Many researchers have assumed that trust in the police increases victims’ willingness to report crimes. This question has rarely been considered empirically, but most of the available research suggests a surprising conclusion: trust in the police does not appear to increase the likelihood of people reporting crime. The seriousness of the crime and, in particular, the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator do have a significant impact on willingness to report. An especially interesting and influential factor may be mutual trust between citizens, which researchers of social capital have named ‘generalized trust’. Does a high level of generalized trust reduce citizens’ desire to rely on official control? This article examines the links between generalized trust and trust in the police, and their interactive effect on the willingness to report violent and property crimes. The research data are based on Finnish national crime victim survey data collected in 2006.

Alcohol tax cuts were associated with an increase in the number of sudden deaths involving alcohol. This parallels the reported increases in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related causes of death in 2004 in Finland.

Trust is expected to promote cooperation between the police and citizens. The trust of citizens in the police has been studied a great deal. This article, however, focuses on the other side of this relationship: the trust of the police in citizens. Literature dealing with the police culture indicates that the police have a rather cynical approach to citizens. However, empirical proof of this is scarce and mainly comes from major cities in the United States and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, literature focusing on social capital suggests that generalized trust varies greatly between societies and that it stems from social equality, good administration and high citizen activity. This article is based on the cumulative materials gathered for the European Social Survey 2002-8 from 22 countries. The study compares the level of generalized trust among police officers and other respondents. The analysis to some extent supports the assumption of cynicism among the police. However, the primary finding of the study is that the generalized trust of those working in the police forces closely reflects the level of generalized trust in the society as a whole. In countries where citizens generally trust each other, the police also trust the citizens; whereas in countries with a low level of trust in general, the police are also cynical towards citizens.

It would appear that a radical reduction in the price of alcohol and an increase in consumption do not necessarily lead to detrimental consequences in interpersonal violence or to an adverse development in areas of social disadvantage.

Research on socioeconomic differences in violent victimization has relied on surveys. Nationally representative register-based data sets, increasingly used in Nordic criminology, have not been used in such research. We analyse socioeconomic differences in violent victimization in Finland using both survey and register-based data, and assess whether these differences vary by severity of violence. The results show that the data source and the inclusivity of the definition of violence affect the observed socioeconomic differences, with differentials being larger for more severe violence in both data sets and in register rather than in survey data. We conclude that the link between socioeconomic status and victimization is unquestionable when the risk of severe violence is studied.