Over the past 20 years, victim sensitivity has significantly increased. It has become a topic in
the media, public discussion, and research, and it has inspired pressure for legislative changes.
The list of legal changes in Finland is extensive, including among others the introduction of
restraining orders in 1999, intra-family restraining order in 2005, the possibility for the victim
to give testimony in court without the presence of the accused in 2003, the restriction of
non-prosecution of domestic violence in 2004, the expansion of the definition of rape in 2011
and the expansion of the responsibility for filing child welfare notifications and reporting
offenses in 2010-2016.
We may nonetheless ask whether these legislative changes suffice. The reforms have been enacted
individually, and there has been no holistic evaluation of legislation from the victim's
perspective. The European Council's convention on preventing domestic violence and violence toward
women (the Istanbul Convention) were ratified in Finland in 2015. Victims Directive constitutes the
core of the European Union legislative package aiming to guarantee victims of crimes access to
information, support, and protection. Now, the adequacy of the level of protection for victims in
Finland, both judicially and in terms of the availability of services should be critically and
systematically evaluated.