209 Changes in Criminality: Free Evaluation of Evidence as a Response to a High Level of Violence? We shall first take a look at the development of criminality in nineteenth-century Finland in the light of homicide statistics; the comparative aspect will be left aside here. The following statistics are based on Verkko’s classic study of 1949.« Tabic C. Victims of Homicide in Finland/ 100 000 persons'^ Period 1774-1792 1793-1806 1809-1830 1831-1845 1846-1860 1861-1877 1878-1898 1899-1904 1905-1913 1914-1916 1920-1932 1.49 2.13 3.03 2.92 2.63 2.65 2.80 3.14 5.04 3.57 8.43 According to table C, the entire nineteenth century appears as a period of strong violence.Compared to the preceding century, on the one hand, all of the nineteenth century can be distinguished as a period of increasing violence. On the other hand, the nineteenth-century figures fall far behind the homicides rates for the 1920s. The figures are misleading, however; the nineteenthcentury violence, in fact, was excessively heavv in only one province. Southern Ostrobothnia in Western Finland.*’ For instance, whereas in 1831-1845 there occurred in the province of Vasa 6.42 homicides per 100 000 persons, the cor- ** Verkko 1949. Verkko’s statistics are, in turn, based on the figures collected by the Statistical Commission (Tabellikomissio), founded in 1748 by the order of the Privy Council — the Tabellikomissio is considered the oldest of its kind in the world. Among other things it w'as ordered that the local clergy collect information on births, deaths, and marriages in each locality. Ibid. pp. 1 1-13. Ibid. p. 48. The figures for the years 1814 and 1818 are missing. There seem to be certain differences between the various historians as to when the period of “knife-fighters,” or that of intense violence began; all of them, hovv'ever, share the idea that the entire nineteenth century in Southern Ostrobothnia was a period of intensified violence, and that the decline in homicidal figures did not begin until the 1880s. See Ylikangas 1976 (c) p. 20. " According to the statistics of Oiva Turpeinen, the statistics on violence in some areas of southwestern Finland approached the Ostrobothian figures; cited at ibid. pp. 18—19; see also the statistical material on the Ostrobothian homicide gathered b\- Huttunen (1958). For an analysis of the studies of Verkko, Turpeinen, and Huttunen, see Ylikangas 1976 (c) pp. 17—23.
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