An A-Studio report on the “high” amount of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland is not only another unfortunate example of arbitrary reporting by the Finnish media, but reinforces the perception of how hate groups in this country use crime statistics against immigrants.
Migrant Tales encountered another similar story about foreign rape cases in April by Aamulehti. In both cases, it isn’t clear whether the rape cases are committed by tourists or immigrant residents.
What made the A-Studio report especially questionable were the very statistics it used to drive home its point.
In the very same style as hate groups in Finland, the A-Studio report claims that since a quarter of all rape convictions in this country were committed by foreigners, there is “a serious rape problem” in this country.
A while later, however, we learn that we’re talking about 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year. We are even shown a table by A-Studio of the convictions by nationality. Of the 25 convictions, the biggest group are the Iraqis (7 cases) followed by Afghans (2), Nigerians (2), Swedes (2) and Serbian & Montenegrins (2).
Nina Nurminen, a prison psychologist at the Criminal Sanctions Agency, does not state in any part of the A-Studio interview that we are speaking of a small minority and that it would be wrong to conclude and label foreigners and especially Iraqi men as potential rapists. She does suggest, however, that people who come from war zones may be more inclined to rape.
A medic of the Family Federation, Miila Halonen, adds more fuel to the claims by telling us how Finnish women are “raped” without them knowing it. In other words, an immigrant meets a Finnish white woman, has sex with her and then dumps her. A friend of the immigrant calls the same woman and does the same thing.
Is Halonen implying that this is a form of “rape?” What about one-night stands among white Finns? Is it ok for a white Finn to do this but not acceptable if the person is a foreigner? How many of these types of cases is Halonen speaking of?
Like Nurminen, she too wanders off into generalizations labeling foreign men as preying on innocent women.
On top of her claims, she says that sex education should form part of the immigrants’ integration program.
Do you think that the A-Studio report was fair and offered a well-rounded story on the matter, or was it a prejudiced storm in a tea cup?