Blog: You have to talk about problems openly, but you can't label the whole city with them

The number of crimes that come to light in Imatra and come to the attention of the police is at a normal general level in relation to the city's population. This means that when comparing Imatra to cities and municipalities of the same size in terms of population, no significant and essential deviation can be observed during the current year. In light of the statistics, the number of crimes related to life and health in Imatra has decreased last year compared to the two years before this.

However, the number of crimes reported to the police is not directly proportional to the city's population. Each municipality and city is a unique whole, which of course has similarities, but a lot of special features.

For example, the number of police automatic traffic control systems placed in the area of ​​some localities is largely directly correlated to crime statistics, while the absence of such a resource in other places can be seen in the fact that traffic violations do not appear in the same proportion.

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The number of juvenile delinquencies at the national level has grown rapidly since 2015, even though the number of young people committing crimes has been decreasing.

University lecturer working as a researcher at the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy of the University of Helsinki Matti Näsi states that, in the big picture, more and more young people are doing well, although there are young people for whom problems are still piling up. According to him, crime is more concentrated in a smaller group of young people than before, some of whom move towards more serious forms of crime.

At Imatra, a safe operating environment is built through close and extensive cooperation between authorities and stakeholders and by focusing on, for example, high-quality early childhood education and basic education.

Well-functioning welfare services play a significant role as part of a sense of security, but parents in a safe home environment are in a central position and responsible for the well-being of children and young people.

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Over the years, crime reporting has become even more attention-seeking. Violence and crime always find space in the media. As Näsi has expressed it, the images created by the problematic behavior of young people can be exaggerated among the people.

However, this does not remove the root cause of the problems among young people, but hides the complexity of the issue: when only a marginally small number of young people commit serious violent crimes, there is a threat to label all young people as criminals and paint our operating environment as dangerous.

There are many reasons for the behavior of young people. The restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic have burdened children and young people too much in recent years. Also, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which will soon be going on for the third month, certainly creates a great feeling of insecurity for some of us.

It is therefore justified to claim that as the world becomes more and more hectic and complex, the main responsibility for strengthening the crisis resistance of society lies with us adults.

Our task as adults is to build a better and safer future together with children and young people - not with eyes closed and unwilling to see problems, but by discussing openly and honestly based on information.

Eemil Stigman

Security Manager

the city of Imatra