New ECOH interview: Janne Kivivuori

Janne Kivivuori is Professor of Criminology at the University of Helsinki and Adjunct Professor of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Oulu. In his academic career, he has played leading roles in the development of the Finnish Self-Report Delinquency Study, the Finnish Homicide Monitor, and the Finnish Crime Victim Survey. Currently, Kivivuori is a member of the steering committees of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) and the European Homicide Monitor (EHM), and the chair of the Finnish Ministry of Justice’s Research Division of the Council of Crime Prevention. In addition, he has been the chair of the Finnish Society of Criminology.

Kivivuori’s interview for the European Criminology Oral History project (ECOH) was recorded in Bucharest, in the framework of the 2024 annual conference of the ESC. In his conversation with his close collaborator Nora Markwalder (University of St. Gallen), Janne Kivivuori reflects on his academic career, especially examining his role in the consolidation of several projects, such as the ISRD and the EHM and Finnish Homicide Monitor. He explores as well his interest in the history of criminology and the part played by the availability of data and new forms of collecting data in paving the way for the creation of criminology as an academic discipline. In addition, Kivivuori looks into the recent emergence and consolidation of criminology in Finland, from its initial development in the late twentieth century in the framework of a Helsinki-based, state-sponsored research institute to this day, when Finnish Criminology is characterised by the creation of the first university degrees in Criminology, as well as by its interdisciplinary character and its increasing involvement in cross-national projects, within the Nordics and across Europe.