HELSINKI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of violent acts committed in public places declined by almost seven percent in Finland year-on-year during the first half of 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic hit the country, Statistics Finland reported on Tuesday.

As restaurants and cafes throughout the country remained closed between early April and the end of May, the number of assaults there decreased by half compared with the first half of 2019, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of assault offenses in private dwellings or other private locations increased by three percent. However, there was a steeper increase in the number of violent acts between spouses.

Violence between married couples increased by 20 percent during the first half of 2020 year-on-year, but violence between unmarried couples living together increased by 67 percent nationwide.

Senior statistician Kimmo Haapakangas elaborated in a press release that women were the victims of assaults in 80 percent of the cases in both the above categories. He noted that the increase in domestic violence had started before teleworking became widespread in March.

The figures also showed that street violence was becoming more severe. Crime inspector Jari Koski told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday that the number of serious assaults (including the attempted ones) increased in Helsinki by nearly 40 percent during the first half of 2020. There were some ten percent fewer "smaller acts of violence" in Helsinki, he noted.

Koski said that many of those who committed such crimes had earlier been drinking in bars, where staff control prevented conflicts between persons from escalating. "But since the closing of restaurants, drinkers moved somewhere else, where no such control existed," which might be one of the reasons behind the increase in the number of serious assaults, Koski noted. Enditem

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