Violence against women as conveyed by surveys – the Finnish case

The methodological choices made in a survey may partly shape the picture a survey conveys of partnership violence. This article considers some of the choices made in the Finnish survey on violence against women, such as the way the violence was defined and how the definition tried to take into account the special characteristics of this kind of violence, in order to help the respondents to identify and recall different events of it. The empirical analyses showed that the used definition of violence had not reached all the respondents representing different population groups. The experiences of partner violence among older, less educated women, and the experiences of those who felt embarrassed or ashamed to speak about issues concerning their partner or partnership, were more probably under-represented in the survey.     

Parenthood in Murder‐Suicide News. Idealized Fathers and Murderous Mums

In this article I analyse how parents' lethal violence is presented in Finnish murder‐suicide news reports. I explore how gendered ideas of parenthood and violence affect these constructions. The cases that I am interested in are those with child victims where the perpetrator is either the father or the mother. The theoretical frame of analysis is feminist ethnomethodology, and Membership Categorization Analysis is used as the method. One of the starting‐points is that parenthood is gendered in a way that mothers and fathers have different rights, responsibilities and competences in our culture. In other words, moral orders of fathering and mothering exist. Because of this, women's and men's violent actions towards their own children are understood differently. When a man kills his children and himself he can be portrayed as a caring parent. Instead, in a certain context a woman can be ‘a killer mum’, her act ‘a murder’ and her personality described in the light of the deed. The focus of this article is on gender and family categorization used in murder‐suicide news in Finnish newspapers and the moral orders created in them. I explore the differences by mainly using two case examples: 1) a man who killed his three children and himself, and 2) a woman who killed her husband, two children and herself. The consequences of these newspaper constructions are also considered.     

Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence during Lockdown and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Previous studies have demonstrated that there is an increase in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) during times of crisis (e.g., financial, environmental, or socio-political situations). The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented global health and financial tragedy, but research is yet to establish exactly how the situation may impact on IPV. The present study investigates victims’ experience of IPV during lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a qualitative thematic analysis of 50 discussion forum posts written by victims of IPV. Of these, 48 forum posts were written by female victims of male perpetrated violence. All forum posts were obtained from the popular online platform, Reddit. We identified four themes associated with IPV victims’ experiences during lockdown and the global pandemic: (i) Use of COVID-19 by the Abuser, (ii) Service Disruption, (iii) Preparation to Leave, and (iv) Factors Increasing Abuse or Distress. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on those living with IPV, often increasing the severity of IPV experienced. The experiences of those affected by IPV during this period inform interventions and the guidance and support provided to IPV victims during times of crisis.

     

深度下潜辽宁海底“寻宝”提速

谈到考古。首先让人想到的是在荒郊野外的探测和发掘,如墓葬和遗址等等,而往往忽略了另一块考古的重要阵地——水下。     

Corruption in a non-corrupt country: what does corruption look like in Finland?

ABSTRACT

Finland is usually considered a country where corruption is rare, and this impression is reinforced by the good results that it has achieved in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The present study describes and assesses Finnish bribery legislation, as well as a number of recent judgments handed down by Finnish courts. The legislation is quite fragmented, consisting of some nine sections in three different chapters of the Criminal Code. The bribery cases heard by the Supreme Court mainly deal with quite small-scale bribery, such as where a public official has accepted restaurant services, trips or other benefits from private companies. However, in the last few years, the courts have also had to consider some larger-scale instances of bribery, where persons working for Finnish companies have been suspected of bribing foreign public officials. The article also takes up match-fixing and election funding and their connections to bribery.     

Hardened professional criminals,or just friends and relatives? The diversity of offenders in human trafficking

ABSTRACT

Human trafficking has been extensively discussed, studied and debated over the past 20 years, but many misleading images and stereotypes still exist regarding trafficking, its victims and its perpetrators. Trafficking is often framed as a problem of organised crime. The article problematises (1) the stereotypical images of perpetrators and (2) the involvement of organised crime in human trafficking, particularly in Finland, drawing on court cases that deal with trafficking in human beings. The article analyses, on the one hand, the characteristics of detected traffickers by reflecting the findings against the image of the ideal offender and, on the other hand, the role and involvement of organised crime in human trafficking. The article concludes that most convicted traffickers are not so-called ideal offenders. The variety of traffickers involved in the cases studied does not correspond very well to the rather stereotypical and oversimplified image of traffickers and ideal offenders.     

Age and meanings of violence: women's experiences of partner violence in Finland

The first survey carried out in Finland specifically to study men's violence against women showed that partner violence is quite common in Finland and it is directed especially toward young women. The statistical findings don't support the idea that violence has become more widespread in Finland. Life situation factors that are usually viewed as making women vulnerable to spousal violence, such as having children, cohabiting, low educational level, and financial dependency on the male partner, failed to explain partnership violence against women in Finland as such, too. The author's objective is to find out whether meanings of violence have changed and whether this could be one reason why young women report in a survey such cases of violence that other women would not. This could explain why violence in partnerships is so common among young women in Finland.     

Lie Detection Accuracy—the Role of Age and the Use of Emotions as a Reliable Cue

Literature surrounding the accuracy of deception detection has produced inconsistent findings, and the majority of investigations have been based upon low-stakes lies. Although recent research has suggested that high-stakes situations may produce reliable cues to deception, it remains unclear whether knowledge of these cues actually improves the detection of lies. In an online experiment, we assessed participant’s ability to detect lies in 22 public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives (N = 196). Participants were randomly allocated to either the cue condition (presented with previously identified cues to deception) or no cue condition (instructed to make judgement on instinct), before being presented with the video footage. Participants were asked to indicate whether the appealer is lying or telling the truth, how confident they are in their judgement and if they were familiar with the case. At the end of the experiment, participants wrote qualitative responses on the cues that they used during lie detection. Although cue knowledge and confidence did not significantly predict accuracy scores, there was a positive relationship between accuracy and age. Participants who used emotion-based cues were significantly better at detecting deception. The findings are discussed with reference to the existence of reliable cues.