Convictions in post-war joensuu and liperi (1945-1949)

After the Continuation war, known term in Finland, which was part of the Second World War, crime statistic rose throughout the country, comparing to the time before the war-time. Before the war, in the year of 1938, the conviction rate was nearly 77 000 convictions country-wide. After the war, in the year of 1946, there were nearly 160 000 convictions. The crime statistics went down and normalized in the late 1940 s.

Joensuu was a city of about 8000 inhabitants located in eastern Finland, in the North-Karelia region. Joensuu area was 15 squarekilometers. During that time it was an administrative and marketing center of its region. The livelihood of Joensuus population consisted of industry, trade, traffic and the public sector. Liperi was a rural-like county of about 12 000 inhabitants, and countys area was 843 square kilometers. Liperi was a neighboring county of Joensuu. Over 65 per cent of Liperi inhabitants received its earnings from agriculture.

In my study I will research, what were the reasons, why conviction rates rose in these two different neighboring counties in the post-war era. I will also research what kind of crimes people were convicted and compare that to the differences with criminal types and amount of convictions between these counties. As a primary source I will use Joensuu and Liperi district court documents between the years 1945-1949, where I can find information about all convictions during that time. By finding reasons why crime statistics rose, I will also use scientific literature as a source. By using quantitative method on court statistics and qualitative method on literature I should be able to answer the questions above.

Sami Leppanen