Study title

Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study 2016

Dataset ID Number

FSD3209

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3209
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3209

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Kivivuori, Janne (University of Helsinki. Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy)
• Näsi, Matti (University of Helsinki. Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy)

Abstract

The survey studied the extent, frequency and nature of self-reported offending among young people in Finland as well as their attitudes towards crime and experiences of being victims.

Questions covered truancy, making graffiti, damaging the school's or other property, theft and shoplifting, motor vehicle theft, breaking and entering, copyright infringement online, bullying and cyberbullying, taking part in a fight, assault, robbery, possession of a weapon, alcohol use, drink-driving, and drug use. If the respondents admitted to having done any of the acts mentioned, they were asked whether they had done it in the previous 12 months and how many times. Relating to some of the offences, the respondents were also presented with specifying questions about the last time they had committed the act, for example, whether they had acted alone, whether they had been drunk at the time, whether the act had been revenge for some previous incident, what they had stolen, and whether their motive for the offence had been discriminatory.

The respondents were also asked whether they had been a victim of criminal damage, robbery, theft, bullying, threats of violence, assault, hate crime, parental corporal punishment, cyberbullying and sexual harassment by adults or other young people. If the respondents had been a victim of any of the acts, they were asked whether they had experienced it in the previous 12 months and how many times. Relating to some of the experiences, the respondents were also presented with specifying questions about the last time they had been a victim of the crime, for instance, whether the perpetrator had been male or female, how old the perpetrator had been, what his/her ethnic background had been, whether the respondent had sustained injuries, and what had been stolen. Relating to experiences of violence, the respondents were further presented with a list of people (e.g. sibling, friend, mother, father, unknown adult, teacher, coach/instructor) and asked whether any of them had physically assaulted them (hit, kicked, or used a weapon).

Family and circumstances at home were surveyed with questions about the extent to which parents supported and were interested in the respondent's life. Relating to leisure time, questions probed how often the respondents were away from home in the evenings, went to parties with alcohol involved, spent long periods of time online, played violent games, watched violent films etc. Questions about the neighbourhood of residence and school investigated the prevalence of graffiti and vandalism in the neighbourhood, and the prevalence of vandalism and disruptive behaviour at school. The respondents were also asked whether their friends had used cannabis, shoplifted or been in a fight in a public place.

The respondents' personality traits were charted by asking them the extent they agreed with statements relating to impulsiveness, risk-seeking, and being considerate of others. The respondents were also asked how much insecurity they felt over different issues, such as environmental threats and disasters, crime, or hate speech on the Internet. The respondents' agreement with a variety of attitudinal statements about law-breaking, immigration and multiculturalism, religion, and revenge was surveyed.

The respondents were asked whether the school personnel had searched their belongings for or confiscated items or substances capable of harming others during the school year. The number of times this had happened was charted as well as who had searched for or confiscated the items, whether force had been used, and whether the respondent had tried to resist. Finally, the respondents were asked how much they appreciated different types of people, whether they personally wanted to be famous or admired and to achieve great things, and how happy and satisfied with life they had been in the previous six months.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's gender and age as well as the number of years they had lived in their municipality of residence, number of siblings, languages spoken at home, parents' economic activity, family's financial situation and type of the municipality of residence.

Keywords

assault; bullying; burglary; crime and security; crime victims; criminal damage; cyberbullying; drinking behaviour; drug offences; juvenile delinquency; offences; personality traits; robbery; schoolchildren; schoolteachers; shopifting; theft; 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

• University of Helsinki. Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy

Time Period Covered

2016

Collection Dates

2016-02 – 2016-05

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Pupils in the ninth grade of basic education in Finland

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Cluster: Simple random

The sampling unit was the school. Sufficient representation of different municipality types was ensured in the sampling design. Differing school sizes were also taken into consideration in the sample.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

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

510 variables and 6061 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The following information was edited or removed from the data to prevent identification. Information on the respondents' classes was removed from the data as well as the "other, which" type of open-ended questions from the following variables: q4 (other country of birth), q11 (other language spoken at home), q13 (other country of birth of father), q15 (other country of birth of mother), and q56 (other religion). In the age variable, rare ages among ninth graders were marked as missing information (ages 15-17 were left intact). The values exceeding 17 in the variable charting the years lived in the municipality of residence were also marked as missing. Some values in the country of birth variables q4_1, q13_1 and q15_1 were combined. Identifiers, such as names, were removed from the open-ended variables left in the data. Any changes were marked with [square brackets].

Specifying questions c-h for variable q46 (experiences of cyberbullying) are missing from the data.

Weighting

Analysis weight: the weighting adjusts for sampling and non-response bias.

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

Kivivuori, Janne (University of Helsinki) & Näsi, Matti (University of Helsinki): Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study 2016 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-10-31). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3209

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

Näsi, Matti (2016). Nuorten rikoskäyttäytyminen ja uhrikokemukset 2016. Kriminologian ja oikeuspolitiikan instituutin katsauksia 18/2016. Helsingin yliopisto.

Näsi, Matti & Tanskanen, Maiju (2017). Nuorisorikollisuus. Teoksessa Rikollisuustilannekatsaus 2016. Kriminologian ja oikeuspolitiikan instituutin katsauksia 22/2017. Helsingin yliopisto, 201-218.

Mikkola, Reetta (2017). Nuoret ja tarkastustoimenpiteet koulussa. Sosiologian pro gradu -tutkielma. Helsingin yliopisto.

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

Puska, Maija (2019) Nuoret fyysisen väkivallan tekijöinä : määrällinen tutkimus yhdeksäsluokkalaisten nuorten väkivaltaista rikoskäyttäytymistä selittävistä tekijöistä. Pro gradu -tutkielma, Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja filosofian laitos, Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta, Jyväskylän yliopisto.

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

Pötsönen, Milla (2022). Kiusaamista koulussa, väkivaltaa kadulla. Koulukiusaaminen ja väkivalta epätoivottuna käyttäytymisenä yläkoululaisten keskuudessa. Sosiaalityön pro gradu -tutkielma. Rovaniemi: Lapin yliopisto.

Herva, Olivia ja Rytkönen, Miia (2022): Nuorten viharikoskäyttäytyminen sosiaalisen oppimisen teorian valossa. Psykologian pro gradu -tutkielma. Itä-Suomen yliopisto. http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uef-20221008

Keskitalo, A & Shweeke, N (2022) Nuorten kokeman seksuaaliväkivallan yhteys rikolliseen käyttäytymiseen. Pro gradu -tutkielma, Psykologian koulutusohjelma. Itä-Suomen yliopisto. http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uef-20221378

Rajajärvi, Jenina (2023). Sosiaalinen kontrolli ja nuorisorikollisuus. Epävirallisen sosiaalisen kontrollin yhteys rikolliseen käyttäytymiseen suomalaisilla 15-16-vuotiailla nuorilla. Turun yliopisto: pro gradu -tutkielma. https://www.utupub.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/174703/Rajajarvi_Jenina_opinnayte.pdf?sequence=1

Aarnio, Paula (2023). Sosiaalisen ympäristön huono-osaisuuden yhteys nuorten rikollisuuteen. Sosiologian pro gradu -tutkielma. Turku: Turun yliopisto.