The Fall of the Finnish Prison Population

At the beginning of the 1950s, the prisoner rate in Finland was four times higher than in the other Nordic countries and among the highest in Europe. However, the steady decrease that started soon after the Second World War has continued, and in the beginning of the 1990s Finland reached the Nordic level. The paper discusses some backgound factors behind this ''success story''. In addition, the paper examines the relation of prisoner rates and recorded crime. A comparison between the Nordic countries reveals that the major crime trends have been practically similar despite striking differpractices ences in the use of imprisonment. As concluded in the paper, the decrease in the prison population is one of the major victories of Finnish crime policy.