The amount of racist and other hate crimes reported to the police in 2014 grew a tad to 822 compared with 833 in the previous year, according to the Police College of Finland. Racist crimes retreated to 678 from 710 suspected cases with other hate crimes rose to 144 from 123.
The Police College of Finland said that the first suspected death as a result of a hate crime was reported.
“The person was a member of an ethnic minority and the victim who was an ethnic Finn and the incident is suspected of being racist,” the statement said.
Suspected hate crimes and racist crimes during 2010-14. The first row reads “racist crimes” and the second one “other hate crimes.” Yhteensä means total. Source: Police College of Finland.
Like in many countries in Europe, hate crimes go underreported and are only the tip of the iceberg, according to a recent shadow report by the NGO European Network Against Racism.
The Finnish criminal code still does not recognize the term “hate crime.”