavoitteista. Jyväskylä: Jyväskylän yliopisto. Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja filosofian laitos. Kandidaatintyö.

Löthman, Veera (2020) Suomalaisten luottamus tuomioistuimien toiminnan virheettömyyteen ja tehokkuuteen. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto. Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta. Maisterintutkielma. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/315536

Tähtinen, Charlotta (2023). Suomalaisten oikeustaju koetuksella: iän ja koulutustason yhteys informoituun oikeustajuun. Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen kandidaatintutkielma. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto..

Salo, Susanna (2024). Pidetäänkö rikosseuraamusasiakkaiden kuntouttamista tärkeänä? : Tutkimus suomalaisten suhtautumisesta rikosoikeudellisten seuraamusten sosiaalipoliittisiin tavoitteisiin. Sosiaalipolitiikan pro gradu -tutkielma. Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta. Turku: Turun yliopisto. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202401244267