Immigrant crime in Norway and Finland

Abstract

Immigrants are known to be overrepresented in the crime statistics of Nordic countries. However, the composition of immigrant populations varies across countries both in terms of immigrants’ country of origin as well as their population structure (age and sex). Cross-country comparison of crime rates is always difficult because of differences in legal systems, but it is even more challenging when using very broad categories of immigrants, lumping heterogeneous groups together. Previous studies have largely compared the entire immigrant population of a country with the majority population, which under-appreciates the heterogeneity that exists across immigrant groups. In this paper, we compare the crime rates in Norway and Finland, while adding additional nuances by reporting crime rates for 25 specific immigrant groups relative to the majority population. The data are gathered from Finnish and Norwegian administrative records, representing or comprising the resident population aged 15–64. We analyse both violent crime and property crime, and we present the results adjusted for population structure (sex and age). The results show considerable similarity in the rank order of crime rates of immigrant groups in the two Nordic countries. Although the current study is mainly descriptive, it aims to set some limits to what it is to be explained. In fact, the diversity is so great that it is questionable whether one should treat immigrants as one single group at all. Whatever the causal mechanisms driving immigrant crime are, it seems plausible that some similar processes are operating across the Nordic region.