Project Partners

The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the U.N. (HEUNI) - Helsinki, Finland

The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the UN (HEUNI) is the European link in the network of institutes operating within the framework of the U.N. Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. HEUNI was established in 1981 through an Agreement between the U.N. and the Government of Finland. The primary objective of HEUNI is to promote the international exchange of information on crime prevention and control among the different European countries. Its main activities include the organisation of meetings, the conduct of research and the provision of technical assistance to Governments. The topics covered by HEUNI research include organised crime, victimisation surveys, violence against women, trafficking in human beings, restorative justice, analysis of the UN surveys on crime trends and operations of criminal justice systems, and publications of profiles of European criminal justice systems. The institute’s academic staff has backgrounds in sociology, criminology, and criminal law. HEUNI currently has 5 academic staff members. The technical and administrative staff consists of 2 members.

HEUNI will lead the consortium effort on dissemination (WP8), and also contribute to WP2, WP3 and WP5. The personnel involved in the project will be:

Kauko Aromaa (M.Soc.Sc) is the director of HEUNI. His research experience comprises violence and homicide research, crime statistics and reporting on the Finnish, Eastern European and European crime trends, crime ethnography, victimisation research, organised crime and criminal policy. He has published a number of scientific articles in international peer reviewed journals as well as two criminology textbooks, and edited several books. He was the first chief editor of the Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, and is currently President of the European Society of Criminology.

Markku Heiskanen is Senior Researcher at HEUNI. His research experience is on crime statistics and reporting on the crime situation and crime trends in Europe, victimisation surveys, violence against women surveys. He is currently the lead researcher in a project contracted with Eurostat, developing a new European standard for general population victimisation surveys.

Elina Ruuskanen works as a researcher at HEUNI. She has recently been working in projects focusing on administrative data collection on violence against women, and trafficking in human beings.

Anniina Jokinen works as a researcher at HEUNI. She has recently participated in research projects Mapping Organised Crime – A Market Perspective on Trafficking in Persons for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation and UN.GIFT data collection on trafficking in persons.

Contacts: Kauko Aromaa, kauko.aromaa@om.fi

Website: http://www.heuni.fi