FSD Bulletin

Issue 30 (2/2010)
17.6.2010

ISSN 1795-5262

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FSD Bulletin is the electronic newsletter of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The Bulletin provides information and news related to the data archive and social science research.


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Finnish Social Science Data Archive
E-mail: fsd@tuni.fi

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Comparative Data on Child Victims in 1988 and 2008

Hannele Keckman-Koivuniemi

The FSD has archived two research datasets studying violence and other crimes against children. The newer and larger Child Victim Survey 2008 will soon be available for research and teaching purposes. The first Finnish Child Victim Survey is from 1988.

Victim surveys are one way of researching hidden criminality not visible in crime statistics. They chart whether the respondents have been victims of various crimes. Hidden criminality can also be investigated by surveys of self-reported crime.

The Child Victim Survey 2008, conducted by the Police College of Finland, the National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula), and the Central Union for Child Welfare, was the first large-scale survey charting children as victims of violence and other crimes in Finland. However, Heikki Sariola from the Central Union for Child Welfare conducted a survey focusing mainly on children's experiences of domestic violence and sexual abuse already in 1988.

FSD2406 Child Victim Survey 2008 charted the upbringing and punishment of ninth-graders, as well as their sexual experiences with adults. Over 7,000 students from over 360 classes all over continental Finland responded to the survey. The FSD grants access to the data for scientific and teaching purposes.

Child Victim Survey 2008 Soon Available for Re-use

In the Child Victim Survey 2008, the questions on the experiences of domestic violence and sexual abuse were repeated, but the survey was extended to cover other forms of violence and criminality as well. Additionally, the respondents in the 2008 survey also covered sixth-graders in addition to ninth-graders. Altogether 13,515 children and young people from over 500 schools responded to the survey. The data will become available through the FSD for scientific and teaching purposes in July 2010.

figure

Figure: Ninth-graders' experiences of violence perpetrated by mother and/or father before the age of 14 in 1988 and 2008 (%).
Sources: Sariola 1988 and Ellonen & al. 2008.

The first Finnish crime victim survey targeted at adults was carried out in 1980. Six similar interview surveys have been conducted afterwards. The newest of them, the National Victimisation Survey conducted by the Statistics Finland is from 2009. Violence against women has been particularly examined in the Female Victim Surveys in 1997 and 2005. Only the Child Victim Surveys have been archived at the FSD.

 

More information and sources:
» Ellonen, Noora & Kääriäinen, Juha & Salmi, Venla & Sariola, Heikki: Child Victim Survey 2008 [computer file]. FSD2416, version 1.0 (2010-07-01). Tampere: Police College of Finland & Helsinki: National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula) & Helsinki: Central Union for Child Welfare [producers], 2008. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2010.
» Ellonen, Noora & Kääriäinen, Juha & Salmi, Venla & Sariola, Heikki (2008). Lasten ja nuorten väkivaltakokemukset. Tutkimus peruskoulun 6. ja 9. luokan oppilaiden kokemasta väkivallasta. Tampere: Poliisiammattikorkeakoulun raportteja; 71. Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen tutkimustiedonantoja; 87.
» Ellonen, Noora & Pösö, Tarja (2010). Lapset arvioimassa tutkimuksen etiikkaa - esimerkkinä uhritutkimus. Teoksessa Lagström, Hanna & Pösö, Tarja & Rutanen, Niina & Vehkalahti, Kaisa (toim.) Lasten ja nuorten tutkimuksen etiikka. Helsinki: Nuorisotutkimusseura, 192-209.
» Sariola, Heikki: Child Victim Survey 1988 [computer file]. FSD2406, version 1.0 (2009-01-15). Helsinki: Central Union for Child Welfare [producer], 1988. Tampere: Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor], 2009. Data description online: <https://www.fsd.tuni.fi/en/data/catalogue/FSD2406/> [cited 16.6.2010].
» Ordering data from the FSD
» Child Victim Survey on the website of the Police College of Finland (summary in English)
» National Victimisation Survey (abstract in English)
» Female Victim Survey 2005 (summary in English)


Opening: A book on the ethics of child and youth research

Hanna Lagström, Tarja Pösö, Niina Rutanen, and Kaisa Vehkalahti have edited a collection of articles, which is the first Finnish general work addressing ethical questions related to child and youth research. The title of the book is Lasten ja nuorten tutkimuksen etiikka, and it was compiled as a cooperative project of the Finnish Society for Childhood Studies and the Finnish Youth Research Society.

The book covers relevant legislation and regulations, ethical codes, and points of view on specific questions related to children and young people voiced by field researchers - all from the fields of medicine, humanities, and social sciences. The section on the use of research data has been written by for example Noora Ellonen, Tarja Pösö, and Arja Kuula. The article of Ellonen and Pösö charts research ethics evaluated by children. It is based on the open-ended question in the Child Victim Survey 2008 in which the respondents describe their own emotions related to responding to the survey. Arja Kuula's article canvasses research ethics from the point of view of archiving and re-using data collected from minors.

Langström, Hanna & Pösö, Tarja & Rutanen, Niina & Vehkalahti, Kaisa (toim.) (2010). Lasten ja nuorten tutkimuksen etiikka. Julkaisuja 101. Nuorisotutkimusverkosto/Nuorisotutkimusseura. Helsinki: Yliopistopaino.